Through the drone feed, Lu'an City presented itself as an unbroken expanse of living green.

Shen Cong spotted multiple jin beast species moving through the canopy — glimpses of movement, shapes that didn't resolve fully before they were gone. The vegetation ran without interruption in every direction. A clear gradient was visible: moving southwest toward Huoshan, the green deepened and thickened; moving northwest, it thinned and paled.

Flowering plants in colors that had no business being as vivid as they were. Evolved trees heavy with Activity fruit. Under any other circumstances, Shen Cong would have stopped and collected. Not today. The objective was Huoshan County reconnaissance, not resource gathering.

"Cross-reference the map. Find the Jiguang Expressway." He put it out on the radio to the armored vehicles.

The two armored vehicles carried specialist personnel — combat analysis officers, active special forces operators, command staff. Shen Cong was nominal overall commander of the column. The officer actually running the operation was a 1st Group Army Major named Li Kun.

"Hu Colonel — based on our analysis, fifteen degrees south of west, approximately fifteen kilometers forward should put us on the Jiguang Expressway."

"Move out."

The vehicles hadn't started moving before the jin beasts arrived.

Wild-cat type jin beasts, thirty-odd of them, surrounding the column. Lean and long-bodied, the proportions of a leopard compressed into the size of a small calf. The forelegs terminated in Activity cores — large, silver-bright claws that retracted into broad paw-pads when running, leaving the stride unimpeded. Yellow-white dappled coat. Speed and agility comparable to ordinary cheetahs, combined with the strategic intelligence to work as a coordinated hunting group.

They ringed the armored vehicles and Great Vajra and waited, reading the situation.

"First group — exploratory fire." Li Kun's voice came through the radio.

The first armored vehicle opened its firing ports and began shooting. Crisp reports, but the rounds couldn't consistently connect with animals that moved like this — the cats flowed between shots, shifted direction, pressed in on the vehicles from unexpected angles. When one occasionally took a hit from being too close to evade,…