179: Beware of minefields

Three Land Cruisers kicked up three yellow dragons of dust across the black Gobi, the roar of their engines the only sound on this deathly silent land.

The air conditioning in the car was turned to the maximum, but the parched, hot air was pervasive, seeping through every crack in the windows.

Wang Dalong felt as if the leather seat beneath him could render the fat from his layers of flab at any moment.

"How much further, Brother Feng?" He unscrewed a bottle of ice water and took a large gulp, the water seemingly turning into steam the moment it hit his throat. "This damn place, the thermometer must be about to burst, right?"

Lin Feng didn't say a word, his eyes fixed intently on the screen of his military tablet.

On the screen, a blinking GPS dot was infinitely converging with the red coordinates he had marked earlier.

Closer and closer.

Closer and closer!

"Slow down."

Lin Feng's voice was soft, yet it caused the air in the entire cabin to stagnate.

The SAS driver said nothing, nodding immediately as he lifted his right foot from the accelerator, steadily reducing the speed.

The other two vehicles slowed down in sync.

"What's wrong?" Shitou leaned forward from the back seat, looking at Lin Feng through the rearview mirror.

"We're here."

Lin Feng pushed open the car door.

"Whoosh—!"

A scorching heatwave instantly enveloped him completely, as if he had been thrown into a giant oven. He subconsciously squinted, barely managing to adjust to the blinding white sunlight.

Before him was a sandbag bunker, eroded beyond recognition by wind and sand, with more than half of it buried in the black gravel. From a distance, it looked like a row of decaying teeth.

Further away, several rusted metal stakes were stuck crookedly into the ground, with segments of long-broken barbed wire hanging from them, swaying gently in the hot wind.

A decadent scent, unique to history, wafted toward him.

Eighty years of time seemed not to have passed here, but rather to have been frozen by the high temperatures and dryness.

"My God..."

Shitou and his team members also got out of the cars. Without unnecessary words, they quickly fanned out, forming a semi-circular security perimeter centered around the three vehicles.

Looking at the scene before them, their eyes were filled with professional caution and unconcealable amazement.

Lin Feng's deduction was accurate to the meter!

This abandoned outpost, which didn't exist on any public map, had been found by him using just a few simple lines of logic!

Wang Dalong also scrambled out of the car, holding a camera. He clicked the shutter frantically while wiping the waterfall of sweat from his forehead, clicking his tongue in wonder.

"Holy crap, holy crap... it really exists! What the hell were these Germans thinking eighty years ago, setting up camp in this godforsaken place? What were they after? Can the sand here be turned into gold?"

He muttered to himself, focused only on framing his shots, and didn't notice his footing, seemingly kicking something hard.

"Ouch."

He stumbled, nearly falling flat on his face.

Looking down, he saw a rotten wooden plank half-buried in the gravel.

Without much thought, he subconsciously hooked it out of the sand with his toe and flipped it over.

The paint on the plank had long since peeled away completely, but the words carved into it with a knife still stubbornly remained.

Wang Dalong didn't recognize a single letter of those crooked scribbles. He yelled at the top of his lungs toward Lin Feng, who was not far away:

"Brother Feng, come do some archaeology! There's a sign here. What does it say? Is it 'Welcome to the Sahara'?"

Lin Feng walked over at the sound of his voice and glanced down at the wooden plank.

With just that one glance, his pupils constricted sharply.

He immediately crouched down, reached out, and gently brushed away the sand from the wooden sign with his fingertips.

That line of deeply carved German was clearly revealed.

"Achtung Minen!"

"What's it mean?" Wang Dalong hung his camera around his neck and leaned in curiously to ask.

Lin Feng slowly stood up straight and uttered four words.

His voice wasn't loud, but it was like a heavy hammer, slamming hard against the hearts of everyone present.

"Beware, minefield."

"What was that?"

The smile on Wang Dalong's face froze instantly. Before he could react, his mouth subconsciously repeated the words.

The next second, he jerked his head down, his gaze fixed intently on his own feet!

Then, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, he let out a distorted shriek. With an "Ow!", he used the fastest speed of his life to jump back into the tire tracks he had left when getting out of the car, in an extremely clumsy posture.

That fat face instantly turned deathly pale, without a trace of color!

"Mine... mine-mine-mine... minefield?!"

Almost at the same time Lin Feng's voice fell, the surrounding SAS Team Members, who had been relaxed just moments ago, raised their guns in unison!

Their posture, which had been a routine alert, tightened to the extreme in an instant!

Everyone's feet seemed nailed to the spot, not daring to move even a fraction!

The atmosphere plummeted to freezing point in an instant!

Who could have imagined that beneath this ordinary-looking Gobi, which held nothing but sand and stones, lay buried a land of death that had slept for eighty years!

Shitou's expression also became incredibly solemn.

He spoke into the walkie-talkie on his collar, quickly issuing several commands in a very low voice, before turning to Lin Feng, his voice somewhat dry.

"Sir, we have a problem."

World War II-era mines, especially those things made by the Germans, often came with bizarre anti-tamper designs.

After eighty years, their fuzes become extremely unstable due to material aging.

Now, they are a hundred times more dangerous than when they left the factory! You never know if a gust of wind or a scorpion crawling over will detonate one!

Just then, an SAS team member carefully pulled an M67 Grenade from his tactical vest and made a questioning gesture toward Shitou.

Shitou didn't hesitate and nodded heavily.

The team member immediately pulled the pin, wound up his arm, then exerted force from his waist and abdomen, swinging it forward!

The grenade traced a perfect parabola through the scorching air, flying a full fifty meters before landing silently on the quiet Gobi.

Time seemed to hit the slow-motion button at this moment.

Everyone held their breath, even their hearts forgetting to beat.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

"Boom!!"

The grenade exploded on time, a cloud of black sand and dust surging upward!

However, this was only the beginning!

Less than two meters diagonally in front of the grenade's explosion point, a more violent and blinding flash of fire erupted from underground without warning!

Immediately after, a dull, heart-pounding roar reached them!

Boom—!

The ground shook violently along with it!

The blast wave, mixed with countless scalding steel balls and gravel, whistled over everyone's heads, making a shrill sound sharp enough to tear eardrums!

The one that had been detonated was an S-mine!

A famous "masterpiece" of the Germans during WWII, it was fearfully dubbed "Bouncing Betty" by countless Allied soldiers back then!

After the explosion, the air was thick with the pungent smell of gunpowder and burning metal.

Everyone fell silent.

Wang Dalong's lips trembled, his throat feeling as if it were stuffed with cotton, unable to say a single word.

The facts spoke for themselves.

This minefield not only truly existed...

...but to this day, it remained lethal.