Rebirth in the Dragon Kingdom: The Strongest Blade

Chapter 82 Tracking

Thirty minutes later, at the base's helipad.

Four helicopters had already started up, their rotors whipping up a gust of wind. The four members of the Dragon Fang team, fully armed and carrying tactical backpacks, boarded the helicopters one by one.

Lin Zhe stood at the edge of the tarmac and bumped fists with everyone.

"Keep communication open and report every half hour," he instructed. "Report immediately in case of any special circumstances."

"clear!"

The helicopters took off one after another, flying in different directions. Lin Zhe watched them disappear into the sky, then turned and walked towards his equipment room.

He needs to prepare some special equipment—in places like the Savage Mountain, regular equipment isn't enough.

Miasma mask, insect repellent, rock climbing gear, water purification equipment, jungle survival kit… Lin Zhe checked each item one by one to ensure everything was in order. Finally, he took out a specially made assault rifle from the weapons cabinet—short-barreled, with a silencer and equipped with a night vision scope, suitable for close-quarters combat in the jungle.

"Lin Zhe." The Dragon Head walked in, holding a tablet in his hand. "I just received some intelligence that might be useful to you."

The tablet displayed satellite images of the Savage Mountain area, along with several suspected routes marked with red lines.

"These are several possible routes deduced by the national security department based on signal tracking and terrain analysis," Long Shou said. "But the accuracy is not high, as the vegetation in the Savage Mountain is too dense, and satellites cannot see them clearly."

Lin Zhe carefully examined the image and noted down the general directions of several routes: "That's enough. Having directions makes things easier."

"And this too." The dragon head handed him a small communicator. "The latest satellite communication equipment, waterproof and shockproof, it can maintain a signal even deep in the mountains. But the battery only lasts for forty-eight hours."

"Forty-eight hours..." Lin Zhe calculated the time. "That's enough. If we can't find them within forty-eight hours, either the mission fails, or..."

He didn't finish speaking, but the dragon head understood—either the person had already left the country.

"Be careful." The dragon head patted him on the shoulder. "Come back alive."

"must."

At 3:20 p.m., Lin Zhe boarded the fifth helicopter. This helicopter would not take him directly to the border, but would drop him off at a secret outpost on the outskirts of the Savage Mountain, from where he would begin his infiltration on foot.

On the helicopter, Lin Zhe opened his tablet and carefully examined Li Jianjun's file. Li Jianjun, forty-two years old, married, with one daughter. The photo showed a bespectacled, seemingly frail technician. This was the kind of man who had been abducted across the Savage Mountain…

Lin Zhe frowned. The other party had either gone mad or had a compelling reason to choose this path.

He pulled up the topographical data for the Savage Mountain. This primeval forest, located on the Yunnan-Myanmar border, covers an area of ​​about 300 square kilometers, with an average altitude of over 2,000 meters. The mountains are high and the forests are dense, shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, and filled with miasma. Locals say, "Of ten people who go in, three and a half come out," and the other half go insane.

What's more troublesome is that some isolated primitive tribes also live in the mountains, and they are extremely hostile to intruders.

"This is a really 'good' place," Lin Zhe muttered to himself.

"Colonel Lin, we will arrive at the drop-off point in ten minutes." The pilot's voice came through the headset.

"receive."

Lin Zhe gave the equipment a final check and pulled down his mask. The helicopter began its descent, passing through the clouds, with rolling green mountains below, like a boundless green ocean.

"We have reached the designated location. You may rappel down."

The hatch opened, and Lin Zhe threw out a rope, quickly rappelling down. As his feet touched the soft woodland, the helicopter had already taken off and soon disappeared into the clouds.

The surroundings were eerily quiet. Towering trees blocked out the sun, dimming the light and filling the air with a humid, stifling stench of decaying plants. In the distance came the long, eerie call of an unknown bird.

Lin Zhe turned on the positioning system on his watch to confirm his location—the northern edge of the Savage Mountain, about forty kilometers from the border.

If they really did come this way, they must have been in the mountains for at least a day. The terrain of the Savage Mountain is complex, and one can only travel a maximum of ten to fifteen kilometers a day. That means they are probably twenty to thirty kilometers ahead.

Lin Zhe adjusted his backpack, picked up his gun, and headed into the deep mountains.

The first step is to find their trail.

At the same time, in the other four directions.

Longya landed outside a small town on the border of Yunnan Province. He changed into local clothes, carried a bamboo basket, and looked like a herb gatherer from the mountains. But the basket contained his weapons and equipment.

According to intelligence, the eastern team consists of five people, disguised as an expedition, claiming to be crossing the border for "scientific research." They entered the mountains yesterday afternoon and should currently be about 15 kilometers ahead.

Longya wasn't in a hurry to give chase. He first took a stroll around the town, bought some dry food and water, and chatted with a few locals to inquire if they had seen any suspicious outsiders recently.

"Yes!" said an old man selling tea. "A few people came yesterday, saying they were doing geological surveys, but they didn't even know how to use a compass. My son took them into the mountains, and they came back saying that those people weren't geologists at all; they couldn't even walk properly on mountain paths."

"Which way did they go?" Longya offered a cigarette.

The old man took the cigarette and pointed southeast: "They went towards Leech Gully. My son said they seemed to be looking for someone, and kept asking if anyone had seen a group of people, including a middle-aged man wearing glasses."

Longya understood. This team wasn't a real escort squad, but rather bait—they were looking for Engineer Li, which meant they didn't know where Engineer Li was either.

He thanked the old man and headed towards Leech Gully. His steps were slow but steady. He wanted to put enough pressure on the team, but not too much; he wanted them to "feel" they were being followed, but not to catch them completely.

The western route, the border of the Tibetan region.

Longzhao stood at the mountain pass at an altitude of four thousand meters, the cold wind stinging his face. The oxygen was thin here, and ordinary people would be out of breath after walking a few steps, but Longzhao was already used to it.

The western team chose the most difficult route—crossing the snow-capped mountains to cross the border. This route was theoretically feasible, but extremely risky, with the constant possibility of avalanches, lack of oxygen, and hypothermia.

"They really know how to pick a spot," Dragon Claw muttered, and began to climb.

He didn't need to follow, because clear footprints would be left in the snow. There were six people in the team, and judging from the footprints, one of them was walking unsteadily; it should be Engineer Li—if Engineer Li was here.

But Dragon Claw had his doubts. Could a frail technician like Li Gong really be forced to cross a snow-covered mountain? He'd probably collapse before even reaching the summit.

Therefore, this team is most likely also a decoy.

Southern Route, border of Guangxi Province.

Long Ying sat in a dilapidated van, looking at the checkpoint not far ahead. The South Route team had chosen the most conventional route—forging documents to cross the border.

But they were in too much of a hurry, and their forged documents had flaws, so they were detained by border control officers. Now the six people are stranded in a border town and are trying to find a smuggler to help them cross the border illegally.

Long Ying wasn't in a hurry to act. He was waiting, waiting for the team to contact their superiors, waiting for them to reveal more information.

He wore headphones and listened to communication signals from several suspicious locations in the town. This was technology provided by Lin Zhe—capable of intercepting all wireless communications within a five-kilometer radius and automatically analyzing and deciphering them.

Intermittent sound came through the headphones:

"...My documents have been confiscated...I need a new route..."

"...How are the other teams doing?"

"...The eastern route is being tracked...The western route is crossing the snow-capped mountains...There's still no news from the central route..."

"...The signal is down over in the Savage Mountain area...they've probably already gone into the mountains..."

Long Ying's eyes lit up. The Savage Mountain—the signal was lost. This meant either there was strong signal interference there, or… there really was an important force there.

He immediately sent the intelligence to Lin Zhe.

The central route is the conventional route along the Yunnan-Myanmar border.

Longci crouched in a tree, using binoculars to observe a team in the valley below. Seven men, fully armed and dressed in camouflage, looked like a professional mercenary squad.

They moved very cautiously, leaving sentries at regular intervals, demonstrating a strong awareness of counter-surveillance. Moreover, their route selection was highly professional, avoiding all possible ambush points.

"This one looks real," Dragon Thorn muttered to himself.

But he didn't act rashly. He needed to confirm whether Engineer Li was in the group. Through the binoculars, he saw that all seven men were young and strong, with agile builds, and none of them were frail or thin, wearing glasses.

Either Li Gong was disguised, or... this isn't a real escort team either.

Dragon Thorn decided to follow for a while longer. He moved among the trees like a ghost, silently, without the team below noticing him at all.

Deep in the Savage Mountain.

Lin Zhe received the intelligence from Long Ying. He glanced at his location; he had already penetrated twelve kilometers into the mountains. The surrounding environment was becoming increasingly harsh, with towering ancient trees, entwined vines, and a thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground that felt soft and spongy underfoot.

There was a faint, putrid smell in the air—miasma. Lin Zhe tightened his mask and continued forward.

He moved cautiously, searching for traces while avoiding potential traps. The other side were intelligence agents, not soldiers, but precisely because of this, they were more likely to use insidious methods—poisoned arrows, traps, and poisonous insects.

Suddenly, Lin Zhe stopped in his tracks.

Five meters ahead, a vine looked unusual—it was too straight, as if it had been stretched taut. He crouched down to examine it closely. Sure enough, the vine was connected to a small mechanism; once triggered, it would set off a poisoned arrow nearby.

"Child's play," Lin Zhe sneered, walking around it.

But this is a good sign—it means there really are people nearby, and they are very vigilant.

He quickened his pace, becoming even more cautious. After traveling another three kilometers, he finally found clear tracks by a stream—several fresh footprints and a broken branch.

Lin Zhe squatted down to measure the footprints. There were six people in total, but one person's footprints were very shallow, and his steps were small, probably due to exhaustion. "Engineer Li?"

He followed the footprints and soon arrived at a relatively open clearing in the woods. There were traces of an extinguished campfire and several discarded compressed biscuit wrappers in the clearing.

Lin Zhe picked up a package and checked the production date—it was seven days old, brand new. This meant the other party had at least stayed here and wasn't in a hurry to get going.

Why? In a place like the Savage Mountain, normal people would cross it as quickly as possible and wouldn't linger.

Unless... they are waiting for someone, or waiting for some opportunity.

Lin Zhe turned on his communicator, preparing to report the situation to the Dragon Chief. But just then, he heard a voice coming from afar—

It was the sound of gunfire. Very faint, but exceptionally clear in the silent mountain forest.

Lin Zhe's expression changed. He put away his communicator, picked up his gun, and moved quickly toward the direction of the gunshot.

The mission has begun.