The Tempest Hunting Company's tractor-wood cart pulled away. Shen Cong drove in the opposite direction — straight to Guiwu Town, five kilometers from the Xuyi County camp.

He sent the drone up and began observing.

The encounter with Tempest had been opportunistic. His main focus remained Xuyi County — further from the 12th Group Army's garrison at Baoying County than Jinhu was, which made it the safer approach point for developing a proxy.

The Xuyi County camp's architecture reminded him of a cluster of yurts, built up on elevated platforms just as New Hefei had been. Flood defense. The catastrophic early-apocalypse rainstorms had left a deep impression on anyone who'd survived them.

No perimeter wall. Four watchtowers.

Most of the foot traffic moving through the camp was heading northwest along the Xinyang Expressway. A smaller number went east.

The Xinyang Expressway runs northwest toward Sihong County. Per Big Bear's information, the Eastern Theater Command may be opening a new camp there — that would create a flanking position alongside the 1st Group Army at Siyang County, and together with the 31st Group Army at Xinyi City, complete an encirclement of the Luoma Lake Oasis.

Once Luoma Lake is secured, the Command will probably reach out to the survivors in Xuzhou City. Xuzhou had a garrison — some of them likely survived. Connect Xuzhou, and the entire central-northern Jiangsu region falls under Command administration.

He watched for southward-departing companies. None. Apparently the survivors had already combed the barren hill country along the Jianghuai watershed to the south and found nothing worth the trip.

Shen Cong set up a temporary camp at Guiwu Town. He also wanted to survey the Xuyi County Forest Farm and Gucheng Forest Farm hill areas for large individual-type jin beasts worth hunting. The totem engine had sharpened his interest in heavyweight specimens considerably. Getting the totem battle-vehicle on the road eventually meant starting the core stockpile now.

"Wait — what is that?"

In the drone feed, a hillside in the Xuyi County Forest Farm caught his eye. A large patch of blue vegetation covered a slope, vivid…