Modern Cultivation : The Strongest Couple Bonded by Vampire System-Chapter 638 - 638: Spirit Ash

Alex looked at Jorren. "How many can still fight?"
Jorren didn't hesitate this time. "Two hundred and thirty automated turrets. Forty-three cultivators."
"How about our gear?" Alex asked.
"I think we can borrow six mechs," Jorren replied.
Alex's lips twitched. They could borrow mechs, yet they didn't use them in the last fight. They used a formation to create a huge knight construct instead.
If they had used a mech, the fight would probably have ended differently. Even so, the Soul Insect Princess would still have shown up.
"How about ammunition and the rest?" Alex asked.
Jorren pointed at a small list on the side of the screen. "Ammo is low. Med is low. Soul protection arrays, we had two, but one just got destroyed."
Alex nodded once. "Now show me the area map."
Jorren dragged the map with his finger, and a grid of ruined blocks came up. Some streets were marked with collapsed sections, and some were marked with tunnels that kept appearing and disappearing on the scans.
"This is where we were before you came," Jorren said. "We held it for half a day."
He tapped three points, then kept going. "These three places are our real goal. Transit Hub Nine, the water pump station, and this tunnel line that leads straight to this command bay."
"How far?" Alex asked.
"Twelve kilometers," Jorren replied.
Alex looked up. "That's not far. Why not go through the tunnel?"
Jorren's expression turned grim. "It's too dangerous. The place is too small against those insects."
He pointed at the tunnel mark again. "We can't use auto turrets or any explosives. Mechs are also out of the question. One wrong blast, and the whole thing collapses."
Alex nodded. For him, it wasn't a problem, since he could calculate where and when to strike to make sure it wouldn't collapse.
"That's why we chose that spot before, to go from there," Jorren said. "But even then, we got overwhelmed."
Alex tapped the three marks. "The tunnel is still our best bet. It raises the risk of getting overwhelmed, but it also means they can only come at us from one direction."
Jorren's eyes narrowed. "The other cultivators won't dare to join the operation if we do it through the tunnel."
Alex pointed at the blinking tunnel marks. "Then we don't need them. They're cowards, and they won't help anyway."
He looked at Jorren. "Try tasking them. We run the operation tomorrow. I'll prepare the rest."
Jorren looked at Alex, weighing the risk. In the end, he agreed.
At the end of the day, he would be the one taking responsibility. Others might walk out with a few months of docked pay, but he could get fired.
He still had family at home depending on his wages. He couldn't lose this job.
"I'll try my best to convince them," Jorren said.
After he left, Alex and Mingyue took his seat. Alex started looking for more information on the city, while Mingyue was still thinking about the Soul Insect Princess.
"How strong do you think that princess was?" Mingyue asked.
Alex chuckled, since he already knew Mingyue wanted to fight her. "You'll win for sure, but not without releasing your full abilities."
"I know that," Mingyue said. "My question is, if I don't use my full abilities, will I have a chance?"
"Hmm." Alex thought about it.
He simulated the fight while analyzing the Soul Insect Princess, considering the possibility of her other attacks.
"It's impossible," Alex said. "The problem isn't that there's no way. It's that the moment she attacks your identity, you'll get found out fast."
Mingyue nodded. "You're right. Being fine after getting hit by a soul attack will definitely raise their suspicion."
"I doubt you'll enjoy fighting her anyway," Alex said. "She doesn't seem like the type who fights directly."
"I hope the dragon prince will provide us with some decent challenge than."
"Don't worry, he will. I'll let you have your fun," Alex said.
Mingyue smiled, her eyes already bright with excitement as she looked forward to the fight.
Alex then spent the rest of the day digging for clues about Governor Rannor, and gathering more information about the mining station.
Most of it was boring. Shift rotations, emergency drills, casualty lists, and supply requests that kept getting rejected.
Then he found the production sheets for Halcyon-9.
Halcyon-9 wasn't a normal "ore-only" station.
It was a processing ring that handled three type of material, all valuable enough that the empire refused to abandon the system.
The first type was heavy ore from the planet's crust zones like Cinder-12.
It was a dark, dense ore rich in mana-iron and high-tensile metals.
The second type was formation-grade crystal.
The logs listed it as Halcyon Quartz, a pale mineral that could held a lot of qi and used to make artifact.
The third type was a volatile powder classified under soul materials. The station called it Spirit Ash, there's no more information about it other than it's dangerous and could affect one soul.
Alex stared at that line for a while.
Anything that could affect the soul was rare, and this station was producing one of the core materials.
That alone explained why the empire kept the mine running even while the Hive spread, and why the soul insects were here.
He kept scrolling.
Halcyon-9 had long docking arms for cargo, a rotating container ring for raw ore, and a sealed refinery where the crystals and Spirit Ash were processed under formation shielding.
Even the waste went somewhere. The slag was pressed into radiation bricks and shot into disposal orbits, while any contaminated dust was locked inside special drums.
Alex opened the convoy schedule next.
Ore went up from the surface in armored lift capsules, then the station sorted it into three routes.
Metals went to the front-line factories, crystals went to fortress cities and shipyards, and Spirit Ash went straight to imperial supply depots under escort.
That escort detail stood out.
Every Spirit Ash shipment had double security, and the receiving code was always the same office.