Everyone's hunting for treasure: I'll give you 100 times the loot and hand it over to the

The light-blocking barrel was placed in the center of the folding table, and heat was still seeping out from the barrel walls. The old copper with a chipped edge at the corner of the table was red-hot.

Lu Yan raised his hand and pressed down with the heel of his palm.

The bucket lid slammed back onto the table, pressing the crimson mass inside the cotton lining back half an inch, and the metal table leg dragged on the ground with a screeching sound.

"No need to read any further."

Li Su looked up, still struggling to catch her breath.

Lu Yan removed his hand from the bucket lid, revealing a scorched patch on his palm.

"Longmen to take its own life, stop."

"Blood transfusion trial, discontinued."

"Transfer list, candidate selection, and subsequent onboarding plan are all suspended."

The wind outside the field cabin seeped in through the gaps in the canvas, causing the photocopy sheet on the table to flip half a page.

Li Su stared at him: "What right do you have to stop?"

Lu Yan pressed the copy back.

"Three thousand children were just unearthed at the old city hospital."

"Fifteen people were burned to death, and there wasn't even a proper autopsy."

"The first squad is now in charge of the scene."

He looked up at her.

"Don't use living people as a medicinal ingredient."

Li Su pressed her hand against the edge of the light-blocking barrel, the back of her hand burning red from the heat.

"Damn it, you think that's human trafficking?"

She spoke too quickly, and her voice cracked at the end.

"Everyone who enters must announce their name in the battle, sign their name, and have their name recorded on video."

"No one pointed a gun at their heads, and no one tied them to a car."

Zhao Leiguang stood by the door, his shield resting against his leg armor, without saying a word.

Wen Yue placed the crossbow horizontally on the corner of the table, her gaze falling on the signed form.

The signatures are dense.

Some characters were written steadily, some were crooked outside the grid, and in one place only half a fingerprint was left.

Lu Yan stepped half a step to the side, separating Li Su from the light-blocking barrel.

"I said stop, and told everyone to step back."

"Life isn't something you can just throw into the furnace by saying 'I'm willing.'"

"Don't force me to wear this armor and press down their tombstones."

No one moved inside the field house.

A low, thudding sound suddenly came from outside.

The abandoned cable tower at the edge of the dense forest was struck by lightning. The top of the tower tilted to one side, and the steel frame crashed into the mud. Night dust poured in through the canvas curtain.

A few more copper shavings fell from the corner of the table.

Lu Yan pulled out a palm-length, ink-gray secret slip from his sleeve and slammed it onto the table.

The metal plate flipped twice and stopped in front of the light-blocking barrel.

"A temporary ban is in effect before the war."

"The Lungmen self-determination project has been shut down, and all samples, reagents, lists, and autopsy records have been collected and stored in the basement."

"Anyone who turns on the furnace again will be dealt with as if they were disobeying orders during wartime."

Li Su stared at the secret note, her teeth clenching so hard they made a cracking sound.

"You make it sound so easy for you to stand here and say that."

"Xichuan has broken two defense lines, Guanzhong is still demanding people, and more than a dozen of the laborers sent from Donghai are dying every day."

"They had no medicine, no armor, and even lying down to catch their breath was a luxury."

Su Yunqing placed the needle box on the table.

"If there's no medicine, then go get some."

"If you don't have armor, go get some gear."

"A shortage of personnel does not mean that we can send the wounded to be cremated."

Li Su raised her finger and pointed at her, but her finger stopped in mid-air.

"As someone in the medical team, you should understand best that waiting to die is harder than actually dying."

Su Yunqing did not avoid it.

"I see."

"Therefore, I absolutely refuse to allow patients to be written as expendable resources."

Li Su smiled, but couldn't manage a genuine laugh.

"Consumables?"

"Of the first seven people, three survived."

"They carried machine guns and ran through the ruined city, holding the western end of the bridge."

"If it weren't for them that night, all four thousand people behind the bridge would have jumped into the river."

Wen Yue asked, "What about the second batch of fifteen?"

Li Su did not answer.

Wen Yue pushed the photocopy back in front of her.

"Don't just report those who survived."

"Who collected the ashes of the fifteen who died?"

Li Su's hand stopped on the paper.

A low thud came from inside the light-proof barrel, and the lid was pushed open a crack, casting a red glow onto her sleeve.

She suddenly ripped open the right sleeve of her military overcoat.

From the elbow to the wrist bone, the skin and flesh were scalded and curled up, red lines crawled up the blood vessels to the back of the hand, and blood was still seeping from the edges of the wound.

Zhao Leiguang couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath.

Su Yunqing took half a step forward: "You've had a blood injection?"

"I was the first to get the shot."

Li Su pushed up her sleeves, revealing deeper scorch marks.

"Before the official trial, I first injected the sample into my bones."

"The dosage is only enough for half an injection."

"I lay in the isolation ward for four days, and my right hand was useless twice. I was only able to hold a pen again after that."

She looked at everyone.

"I didn't test it on anyone else first."

"I ate the poisoned meat first."

Lin Chuxue leaned against the canvas pillar, the Night Watchman's coin inside her breastplate pressing against her wound.

She remained silent.

At that moment, she raised her hand and tapped her breastplate.

"Then why did you send other people in there?"

Li Su opened her mouth.

Outside the canvas, the aftershocks of the collapsed bucket tower were still rolling underground.

"Because there's no one left."

"The front lines are not just on paper."

"The dead can't fill the gap, so those who can move must push forward."

"Those patients in my care who are going through labor, if I don't try them today, they'll be in body bags tomorrow."

Lu Yan pushed the ink-grey secret note forward half an inch.

"Then we need to find out where the gap came from."

"Who cut off the supplies? Who transferred the personnel? Who left the wounded outside?"

"If the shortage is so severe that we have to burn human bones to fill the pit, we should first investigate the people who dug the pit."

Li Su's shoulders tensed.

"Lu Yan, you'll have to be alive to sing before you can pretend to be a saint."

"There is no water or wind behind the seventh gate of Chang'an. An ordinary person would not last even half a day inside."

"If you want to go, I won't stop you."

"But what about the group that came after them?"

"Who cleared the way for them?"

Lu Yan looked at the light-blocking barrel.

"I'll lead the team; we won't play a game of attrition."

"Blood preparations sealed."

"Have your men withdraw."

"We'll enter Chang'an ourselves."

Li Su stood there for a while, then suddenly grabbed the experimental records on the table.

She crumpled the paper in her hands.

"OK."

"You guys are too stiff."

"Then let's go."

She tucked the notebook back into her canvas bag and turned to walk out the door.

She stopped half a step when she reached the door.

"I messed up the trial order from a while ago."

"Don't come back and ask me why I didn't leave you with needles."

The canvas curtain was lifted and then lowered again.

Li Su did not turn around.

The light-blocking barrel was still on the table, the red light at the bottom of the barrel shrank into a small ball, so quiet it was annoying.

Zhao Leiguang bent down and scraped away the bloodstains on the edge of the shield.

He scraped it twice and then threw the entrenching tool on the ground.

"Ignore that scholar's ravings."

"The captain's words just now were quite pleasant to hear."

Wen Yue glanced at him.

"What are you so comfortable about?"

Zhao Leiguang raised his shield and examined the crack.

"If one less living person goes into the furnace, the logistics department will have one less scrap report."

Qin Wuyi was sitting in the corner when the main tray in her canvas bag suddenly vibrated.

The ninth stone slab was heated against the bottom of the bag.

The blood-red line on the map leading to Chang'an curves a bit further outside the seventh gate, pointing northeast.

Four old characters emerged from the edge of the stone slab.

East of the eight directions, Yinling.

Zhao Leiguang also saw it.

He scratched the edge of his helmet, unable to come up with a joke for a while.

"It was only with my clumsy feet that I figured out a muffled thunderclap."

"Nobody's holding a gun to their necks, so why would that bunch from the Eighth Regiment rather turn themselves into hand grenades than eat a proper breakfast?"