Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

The once-arrogant Black Fox squad was now cowering behind the sand dunes, a dozen sharp eyes fixed on the battered "Warrior" vehicle, but no one dared to fire a single shot.

The unknown is the most terrifying.

In their eyes, that empty sandy land had become a besieged city filled with ghost warriors.

"Butcher, what do we do? The enemy isn't showing themselves at all; we're sitting ducks!" A mercenary's voice trembled. The silent sandy field seen through his night vision goggles felt more suffocating than the hail of bullets.

The commander, codenamed "Butcher," was ashen-faced.

He had been in the business for fifteen years, fighting in diamond mines in Africa and oil fields in the Middle East. What tough battles hadn't he seen? But today, he felt like a green recruit, being completely outmaneuvered by the enemy in a way he had never heard of before.

"Withdraw!" the butcher gritted his teeth and squeezed out the word.

"Notify headquarters, a main force of Chinese special forces is lying in ambush in area C-3. Their numbers are unknown, and their tactics are unpredictable! Requesting heavy fire support! We will withdraw from their firing range!"

Upon receiving the order, the Black Fox squad, feeling as if they had been granted a pardon, quickly disappeared into the deeper darkness under cover of darkness.

A hundred meters away, Zhao Gang put down his binoculars and breathed a long sigh of relief.

"They... just left like that?" a bodyguard murmured incredulously.

A crack squad of over a dozen men was scared off by one person using a few broken mirrors?

If this were told to others, who would believe it?

All eyes were focused on the boy who was squatting on the ground, cutting open the prisoners' combat uniforms with his military knife.

"Just good luck." Su Ming didn't even look up, his tone as indifferent as if he were talking about something trivial. "They have an information asymmetry, so they don't dare to gamble."

Silence returned to the surroundings.

Two Black Fox mercenaries, stripped of their equipment and bound like dumplings, were thrown onto the sand, their mouths stuffed with rags, glaring at Su Ming with venomous eyes.

Zhao Gang squatted down, used the tip of his dagger to poke at one of the men's chins, and looked at Su Ming.

"Mr. Su, these desperados are very stubborn. We don't have the time or the specialized equipment, so if we want to get them to talk, we'll probably have to use some more direct methods."

Gu Changfeng also looked anxious: "Mr. Su, how about... I pay more?"

"Need not."

Su Ming waved his hand, not even glancing at the two prisoners, but instead examining with great interest the equipment he had looted from them: a German-made HK416 automatic rifle, a Glock 17 pistol, and some miscellaneous military gear.

He disassembled the rifle into a pile of parts and then quickly reassembled it, his movements so skillful and fast that it was dazzling.

"German-made, good craftsmanship," Su Ming commented, then looked up at the mercenary codenamed "Scorpion" and spoke calmly.

"You have a thin callus on the second joint of your index finger, but there are no marks from long-term shoulder-to-shoulder shooting in the hollow of your shoulder. You rarely use rifles and are more used to pistols."

The scorpion was startled.

Su Ming ignored him and continued, "The most worn parts of your tactical gloves are your palms and fingertips, not your knuckles. This means you're not doing hand-to-hand combat, but rather climbing or... operating precision instruments."

He picked up the prisoner's walkie-talkie and weighed it in his hand: "The latest 'Orion' military encrypted communicator, with an effective communication range of thirty kilometers, but the battery has been modified, so the battery life is less than ten hours. Your base isn't far from here."

With each word Su Ming spoke, Scorpion's face grew paler.

Zhao Gang was stunned. He had been a special forces soldier for over a decade, and his interrogations relied entirely on coercion and bribery. He had never seen such an interrogation method, which resembled that of a fortune teller.

Is this kid deducing something? No, he's practically opening his eyes!

Su Ming finally walked up to Scorpion, squatted down, and looked him straight in the eye: "You're not a combatant, you're a technician. Butcher, that muscle-bound idiot, sending you to guard the perimeter is just using you as cannon fodder."

"You..." the scorpion whimpered, its eyes shifting from resentment to terror.

"Now, I'll give you a chance." Su Ming pulled the rag out of his mouth, his tone calm. "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll let you live. I can even help you kill that 'butcher' who looks down on you."

The scorpion was breathing heavily, and sweat mixed with sand slid down its forehead.

Betrayal, or death?

In the world of mercenaries, this is never a choice.

"I'll talk...I'll talk!" He completely broke down. "I'll talk! Please don't kill me!"

Half an hour later, Su Ming walked back from behind the sand dune, his face calm.

Zhao Gang immediately went up to him: "Mr. Su, did you get the answer?"

"Hmm." Su Ming nodded. "Things are more complicated than I imagined."

According to Scorpion's confession, a secret indeed lies hidden beneath the core area of ​​Lop Nur—a secret ultra-low frequency crustal listening network, codenamed "Ground Listening," deployed by a certain major power. This system can detect the movements of strategic missile silos and nuclear submarines worldwide by monitoring geological activity.

However, two weeks ago, one of the core nodes went out of control for unknown reasons, causing a violent electromagnetic storm and energy leakage, which formed that low-temperature zone.

"Those bastards are using our Dragon Kingdom's land as their testing ground!" Zhao Gang angrily slammed his fist on the sand.

"Gu Weiguang and her research team accidentally stumbled into that area and discovered the out-of-control listening node," Su Ming continued. "Gu Weiguang is a geology PhD, and she immediately determined that it was not a natural phenomenon. Black Fox detained them to prevent the secret from being leaked."

"Is my daughter...is she still alive?" Gu Changfeng's voice trembled; this was the question he cared about most.

"Alive," Su Ming answered confidently. "She's the only one who can understand the data from that equipment. Black Fox needs her help to repair that out-of-control node, so she's not in immediate danger. They're being held in an underground ancient ruin, which Black Fox has converted into a temporary base."

"An underground ancient city..." Zhao Gang murmured to himself.

"No wonder the search and rescue teams couldn't find it."

"Where is that base?" Gu Changfeng asked anxiously.

Su Ming took out the yellowed notebook from his pocket, turned to one of the pages, and saw a hastily drawn map in red pen with a line of small writing next to it.

"The earth listens to the heavens and sees the earth; the meridians flow in reverse."

He looked up at the starry sky, then at the direction of the sand dunes in the distance, finally pointing northeast.

"Scorpion didn't know the exact coordinates; he only knew that the base's entrance was at the end of a dried-up riverbed that was flowing 'against the current.'"

Su Ming smiled.

"There happens to be this place in my grandfather's notes."

"Let's go."

"I'm taking you to have your house forcibly demolished."