Stronger with More Jobs-Chapter 302 - 189: Abyss Awakens, Stronghold!

Fang Qingyu held Jiang Wei and plunged in without hesitation.

Buzz—!

A strong sense of weightlessness and spatial tearing ensued, as if being thrown into a rapidly spinning drum.

The bizarre scenery before their eyes flashed madly, shattering and reassembling.

In just an instant!

A hard feeling came underfoot.

At the same time, the violent wind and rain instantly enveloped the whole body! 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The gale, like millions of fierce beasts roaring and howling at their ears!

It lifted gravel and stones that painfully struck against their cheeks!

Heavy rain, the bean-sized raindrops fell thick like hail, icy cold, piercing to the bone, instantly turning the vision into a blur!

The air was as heavy as if lead-filled, mixed with a strong earthy smell, a rusty scent, and some indefinable putrid odor.

Fang Qingyu steadied himself, immediately lowering Jiang Wei, with Night Inquiry instantly activated, piercing through the rain to survey the surroundings.

This was a boundless grey wasteland.

The ground was cracked, with hard, dark red-glowing rocks, sparsely growing some twisted, sinister, dark-colored strange plants.

The sky was completely covered by lead-heavy dark clouds, pressed very low, almost within reach.

Occasionally, massive pale lightning tore across the long sky, bringing brief but fierce brightness, illuminating the distant black mountain ridges like the back of a colossal beast.

Above the wasteland.

Figures just like them who had been teleported in numbered over a hundred, scattered everywhere.

Everyone looked like a drowned rat, in a sorry state, but their eyes were filled with vigilance and wariness.

No one spoke.

Only the howling wind, pouring rain, and rolling thunder.

In this unfamiliar and hostile world, under the rules of this Lawless Land as part of the Hidden Dragon Plan, no one dared to easily trust the strangers beside them.

Pairs of eyes silently crossed in the rain screen, observing, and then quickly moved away.

Everyone instinctively distanced themselves from others, like isolated wolf packs on the wasteland.

After a brief chaos, the crowd began to spontaneously disperse, heading quickly in the directions they deemed fit, their figures soon swallowed by the dim rain.

"The map."

Wei Banmeng wiped the rain off her face, her voice still clear in the gale.

She quickly took out a specially made leather map from her waist pouch and unfolded it.

The map was made of durable material, with simple lines, marking several important location symbols.

"We are roughly here." Wei Banmeng pointed her fingertip to a marked spot on the map edge, "The closest Federation stronghold is ’Anvil Fortress’, in this direction, about forty kilometers away." She pointed to a spot with an Iron Hammer symbol on the map.

"Let’s first go to the stronghold to settle, understand the situation, replenish supplies, and then plan the next move."

Wei Banmeng looked at Fang Qingyu and Jiang Wei, seeking their opinions.

Fang Qingyu nodded: "I have no problem."

Jiang Wei also responded softly, her small hand tightly clutching Fang Qingyu’s clothes, her face turning slightly pale from the wind.

"Let’s go!"

Wei Banmeng put away the map, recognizing the direction, and was the first to rush into the rain curtain.

The five of them braved the violent wind and rain, quickly moving across the rugged grey wasteland.

Underfoot, the rocks were hard and slippery, filled with cracks and sharp protrusions.

In the distance, the scene was ever-changing, to the left a towering tornado connected the sky and earth, slowly moving, lifting a sky full of sand and dust, to the right a region mysteriously floated with goose feather snow, starkly contrasting with the surrounding heavy rain.

Further away.

On the horizon, a region even flickered with eerie purple lightning, a faint smell of burning lingering in the air.

Along the way, they encountered several waves of wandering Life Ghosts.

There were speedily quick Shadow Claw Beasts, looking like hunting dogs, and others like the Swamp Rotundas lurking in muddy puddles that suddenly erupted, spitting corrosive acid.

But these Low Tier Life Ghosts posed no threat in front of Fang Qingyu’s group of five.

Fang Qingyu didn’t even draw his sword, merely used his Five Elements Rotating Force-enhanced fists and feet to explode the pouncing Life Ghosts mid-air.

About an hour later.

After crossing over a ridge filled with sharp black rocks, the outline of a massive fortress built against the mountain appeared through the dim rain curtain.

Anvil Fortress.

The name was very fitting.

The whole stronghold seemed as if countless massive, unpolished dark metal blocks and rocks had been roughly piled and welded together, angular, full of rugged sturdiness and a post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

The surface of the fortress was covered with various welding scars, marks of huge claw scratches, the rain washing over the rust and grease, forming streams of black rivulets.

There were no windows, only some narrow observation ports emitting a dim glow.

A few thick metal chimneys, emitting billowing black smoke, stood atop the fortress, adding a trace of morbid vitality to this grey lifelessness.

The fortress’s only entrance was a several-meter-high gate cast from heavy alloy, currently half-open, at the door stood two guards dressed in oil-stained black combat uniforms, their eyes vigilant as they scanned those approaching.

The light coming from inside was dim.

A mix of oil, cheap tobacco, sweat, and a faint scent of blood hit the face.

The five of them quickly walked in.

The gate closed heavily behind them, cutting off the outside gale and rain, but the internal uproar instantly flooded into their ears.

This was a huge and depressing underground space.

Rather than a stronghold, it was more like a giant chaotic, dimly lit combination of an underground workshop and a slum.

The air was terribly turbid, choking smoke from burning cheap tobacco, and a mixture of decaying food and excrement odor, while the light mainly relied on sizzling yellow gas lamps hung on thick metal beams, and some flickering neon signs with unstable current.