Invasion - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Ni Ji supported Tan Shu’s drooping head, laid him flat, and made sure he could sleep for a while.

He also washed the drugged cup clean in the sink.

He completed all this skillfully, with a calm expression, and without even the slightest hint of emotional fluctuation.

Tan Shu thought he was still the arrogant and naive sentinel from the academy back then.

But in reality, during these years at the northern outpost, he had grown up faster than anyone else, and he had changed more than anyone else.

The things he was not good at or didn't know how to do before, he was now very skilled at.

Ni Ji settled the drugged Tan Shu, observed his surroundings, walked out, and locked the door of the rest room.

He took off his coat, shirt, and boots, folded them neatly, and put them in the closet.

He was now only wearing a fitted black tank top and tight leggings. He put on his black gloves, bit a thin dagger in his mouth, and finally used a dark towel to wrap his hair up tightly and tie it at the back of his head.

After tidying everything up, he looked up at the ceiling of the tea room, reached out, removed the ventilation grill, and with a flick of his fingers, he squeezed himself into the ventilation duct on the roof like a fish.

The count’s manor was extraordinary, and even the ventilation ducts were very wide.

It wasn’t difficult for a tall sentinel like Ni Ji to crawl inside. What was difficult was to avoid making even the slightest sound along the way.

There were countless sentinels moving through the manor right now.

Sentinels were creatures with sharp senses.

Luckily, the noisy banquet that had already begun was a good cover for his actions.

Ni Ji focused his strength on his fingertips and toes, crawling silently through the dark ducts like a cat.

He released his senses to the maximum, and they covered almost half of the manor.

He knew that this was very dangerous, that such spying would easily touch someone's nerves and be discovered.

Therefore, he had to put in all of his efforts, be extra careful and meticulous. He had to be able to scout everything out in advance, and also avoid the areas where the strongest sentinels were located.

The overloaded senses were making his head ache faintly.

Every step was like walking on the edge of a knife.

But it was okay, Ni Ji licked his lips, and only this way could he feel alive.

In his mind, he firmly remembered an architectural blueprint of the count’s manor.

It was a map that he had taken great pains to find before coming here. He had repeatedly memorized it and engraved it into his mind.

Now, that map had overlapped and verified with his senses, and it quickly guided him to his target.

At this moment, he was a hunter in the deep sea. After lurking hungrily for a long time, he finally smelled the scent of his prey.

Therefore, he swam out of the abyss, and silently lunged toward his prey in the dark.

Along the way, Ni Ji had heard the voices of many people talking, and he had sensed countless people walking beneath him.

He acted very cautiously.

But he also felt very surprised. He had been walking for so long, and he had inevitably passed over the heads of some of those sentinels, but he had not discovered a single trace of a mental alert.

Those sentinels who guarded the capital of the empire, were wearing beautiful and neat clothes, receiving high wages, drinking and chatting loudly under the lights.

They were indulging in the excitement that alcohol and drugs brought, loudly talking about meaningless things.

Almost none of them had the vigilance that a warrior should have.

They were far inferior to the soldiers he had led before.

The capital of the empire was the dream of the border sentinels, the prosperous holy land. Almost all of the border sentinels, who lived in the bitter cold, had dreamed of this place.

But they didn't know that here, there was only a shell of prosperity, and that the inside was completely rotten.

A small conversation came from a discreet room.

Ni Ji's movement stopped.

He listened carefully.

“Why did you bring me a green formal wear?” That was probably an officer who worked in the count’s manor. He was complaining to his wife.

“Don’t you know that the count is also wearing green tonight? My god, I can’t believe that I’d have such an embarrassing moment.”

“How could I have known,” his wife whispered. She also reached out to pull on her husband’s clothes, so that they wouldn’t be embarrassed in front of her friends.

Ni Ji heard the sound of clothes being tugged and the subtle sound of a hand being brushed away.

A friend of his wife’s stood up to leave. She said before closing the door, “Yunyun, I'll wait for you outside.”

Only a few words, the voice was flat and cold, yet it was like a thunderbolt that struck Ni Ji’s mind.

Was it her?

She was also here?

Just hearing a single sentence made the image of that person clearly appear in his mind.

Her pale face, her cold expression, the person who had pushed through the crowd, stepped onto the platform, and stood in front of him.

In that room with the closed door, the sentinel’s endless complaints were still coming in.

“I already told you to not interact with her as much.”

“She’s not a proper guide.”

“Her engagement with the Jiang family was called off.”

“I really don’t want my wife to become a person like that.”

...

But Ni Ji couldn’t listen any longer. His attention could not help but follow the person who was slowly walking outside.

She picked up a cup of water,

She walked to the side of the pond,

She sat by the water, watching the water lilies,

Because she had smelled a faint floral scent.

She raised the cup and took a sip.

He heard the gurgling sound of her throat as she swallowed.

Ni Ji felt a strange tingling sensation coming from somewhere on his face.

He remembered the feeling of his chin being pinched by those white fingers, being forced to lift his head.

The person's actions were fierce, but what she fed him was a cup of warm and pure water, without any truth serum or anything else like that.

That little bit of refreshing water flowed into his parched body, lifting him up from the verge of collapsing and giving him the strength to fight again.

She was a bit like a knight of the holy order on the battlefield.

Before a duel, she would give her opponent respect and fairness.

In that deep sea made of mental energy, what she wanted was a thrilling duel, and she disdained to use despicable methods to wear down her opponent.

It was a very rare kind of aura, one that only the real strong ones on the battlefield possessed.

The arrogance of a true warrior.

But she, was just a delicate guide.

Ni Ji shook his head, withdrew his attention, and continued to move toward his predetermined target.

Perhaps even he himself had not noticed that, on that journey where he was ready to face death, a small, pure white pearl had quietly formed in that seabed that was covered by blood and hatred.

It was pure and bright, quietly lying in a soft clam shell, emitting a faint glow.

---

There was a large fish tank in Lord James’ bedroom. The Count stood in front of the fish tank, feeding the rare species that he had collected.

Outside, the banquet was in full swing, and his wife had gone out to socialize a long time ago.

James wasn't interested in the endless banquets. His hobby was collecting. He liked collecting those strange and shiny things.

People like them who lived at the top of the White Tower had some strange interests.

After all, their living space was too small and too suffocating, and the power and wealth in their hands were too vast.

“Thank you, White Tower, thank you, Her Majesty the Queen.”

James recited the prayer, took a pale severed limb from the plate, and threw it into the fish tank.

At the bottom of the fish tank, large and small, oddly shaped energy stones were piled up, emitting multicolored light and illuminating the creatures that were floating in the water.

Those valuable things, which could even power an airship, were merely stones for decorating his fish tank in his bedroom.

A strange creature with a human face and a fish body swam up. It bit at the piece of meat that was tossed into the fish tank with red eyes and gnashing teeth.

It was a mutated species, captured from a contaminated area. It might have been a human before, but now, it was impossible to tell what it was.

The place where it might have grown limbs before, had been deliberately cut off, leaving only its torso and tail. The scales of its tail were multi-colored and glowed. It was a strange kind of beauty.

James particularly liked this fish. He remembered that he had spent a lot of effort to get it. Perhaps many sentinels who went deep into the contaminated zone had died because of it.

But it was all worth it. After all, the beauty of it made him feel good.

James got closer to the fish tank, admiring the fish as it ate, and at the same time, showing a look of pain and despair like a human.

He wondered if this kind of monster still had any memories from when it was a human?

He had never heard it make any sounds. He thought with a smile.

A figure was vaguely reflected on the glass of the fish tank.

That person had almost suddenly appeared, and his cold gaze was reflected between the water plants and beautiful stones, like a ghost that had suddenly appeared in the water.

James turned around in shock, and subconsciously released his mental body.

His mental body was a caiman. It had enhanced armor, sharp teeth with a powerful bite, and incredible short-term bursts of speed.

As soon as the caiman appeared, its body became gigantic, and it opened its bloody maw to bite at the intruder.

Seeing the caiman lunge out, the count felt that he wasn’t too flustered in his heart.

Although he had been living a comfortable life for many years, no matter what, he was still a high-level A-rank sentinel. He had a powerful mental body that he could change the size of as he pleased.

Besides, he didn’t need to defeat the intruder. He only needed to block him for a short moment.

As long as he had a short window of time, he could press the alarm under the table.

His mental body would also expand to a gigantic size in that short amount of time, and the tumbling and fighting would shatter the furniture and break down the doors. No matter what, he would be able to call in a large number of guards from outside.

The count calmed down, and he coldly looked at the man who had invaded his bedroom. He felt very angry in his heart.

That man was wearing a black tank top, his head was covered with a towel, and he had a short knife in his mouth. He had silently and ghost-like, snuck into his bedroom, trespassing into his most private territory.

It was unforgivable.

He would make this intruder pay the price. As long as he waited for the guards to rush in at the next moment.

Once he caught him, he would cut off his arms and legs. He wouldn't let him die. He would slowly and meticulously torture him to make him understand how unforgivable his crime was.

James saw that his caiman had opened its huge mouth and had already blocked the sentinel that had charged over. The sharp fangs would bite his legs off in the next moment, if he didn't retreat.

But. It was almost unbelievable.

That invading assassin had actually not retreated.

Not only did he not retreat, his eyes had also ignited with a purple glow, like underworld flames that had been lit from hell.

That purple glow rushed forward, and within a breath, it had already closed the distance.

When the dust had settled, a cold purple gaze was looking down from above. That cold blade was already pressed against the count's neck, which had a beautiful necklace.

Everything happened within the blink of an eye.

The count belatedly realized that his caiman had bit into something, the feeling of the teeth deeply embedded into flesh and bone was so clear.

He looked blankly and discovered that his mental body had bitten a whale.

When humans are facing life-threatening crises, they will all subconsciously try to avoid the danger and seek safety.

The man in front of him, this sentinel who had a whale as his mental body, did not even stop for even a single breath in the face of a fatal crisis.

He had simply summoned his mental body and stuffed it like a meat shield into the gaping jaws of the giant caiman.

The injuries to a mental body would also cause great pain to the owner, and it would severely affect the actions of the sentinel himself.

The tail of the orca was showing its white bones under the huge biting force.

But his body, the sentinel, was standing steadily with a sharp blade pressed against the count's neck.

The light of the energy stones reflected on his cold eyes, and there was not a trace of pain.

This was a madman.

James' forehead was sweating profusely. The fingers that had almost touched the button had no choice but to slowly pull back.

They were only a fraction of a millimeter away. He would have been able to press the alarm.

Until now, he hadn’t even come back to his senses. He could hardly believe that he, such a high-level sentinel, had actually been defeated so easily.

Although he knew that his level had been forcibly raised by his family with all sorts of expensive gene drugs, and that he rarely had any real combat experience.

But in those training sessions, which were more like performances, he had always been able to easily defeat his guards, and he had always proudly basked in the worshipful adulation of his subordinates.

He had always thought that he was also a strong person.

“You…what do you want?” The count lowered his head, wanting to negotiate, wanting to buy himself time.

After all, he held such enormous wealth. There was nothing he couldn’t buy, including his own life.

It was not a big deal.

He could turn this crisis around.

“I'm back from Contaminated Zone 35.” The sentinel in front of him only said this one sentence.

Contaminated Zone 35? Was that where the live worm jade was?

Just as the thought flashed through his mind, the cold blade had already cut through the skin of his throat.

Without hesitation, without doubt, it was taking his life.

It didn't leave him any room to negotiate.

James wanted to shout, but he couldn't make a sound.

The thin blade precisely cut his vocal cords and his windpipe.

He clutched his throat, with an expression of disbelief, and slowly knelt down.

A large amount of blood flowed from his cut windpipe and into his lungs.

He tasted a kind of extreme pain similar to drowning.

It was so painful that he wanted to die, but he couldn’t die just yet.

The count, who had never taken the lives of others seriously, was now crawling on the ground, clutching his bleeding neck, stretching out one hand, and twisting his face as he made soft sounds, begging the assassin in front of him to spare his life.

In the face of death, the noble count had abandoned his aristocratic halo and was no different from any ordinary person.

He was just as terrified, just as fragile, and just as afraid of death and longing to live.

Ni Ji squatted down, looked at the man in the pool of blood, and placed a piece of white paper in front of him.

“I know there's more than just you. Write down the names of the others. Maybe, then you'll still be able to make it into the treatment pod.”

His tone was very calm, like a piece of straw floating on the sea of blood, making the dying man unable to resist reaching out to grab it.

James clutched his neck, tears and snot streaming down his face, and shook his head desperately.

He wanted to say, don't do this, they're all big shots, and even I can't afford to offend them. It’s not something that a lone sentinel like you can deal with.

But he couldn't make a sound.

That death god-like sentinel didn't want to listen to him. He simply squatted in front of him, waiting for him to reach out and grab that one and only straw.

The dying count had no choice but to stretch out his hand. His trembling fingers dipped into the blood, and he wrote down a list of names.

He saw the sentinel pick up the blood-red list of names, shake it in the air, and carefully look at every blood-red name once.

Finally, in his pleading gaze, the killer’s eyes ignited with purple fire again.

---

Ni Ji thought that he had made a bit of a mess at the scene, but he had no other choice. He had to smash the noble’s brain, to prevent anyone from seeing the memories in his brain again.

He sat in the luxurious bedroom that was splattered with blood, using the light from the energy stones in the fish tank to open the personal terminal on James’ arm.

The most ridiculous thing was that the personal terminal on this corpse controlled all of the electronic equipment in the count’s manor.

After using his iris and fingerprints to open it, and adding a little bit of his skills, he could easily erase all of the security records that the killer wanted to clear.

Human technology had regressed for thousands of years, and there was a severe disruption in productivity. Even if they barely managed to use products that had been found in the old ruins to make it seem like they had the technology, they were, after all, just a patchwork of facades. They were very easy to destroy.

Especially to a top student from the Sentinel Academy, who had been mixing around in contaminated zones for many years.

Ni Ji carefully cleared everything, making sure that he hadn't left behind any personal information, and then he stood up.

“I saw it,” a voice rang out from the fish tank.

Ni Ji turned his head and saw the strange fish swimming in the fish tank.

“I, saw everything, kill.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

That non-human creature spoke in broken, fragmented human language.

“Kill me.”

“I don’t want to live anymore.”

“End everything for me.”

By the end, it couldn’t say anything else, and it just kept repeating that it didn't want to live anymore.

Ni Ji looked at it through the glass for a while. The eyes of that creature were very similar to human eyes, and they were filled with blood and a painful expression.

“It’s okay, don't be afraid. My hand will be fast.” His tone was very flat. There was a hint of gentleness in his cold voice as he dipped his hand into the multicolored fish tank.

On his way back, Ni Ji deliberately took a different route and went around a lot.

In the future, even if someone were to search the ventilation ducts, they would not be able to determine his entrances and exits from the traces left by the network of passages.

He crawled through the cold and enclosed tunnels.

The orca’s tail had been severely injured, and the excessive use of his senses had brought on a wave of throbbing pain in his mind, making him feel very uncomfortable in his body.

But none of that mattered. At least he had completed the first step.

The dim ventilation ducts were full of dust, with a little bit of light coming in through the ventilation openings.

In this narrow space, he could hear the sound of noisy conversations and laughter that were filled with all kinds of alcohol scents that were especially pungent to a sentinel.

Ni Ji remained silent, maintaining his silence and lightness, as he quietly crawled forward.

Suddenly, not far in front of him. A small tentacle popped out of the gray-black duct.

That little tip of a tentacle, like a curious creature exploring an unknown environment.

After it popped out, it spread its large and small suckers in the air, twisting its body and starting to search everywhere.

Ni Ji froze in an instant.

Most of the time, sentinels and guides would not release the physical form of their mental bodies in a crowd.

He didn't know why that guide's mental body would suddenly appear here, in this inexplicably hidden place.

All he knew was that that person was nearby.

Perhaps she was sitting below now, holding a glass of water with an indifferent expression.

Ni Ji didn't dare to move.

He couldn’t let her know, and he didn't want her to discover all of this.

He stared at that little tentacle in the darkness. It had not discovered him yet.

He knew that guides and sentinels were different, that guides didn't have the keen senses that sentinels had. They couldn’t catch the subtle sounds, smells, and movements in the distance.

The power of a guide was on the mental level.

For example, these tentacles in front of him. They didn't have eyes, so they couldn’t see him. What they could capture were the subtle fluctuations in emotions that came from a living creature.

As long as I can control my emotions and not let any emotions leak out, I won’t be discovered by them. Ni Ji thought.

When they aren't seen by the owner, they can't discover him.

Keep quiet.

Mentally quiet.

I can do it.

He lowered his body, making himself like a rock in the ventilation duct, a piece of iron, an inanimate object without any life or emotion, not moving.

The mental sea protected the garden at the bottom of the sea. The waves surging on the surface of the sea slowly subsided, gradually forming a layer of floating ice. The ice layer sealed off the entire sea.

The sea was silent, and there was no longer a ripple.

The little tentacle stretched out in the ventilation duct, and began to explore everywhere, touching to the left and to the right.

It had not found any emotions here, so it could be assumed that there were no living things here. In its simple brain, this meant it could mess around as much as it wanted. The owner would not be angry.

It touched something strange.

The tentacle arched and twisted into a question mark.

It felt a bit strange.

Clearly, it had not sensed any emotional fluctuations here, and yet it was a dead object. Why did it have a familiar feeling?

All living creatures had emotions. They would feel pain and happiness. It had never encountered anything that could seal off its emotions.

Another companion poked its head out of the ventilation duct. The two tentacles touched each other, exchanged their opinions, and decided that they were going to explore the "thing" in front of them thoroughly.

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