The two teams' vehicles sped along the same stretch of road, one in front and one behind.
Zhuang Yu couldn't help but say, "The Venomous Snake Special Team is really too arrogant."
"It's called having principles," Yang Rui responded seriously, "If it were you, would you easily give up your mission to assist them?"
Zhuang Yu was speechless. Gu Shun added, "Which special forces mission isn't urgent? We need to be clear about our own responsibilities."
After reaching a crossroads, the two teams split up to take action.
Lin Beichen and others drove for more than an hour and finally arrived at the location recorded on William's USB drive.
"Something doesn't seem right here," Flame observed the surrounding environment, frowning.
"Indeed," Lin Beichen looked at the rugged, narrow mountain road, "So much Yellow Cake can't be transported by manpower, and there's no suitable condition for planes to land here either."
"Could William's USB information be fake?" Xia Luyao asked in confusion.
Lin Beichen sighed, "It's possible."
Wild Ox said, dissatisfied, "This William is really too sly."
"So what do we do now?" Flame asked.
Lin Beichen glanced around the surrounding peaks, "We'll know after some exploration."
"Such a big mountain, are we supposed to search it on foot?" Wild Ox asked with a miserable expression.
Lin Beichen smiled, "Who said we're going to search on foot?" He explained that if the Yellow Cake is hidden here, there would definitely be a large warehouse, which would alter the mountain's layout.
"We only need to check whether the mountain's layout is influenced by external forces, then we can deduce if Yellow Cake is hidden here."
"But how can we check the mountain's layout?" Wild Ox looked clueless.
Xia Luyao smiled, "Lin Beichen knows how."
Lin Beichen looked at Xia Luyao's confident expression and couldn't help but smile, "I do know a bit. It's actually not difficult, just requires setting up a simple array."
With that, he began directing everyone to move rocks for the setup.
Then, Lin Beichen walked over to a broad area of yellow soil and found a sturdy blade of grass. He carefully pulled it up, trying not to damage the roots.
"Lin Beichen, what use is plucking that grass?" Thunder asked, puzzled, looking at the grass in Lin Beichen's hand.
Lin Beichen looked up at the starry sky, determined the direction, and chose a spot to bury the grass's roots in the soil.
He calmly explained, "This blade of grass is the key to checking whether the mountain's topology here is damaged."
Everyone was puzzled, but seeing Lin Beichen speak with such assurance, they asked no more questions.
Afterward, Lin Beichen placed eight similarly shaped stones according to specific positional arrangements.
He arranged the stones at the Zhen Wood, Li Fire, Dui Metal, Kan Water, Zuan Wood, Kun Earth, Qian Metal, and Farming Soil positions following the array.
Then he picked up a small pebble and drew sixteen straight lines on the ground, using the eight stones and the central grass as connection points.
Finally, he drew a small array pattern around the grass.
"It's done." Lin Beichen stood up after finishing and discarded the pebble.
The others gathered around to watch but dared not get too close, afraid of disrupting the delicate array.
"Does this really detect if the mountain's topology is damaged?" Lao Dao asked curiously. He was quite intrigued by Lin Beichen's array, especially curious about the role of the grass.
Lin Beichen didn't offer much explanation, just signaled for everyone to move away to avoid interfering with the array's operation.
The group followed his instructions, their eyes locked on Lin Beichen.
Standing at the center of the array, Lin Beichen bit his middle finger and visualized a blood-colored Talisman in mid-air.
As his fingers moved, a series of blood-colored Talismans appeared in the air.
Then, Lin Beichen incanted a spell, his palm flipped, and the blood-colored Talismans instantly converged into a mass, falling into the center of the array's grass, and vanished, as if absorbed by the grass.
Lin Beichen dropped to one knee, supported himself with one hand, and closed his eyes, seemingly sensing something.
At that moment, the eight stones within the array suddenly trembled slightly, dust flying, while outside the array everything remained unchanged.
A few minutes later, the array calmed down, Lin Beichen opened his eyes and slowly stood up.
"Lin Beichen, what's the situation?" Xia Luyao asked eagerly.
Lin Beichen glanced at her and shook his head, "The mountains here haven't been altered."
"The Yellow Cake isn't here?" Xia Luyao frowned.
Lin Beichen nodded in affirmation.
Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly sensed a faint disturbance within the array.
Dropping to a crouch, he pressed his palm to the ground, closed his eyes to sense for a moment, then opened them again, "Someone's coming, quite a few actually!"
"Could it be the Vine mentioned by Zaka? Are they here for the Yellow Cake?" Xia Luyao immediately guessed.
Lin Beichen agreed, "It's likely them. Quickly, let's hide and give them a surprise."
With that, he swiftly distributed Explosive Talismans to his teammates.
The group quickly concealed themselves behind the mountain, waiting for the newcomers.
Soon, the rumble of engines approached.
As the sound grew nearer, they peered through the gaps in the rocks to see several pickup trucks driving towards them.
"Prepare for action!" Xia Luyao commanded in a low voice.
As the vehicles entered the ambush zone, they acted swiftly, throwing their Explosive Talismans.
After several loud explosions, the first two vehicles exploded instantly, leaving the occupants no time to react.
"It's an ambush! Careful!" Those in the vehicles behind quickly became alert, reacting defensively.
But with Lin Beichen's team hiding behind the mountains, the attackers couldn't reach them.
"Dammit! Who the hell is it!" someone in the vehicles cursed angrily.
They had finally gotten word from William that the Yellow Cake was hidden here, but upon arrival, were ambushed.