Xu Ze wasn’t sure if his luck today was good or bad, but at least for now, his luck was still decent. He had held his breath and carefully made his way over, watching the faint red figure sitting cross-legged in the room through his glasses’ vision—there was no movement at all.
Having made it past safely, Xu Ze now felt a bit resentful again. Why couldn’t the four ninjas stay in one room? If they had all been in one room, he could have secretly tossed in ten high-explosive grenades, or a block of C4, and no matter how skilled they were in martial arts, they’d have no choice but to admit defeat.
Of course, Xu Ze was just daydreaming. When would such a good thing ever wait for him? Being able to sneak past without alerting the ninja guards here was already pretty great.
He continued looking around, cautiously on guard as he moved forward. He was about to successfully reach Qing Niao’s side—there was absolutely no room for any mistakes now.
He carefully made his way to Qing Niao’s location. After confirming no one had noticed him, Xu Ze let out a soft breath at the last door: “Activate X-scan…”
Although the biological detection confirmed there was only Qing Niao inside, Xu Ze didn’t believe there wouldn’t be any defensive measures in there.
The biological detection virtual imaging function could show the appearance of living beings and virtually recreate the surrounding scenery, but it couldn’t detect other non-living objects. So only through X-ray perspective scanning could Xu Ze confirm whether there were other things around.
Looking through the X-ray perspective view, he saw two metal-like objects beside the wooden door. Xu Ze smiled—it seemed the Defense Agency really had a lot of confidence in the four ninjas, using only a single magnetic monitoring door sticker. They really were confident.
This door sticker was actually quite suitable for the defense here. Once someone opened the door, it would activate the alarm and automatically send a warning. And since the only way into the inner room was through this door, as long as someone entered, the defense system would automatically alert.
For ordinary intruders, it was indeed quite suitable. But for Xu Ze, this was just too simple. The wooden door was about an inch thick—very thick, no doubt about it. But for Xu Ze’s small laser cutter, even an inch of steel plate was nothing, let alone a wooden board…
Xu Ze didn’t even touch the door. He just waved his hand to activate the laser cutter on his ring and quietly cut off the lower half of the wooden door.
After setting down the thick wooden board, Xu Ze ducked his head and slipped inside.
Once inside, Xu Ze looked up and finally saw Qing Niao’s true appearance—hanging diagonally from above by a rope, looking truly miserable.
But at this point, his clothes were still intact, and there didn’t seem to be many wounds on his face—just extremely pale…
Hearing someone enter, Qing Niao seemed to have become alert. He slowly raised his head and looked toward the newcomer.
Watching Qing Niao struggle to lift his head, Xu Ze had already sighed inwardly. Just from the way he raised his head, he could tell Qing Niao had suffered no small amount of torture. But when he saw Qing Niao’s eyes, Xu Ze was shocked.
They were the color of dead ashes—no color, no vitality at all…
Only when he saw Xu Ze, when he made out Xu Ze’s all-black combat uniform, did a trace of life slowly emerge in those eyes…
Seeing Qing Niao like this, Xu Ze’s heart suddenly stirred, and a deep sympathy and admiration emerged in his eyes. As someone capable of spiritual communication, he knew very well under what circumstances a person would show such an expression. And through Qing Niao’s eyes—which had completely lost their vitality—he could sense that Qing Niao’s current state was one of having completely lost hope for life, only seeking a quick death…
But seeing the current situation, Xu Ze also felt somewhat relieved. He could be certain that although Qing Niao had endured countless inhuman tortures—tortures that had made life worse than death—Qing Niao should still be keeping the location of that intelligence secret, without revealing it.
Xu Ze saw Qing Niao raise his head. He gently held up one finger in a shushing gesture, then walked forward and glanced at the rope. After confirming there was nothing unusual, he waved his hand lightly, cut the rope, and lowered Qing Niao down.
Qing Niao lay collapsed on the ground, staring fixedly at Xu Ze. He watched as Xu Ze set down the small bag from his back, took out ten high-explosive grenades, and hung them one by one on his body. Then he pulled out two long, wide straps from inside.
At this point, a trace of excitement finally flashed in Qing Niao’s eyes—no longer that dead-ash color. Lowering his voice, hoarse, he said: “You really are one of us!”
Xu Ze glanced up at Qing Niao, nodded, but didn’t speak. He continued arranging the two long straps, then helped Qing Niao up, placed him on his back, and began using the straps to tightly secure Qing Niao to himself.
“You’re insane…” Seeing Xu Ze’s actions, the paleness on Qing Niao’s face was gone, replaced by a flush of red. Then, in a low, hoarse voice, he hissed: “How can you take me out… Quick, I’ll tell you where the intelligence is… You go now…”
“Don’t move… Quiet, I’ll get you out…” Xu Ze said in a low voice.
“You’re crazy… I don’t know how you got in, but you absolutely can’t take me out…” Qing Niao was extremely lucid at this moment, then said anxiously: “Put me down… I’ll tell you where the thing is… This place is very strange, you can’t escape with me.”
Xu Ze ignored Qing Niao’s words. He just tightened the two straps around his waist one last time. After confirming they were secure, he said in a deep voice: “You don’t need to tell me… Now rest well… When you wake up, you’ll be safe…”
Xu Ze gently raised his right hand and pressed Qing Niao’s neck. Qing Niao instantly passed out.
Xu Ze let out a soft breath. He felt for the pistol at his right thigh, pulled it out, then smiled gently: “Begin…”
Zha Mu sat there blankly. From here, she could clearly see the distant estate. By now, she had begun to believe that Xu Ze had probably fallen somewhere in there.
She really couldn’t understand whether this guy codenamed “Xu Fu” had rust in his brain. She had already warned him that it was terrifying inside—how could he still have fallen in so easily?
She had now begun cursing those bastard staff officers at the General Staff. How could they send a guy like this? They said he was very important, but now how could this happen? Not only did he fail to rescue Qing Niao, he’d gotten this foolish kid thrown in too. This was a huge loss…
Thinking of that foolish kid—that inexplicably confident look on his handsome face, making people trust him so much, feel so confident… But how could he go and then just disappear?
In Zha Mu’s clear, bright eyes, a crystalline teardrop appeared once again. He was already the seventh… He had brought so many things—how could he have fallen in without even a sound?
Just as that crystalline teardrop was about to slide down her cheek, she suddenly heard a muffled boom by her ear, and then the ground shook…
Zha Mu turned her head in shock toward the direction of the explosion. Looking at that estate, she saw it had already been engulfed in explosive flames…
“C4…” Zha Mu looked at the estate that had almost vanished, swallowed hard, 200×6 C4—this was absolutely detonated simultaneously after being spread out…
“Could he have succeeded? Or…?” Zha Mu looked in shock and doubt at the estate that had been almost razed to the ground. She hesitated for a moment, then quickly turned and ran…
No matter whether Xu Fu had succeeded or not, staying here was suicide. No wonder Xu Fu had told her to leave quickly before he left. Now that the estate had been destroyed, if she stayed here, once the Self-Defense Forces arrived… she wouldn’t be able to escape either…
Xu Ze felt stars bursting before his eyes and his ears ringing. It took him a while to come back to his senses. He reached back and knocked Qing Niao—who had been jolted awake—unconscious again. Then Xu Ze cursed under his breath: “C4 is this powerful? Why didn’t you warn me? Were you trying to blow me up too?”
“According to calculations, 1.2kg of C4 explosive within this range can cause maximum lethality… It can increase your success rate by 25 percent!” Number One replied mechanically in Xu Ze’s mind.
“Maximum lethality…” Xu Ze looked around and sighed softly. It really was maximum lethality. He was at least thirty-five meters from the C4’s position. Now the roof of the room he was in was long gone, and even the walls had been blown apart by half. He had just been pelted by countless pieces of shattered brick and tile. It really had achieved maximum lethality.
His own position was like this—those four ninjas outside probably wouldn’t die, but they’d be half-dead at least…
Thinking of this, Xu Ze felt relieved. He shook his head, trying to shake the ringing from his ears, then kicked open the already broken wooden door and strode out.
Walking out of the room, Xu Ze finally saw that the originally magnificent courtyard on both sides had already been reduced to a pile of ruins. Apart from the few rooms near him, where a few wall fragments could still be seen, everything else had already collapsed from the powerful C4 explosions.
Without further hesitation, Xu Ze began striding outward. From the looks of it, the rooms where the four ninjas had been were mostly collapsed. Even if they weren’t dead, they were probably done for by now. But he couldn’t stay here long. The Defense Agency should have deployed heavy forces nearby. If he didn’t run now, in three or four minutes at most, people would come charging over.
But Xu Ze had only run a few steps when he felt a sharp wind coming from behind. His heart lurched in alarm. He rolled hard to the ground, his pistol already firing several shots backward.
Carrying a person on his back really was a disadvantage. Xu Ze kept firing, while quickly scrambling up from the shattered bricks and tiles on the ground.
“Damn… Really hard to kill…” Xu Ze looked at the masked man in black behind him, clothes in tatters, holding a long blade, and sighed softly.
But at this moment, Xu Ze didn’t dare entangle with the opponent. The Self-Defense Forces would be coming soon. If he didn’t run now, it would be trouble later. Without the slightest hesitation, he fired several more shots at the ninja, turned, and ran…
But after only two steps, he saw a spot ahead covered in broken tiles and bricks suddenly begin to bulge upward, as if someone was about to drill out from inside.
Xu Ze’s eyes turned cold. This position seemed to be where the ninja had been. Without stopping, he reached for a grenade at his waist, lightly tossed it over, and quickly ran on.
“Whoosh, whoosh…” Before he had run two steps, he suddenly felt two heavy blows to his head, sending him stumbling forward, almost flipping over.
“Cross darts…” Xu Ze didn’t even look back. He reached to his waist, pulled another grenade, and tossed it behind him.
The ninja behind him, after throwing two cross darts, had originally thought the kid couldn’t escape. But who knew that after his two cross darts hit the man’s head, they just fell off—as if the kid’s head were made of iron.
Now this ninja was truly stunned. As a chunin, he knew the power of his cross darts well. Even an iron plate could be penetrated by his cross darts—how could a human head not be penetrable?
He stared wide-eyed, two more cross darts appearing in his hand. He was about to throw them when he remembered the kid had just tossed a grenade over. He quickly flipped backward to dodge.
Like a mouse greased with oil, he shot several meters away in an instant, then dropped to the ground.
“Bang, bang…”
Two consecutive explosions. The first raised a cloud of dust, mixed with traces of red blood foam. The second failed to harm this chunin.
This chunin bounced up from the ground. Looking at the site of the first explosion, he saw a ninja who had just poked his head out from the ruins, now blown to a bloody mess. He let out an angry roar, then sprang up and chased furiously after Xu Ze, who was rapidly fleeing through the ruins ahead.
His cross darts shot out in relentless streams. As a chunin, being ambushed was one thing, but having a genin killed right before his eyes and the prisoner he was guarding taken away—that was too humiliating.
However, he quickly discovered his mistake. His cross darts shot out in streams, but whenever they hit the target, they would always fall off automatically—as if the opponent and the prisoner on his back both had an invisible shield on their bodies.
“How is this possible? Could the opponent have already reached that heavenly-level realm, the stage of generating aura outside the body?” This chunin suppressed the shock in his heart, but felt something was wrong. A master of such a realm—why would he need a pistol in his hand? Why would he need to use explosives for a sneak attack? Such a master could casually walk in and take down all four of these ninjas, rescue the prisoner…
