According to Yang Xiaojin, they would set off from Stronghold 88, then pass through Stronghold 97 and Stronghold 99, before arriving at the valley in the north.
The banditry originated over there. At the beginning, the Zong Consortium made use of these activities to plunder the traveling merchants and seize precious resources left behind in the valley by the Pre-Cataclysm civilization.
The entire valley's surface and underground had a large number of urban structures that remained from before The Cataclysm. Most of the things left behind were useless, but if anyone found something useful there, it would be priceless.
There was a group of merchants who pretended to pass through the area and claimed they were on a business trip, when in fact, they stayed around to excavate any useful resources and technologies from the valley.