600 One Way Portal

The wind blowing through the valley passage suddenly picked up the intensity. On the command of Yin Tianzong, all soldiers charged up their soul energy and tilted their body so that they met minimum resistance as they waited. 

After a while, the strange gale subsided, and the insistent keening of the mountainous wind returned. After a few cautious moments, the warriors moved on.

The further they went on the passage, the more unease Yin Tianzong felt. He felt a pressure what was not only from the harsh and forbidding environment, but also from a strong presence of a malicious energy.

The path had changed significantly as well. The trees started to hug the road, and soon, the path had reduced to the width that only allowed only one person through. Cliffs that were straight drops were present on each side of the path; below, the dark air current howled with a murderous intent.

The warriors traveled in pairs, slowly treading forward. This was a test of their endurance; fast and furious would only get them killed.

The soldiers at the back of the group waited patiently for their turn. The wait itself was a challenge of their inner balance. 

Five pairs of warriors had already passed the choke point, and when the sixth pair were about to cross, the wild gale came up again. The soldier charged up GN shield instinctively; however, the movement had made the mastery caster loosen his hold on the METAL warrior. Having lost his anchor, the wind picked him up like a piece of parchment. Lu Liang, the unfortunate caster, cried out for help, but his voice was carried away by the wind too. In less than a heartbeat, Yin Tianzong plunged into the depth to save the caster. He hurled a cable toward the caster in front of him while both of them were still falling. The other end of the cable was tied to Vorenus.

Vorenus's GN force soared up and was ready for the weight of two warriors. Once Lu Ming felt the cable beside him, he quickly gripped it and wrapped it around his body. Vorenus felt the snag at the end of the line and momentum of the two warriors in the chasm. Vorenus shouted as he doubled up his soul energy. Inch by inch, he hauled the two warriors out of the abyss. 

As soon as Yin Tianzong reached the landing, he helped Vorenus to pull the caster out. Lu Ming was already unconscious when he was finally pulled to safety. The impact with the cliff had rendered him unconscious. 

The party moved on. Xiao Libie felt a strange mixture of shock, fear, and trepidation. Seeing how they had worked together to avert the crisis, Xiao Libie knew that they would eventually conquer Mount Dynamo; not even the coldness could stop them. 

Eight hours later, they were finally out of the narrow path. Even the soldiers themselves felt it unbelievable that they could pull through. 

As soon as they passed the narrow path, the wind was blocked by the towering peaks from both side, and the temperature seemed to have risen significantly as well.

Looking back at that frozen hell, this place seemed like a paradise.

Yin Tianzong scanned the surroundings, looking for traces of Wang Tong. If they could make it, surely Wang Tong could too.

"Do a headcount! Medics, please attend to the injured." 

After the headcount was conducted, it was found that five METAL warriors had paid the ultimate sacrifice while trying to protect their mastery partners. Those casters who had lost their companions sat in a corner silently and sullenly while thinking how many zergs they had to kill in order to repay the debt.

After a while, Yin Tianzong finally found out the reason that he couldn't find any trace of Wang Tong's soul energy. This clearing seemed to be the source of the force field disturbance, and the chaotic energies had blocked the presence of any soul energy in this area. Not only were the energy signals blocked, the warriors soon found out that they simply couldn't charge up their soul energy any longer. 

"Captain, look here. An arrow marking! It has to be Boss" A soldier shouted. 

Yin Tianzong closed in and saw an arrow was freshly marked on a cliff. He noticed that the cliff wall was made of extremely hard ice, and he wagered that other than Wang Tong, no one would be able to carve an arrow sign without any soul energy.

"Lun Duo and Tan Bu, I want you two to look after the injured and the casters. The rest of you, follow me!" Yin Tianzong commanded. He was convinced that Wang Tong was caught up here by some development; otherwise, he would have already returned to them. 

Wang Tong had indeed made it to the clearing. Although his sea of consciousness had sustained a great deal of damage, he couldn't stop. There was something hiding inside these deep mountains, and he needed to find out what it was. He left a mark for Yin Tianzong and moved on.

Yin Tianzong and his soldiers pressed forward while the injured received treatment behind them. They would catch up sooner or later, and finding Wang Tong was much more urgent. Something told Yin Tianzong that Wang Tong was in knee deep trouble.

Although they were unable to use their soul energy, the warriors traveled at an amazing speed thanks to the exceptional physical condition. Huge ice walls towered beside them, their size and shape suggesting that they were the product of drastic terraforming. In order to make Mars inhabitable, the early humans had used advanced technology to terraform Mars, changing its terrain, rivers, and atmosphere. As a result, some areas were so heavily modified that their natural elements seemed to be full of contradictions.

Mount Dynamo was one such region. Thankfully, these areas remained anomalies on Mars, and once settled, the humans never bothered to correct their mistakes. 

These blue ice walls were not entirely made out of ice, since it was much tougher than normal ice. What was even stranger was that the temperature seemed to be rising as the soldiers reached higher elevation. These unnatural phenomena worried the warriors as they became more convinced that Wang Tong was in trouble.

Yin Tianzong led the group from the front, stress and unease written all over his face. After some time, Yin Tianzong saw a glowing white light ahead of him. As he got closer, he noticed that the light came out of a gate, except that it wasn't really a gate at all. It had the shape of a gate, but in the middle was a film of shimmering silvery liquid. Its hinge was made out of fleshy substances. 

Guan Dongyang caught up with Xiao Libie and asked in confusion. "What the heck is this thing?"

Xiao Yuyu approached the contraption and cautiously touched its rim. "It's a one-way space portal to the hive."

As the chief medic, Xiao Yuyu had learned extensively about the Zergs. She had seen such a portal in texts, and the thing in front of her matched the description perfectly.

But, why was there a space portal in the middle of nowhere? Everyone thought about the same question. Three hundred years ago, the Zergs were defeated on Mars, but were they really eliminated by the humans? A portal like this required decades to build, and the Zergs only occupied mars five years ago. Therefore, it had to be left by the original queen mother five hundred years ago. Regardless of what was on the other side, the portal's existence meant danger to the humans.

"Move in!" Yin Tianzong commanded and then disappeared through the gate, the rest of soldiers following him. Xiao Libie heaved a sigh and lamented how fearless these soldiers were.

As soon as they entered the portal, they found themselves inside a giant hall with living undulating walls. The room's color was dark green, and they were standing on a wet carpet of fleshy substance. This had to be the hive.

When they looked up, they saw Wang Tong floating close to the ceiling with dead Zergs all around him on the ground. Among the dead Zergs was a giant queen; her skull was smashed to pulp, and eggs were littered everywhere around her.

The eggs were large in size and came with a hard shell. On top of the shell was a restraining field of soul energy set by Wang Tong. 

Yin Tianzong felt that as soon as they went through the threshold, he was able to use his soul energy once again.

"Block all entrances!"

"Roger that!"

Everyone took a position and prepared for the next wave of attack.

This was as close the soldiers had ever gotten to the home base of the Zergs. The well-hidden location of the portal meant this hive was very important to the Zergs.

Yin Tianzong looked around and found out that the eggs were placed in a pool with emerald liquid. He had never seen such treatment of the eggs before. All things suggested that this was not an ordinary lair.

On the living walls were many entrances and exits. Everyone stood where they were and refrained from entering any of those holes. After all, they were inside a living organism, and those tunnels could be sealed in an instant.