"Lynch-Walter… that guy's still alive!"
Hearing Azalina's words, the name instantly surfaced in Jiang Hai's mind. It wasn't unfamiliar to him at all.
After all, they had clashed only a few months ago. Lynch-Walter had hired a group of mercenaries to sneak into Tarak's village searching for something Jiang Hai knew very well—the map.
Back then, Jiang Hai had driven them off. Whether they gave up afterward didn't matter to him.
He had never expected them to quit.
But he hadn't expected them to team up with Izo-Edith either.
It seemed more and more people wanted him dead.
Did they really think this would be enough to kill him?
"Take them out first," Jiang Hai said decisively, glancing at Azalina. "Then we go in and search for the treasure."
"No problem," Azalina replied with a calm smile.
She didn't question it.
Seven of them. Two dogs. And—well—Qi Jie, who was more of a liability than a fighter.
Fourteen enemies?
So what?
They had fought outnumbered battles before. Three times, four times their size—it was nothing new.
"You handle the plan," Jiang Hai said with a nod. Professionals should deal with professional matters.
Azalina scanned the surroundings. Hearing faint footsteps echoing from the far end of the passage, she gestured for everyone to reposition and intercept at the next chamber.
Jiang Hai immediately took the lead and sprinted deeper into the tunnel. The others followed close behind, Xiao Huang and Xiao Bai moving ahead to scout and clear the path.
Azalina and Aler-Sara stayed at the rear, covering their tracks.
The group moved swiftly and silently.
Meanwhile, the mercenaries advanced cautiously. Having learned their lesson earlier, they feared an ambush. Although confident in their numbers, they knew Jiang Hai's strength—and the women's combat capability—was no joke. Carelessness could cost lives.
They crept through the narrow, dozen-meter passage and entered the first room.
But by then, Jiang Hai and his team had already reached the second.
The mine itself was small, which made sense considering its history.
It dated back to the early period of American westward expansion. In those days, private miners often built crude, hidden mines to smuggle gold. Living quarters were set up outside, most of which had long since vanished.
Inside, only two main chambers remained.
One had been used for inspecting and sorting the ore before transport.
The other was for storage and smelting.
Transporting raw ore wasn't profitable, so they refined it on-site, removing impurities and casting it into gold nuggets—easier to carry, easier to count.
The second room was exactly that place.
As Xiao Huang and Xiao Bai rushed inside, Jiang Hai and the others followed.
Compared to the insect-ridden first room filled with corpses and decay, this one was relatively clean. But no one cared about that.
They immediately took cover according to Azalina's instructions.
After setting something up near the doorway, Azalina quietly retreated as well.
The room fell silent.
Jiang Hai hid behind an old iron shelf and finally had time to observe his surroundings.
The chamber was huge—over a thousand square meters.
Tools hung from the walls. Rows of metal racks filled the center. And on those racks…
Brick-like chunks of reddish-gold metal.
Jiang Hai picked one up.
His pupils shrank.
It was gold.
He had salvaged gold from the sea many times. He knew that weight and color too well.
Roughly one kilogram each.
A quick glance told him there were at least ten thousand pieces.
Ten thousand kilograms.
Ten tons of gold.
At current prices—around $45 per gram—that meant over $450 million.
And that was a conservative estimate.
If there were twenty thousand pieces…
Nearly a billion dollars.
Even Jiang Hai couldn't help but feel his heart race.
This treasure had come almost too easily.
No tomb traps. No ghosts. No supernatural nonsense.
It was simpler than some of the absurd places he had searched before.
Maybe he really was getting paranoid lately.
Shaking his head, he crouched back down and waited.
The mercenaries weren't idiots either.
They knew there was no other exit. Their goal was simple—kill Jiang Hai and take the treasure.
Nothing more.
So they advanced carefully.
Ten minutes later, footsteps finally echoed into the chamber.
Two men wearing night-vision goggles entered first.
They froze almost immediately and signaled the others to stop.
"Something ahead. Could be a mine," one whispered calmly.
The group instantly pulled back.
The two scouts deployed folding riot shields and positioned themselves at the entrance.
Anti-personnel mines were far deadlier than anti-tank ones. When detonated, they sprayed steel pellets everywhere. One hit could shred flesh.
Carelessness meant death.
The mercenary with the remote-controlled car stepped forward again, placed the device on the ground, and slowly drove it ahead.
The car snagged a thin steel wire.
Snap.
BOOM!
The mine detonated instantly.
Steel pellets hammered the shields with loud metallic thuds, but caused no real damage.
When the blast ended, they carefully advanced.
But just as they stepped forward—
A small cylindrical object suddenly sprang from the ground.
"Damn it—another one!"
Everyone dropped instantly behind their shields.
At the same time, Jiang Hai and the others shut their eyes.
Jiang Hai even covered Xiao Huang and Xiao Bai's eyes.
Because they knew—
It wasn't a mine.
"Flashbang!" someone screamed.
The next second—
The entire chamber exploded with blinding white light, as bright as noon.
After spending so long in complete darkness without headlamps, the sudden burst was devastating.
Painful screams erupted everywhere.
Temporary blindness was guaranteed.
And that moment—
was exactly what Azalina had been waiting for.
(To be continued.)