Invasion

Chapter 12: Can't move

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Ni Ji held up Tan Shu's drooping head and laid him flat, ensuring that he could sleep longer.

Then wash the cup with the added substance in the sink.

He did all this skillfully, with a calm expression, without even a trace of emotional fluctuation.

Tan Shu thought he was still the sentry in school, arrogant and naive.

But in fact, during these years at the Northern Outpost, he grew faster and changed more than anyone else.

Things that I was not good at or could not do before, I can now do them with ease.

Ni Ji settled Tan Shu, who was knocked down by the medicine he had used, observed the environment, walked out and locked the door of the lounge.

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

Wearing only a tight black tank top and tight trousers, he put on the black gloves, put a thin dagger in his mouth, and finally wrapped his hair with a dark towel and tied it tightly behind his head.

After packing everything up, he looked up at the roof of the tea room, reached out to remove the shutters of the vent, exerted force with his fingers, and like a swimming fish, he slipped into the ventilation duct on the roof.

The Earl's Palace was very grand, even the ventilation ducts were built very wide.

Even a tall sentinel like Ni Ji had no difficulty crawling inside. The difficult part was not making even the slightest sound along the way.

There are countless sentries walking around in this mansion at this moment.

Sentinels are creatures with acute five senses.

Fortunately, the noisy banquet that had already begun provided a good cover for his actions.

Ni Ji concentrated his strength on his fingertips and toes, and crawled silently in the dim pipe as lightly as a cat.

He released his perception to the maximum extent, covering almost half of the mansion.

He knew that this was very dangerous. Such peeping behavior could easily touch someone's nerves and be discovered.

So you must go all out, be extremely meticulous and careful, find out everything in advance, and avoid the areas where the most powerful sentinels are located in advance.

The overload of perception made his head ache.

Every step is like walking on a knife edge.

But it doesn’t matter, Ni Ji licked his lips, only then did he feel alive.

In his mind, he had a firm grasp on the architectural design of the Earl's mansion.

That was the map he had found with great effort and memorized and engraved in his mind before he came here.

Now, the picture overlapped and verified with his perception that extended outward, allowing him to quickly find his target.

At this moment, he was a hunter in the deep sea, and after lying dormant for a long time with a hungry stomach, he finally smelled the scent of prey.

Then it swam out from the abyss and quietly pounced on its prey in the darkness.

Along the way, Ni Ji heard many voices and felt many people walking under his feet.

He moved very carefully.

But he was also very surprised. After walking for such a long time, he inevitably walked carefully past the heads of those sentinels, but he didn't detect any fluctuations in their mental alert.

The sentinels guarding the imperial capital, dressed in gorgeous and neat clothes and receiving high salaries, were drinking and talking loudly under the lights.

Indulging in the excitement brought by alcohol and spices, shouting some meaningless words.

Almost no one has the vigilance that a warrior should have.

They are far inferior to the soldiers he had led.

The capital of the empire is a prosperous holy place in the hearts of border sentinels. Almost all border sentinels living in bitter cold lands have longed for this place in their dreams.

But they don’t know that there is only a colorful shell left here, and the inside is rotten.

In an inconspicuous house, there was a small conversation.

Ni Ji paused in his forward movement.

He listened carefully.

"Why did you bring me a green dress uniform?" It was probably a non-commissioned officer serving in the Earl's Palace, and he was complaining to his wife.

"Don't you know that the Count is also wearing a green suit tonight? My God, I never thought I would have such an embarrassing moment."

"How should I know?" his wife muttered softly, and in order not to embarrass herself in front of her friends, she reached out and pulled her husband's clothes.

Ni Ji heard the subtle sounds of clothes being pulled and hands being thrown away.

The friend next to my wife got up and left, and before closing the door he said, "Yunyun, I'll wait for you outside."

Just a few words, the voice was calm and cold, but it was like a thunderclap, exploding in Ni Ji's mind.

is her

She is here too

Just by hearing the sound of a sentence, the person's appearance appeared clearly in my mind.

The person with a fair face and a cold look pushed through the crowd, stepped onto the platform, and stood in front of him.

From the closed room, the sentry's constant complaints could still be heard.

"I've already told you to have less contact with her."

"Then you're not a proper guide."

"The Jiang family broke off the engagement."

"I don't want my wife to become that kind of person."

But Ni Ji was not in the mood to listen anymore. He couldn't help but follow the person who was walking slowly outside the house.

She picked up a glass of water.

She walked to the pond.

She sat by the water and looked at the water lilies.

Because I smelled a faint floral scent.

She raised the cup and took a sip.

A gulping sound was heard in the throat.

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

He remembered the feeling of having his chin pinched by those white fingers and being forced to lift his face.

The man's movements were fierce, but what he fed him was a cup of warm, pure water, without any truth serum or other weird things.

That bit of sweet water flowed into his thirsty body, lifted him up from the brink of physical collapse, and gave him the strength to fight again.

She's a bit like a dashing paladin on the battlefield.

Before a duel, opponents will be given respect and fairness.

In that deep sea of spiritual power, what she wanted was a hearty confrontation and she disdained to use despicable means to defeat her opponent.

That is a very rare demeanor that only the truly strong ones on the battlefield possess.

The arrogance that belongs to the truly strong.

But she is just a weak guide.

Ni Ji shook his head, refocused his attention, and continued moving towards his set goal.

Perhaps he himself did not even notice that, on that journey where he was ready to die at any time, on the seabed covered with blood and deep hatred, a small pure white pearl was quietly formed.

Pure and white, it lies quietly in the soft clam shell, emitting a faint glow.

***

There is a large fish tank in the bedroom of Earl James. The Earl stands in front of the fish tank and feeds the precious species he has collected in the fish tank.

The banquet outside was in full swing, and my wife went out early to attend the social event.

James is not interested in endless parties. His hobby is collecting, and he likes to collect those strange and shiny things.

Those of them who live at the top of the White Tower all have some strange interests.

After all, the living space is too small and too depressing, while the power and wealth in their hands are too enormous.

"Thank you White Tower, thank you Her Majesty the Queen."

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

At the bottom of the fish tank, energy stones of various sizes and shapes are piled up, emitting a five-colored glow, illuminating the creatures floating in the water.

Those things that are worth a lot of money and can even drive airships are just decorative fish tank stones in his bedroom.

A strange creature with a human face and a fish body swam up, its eyes red, and it pounced on the piece of meat thrown into the fish tank with gnashing teeth.

It was a mutant, captured from pollution. It might have been a human once, but now it was hard to tell what it was.

The places where the limbs might have grown were artificially cut off, leaving only the trunk and tail. The scales on the tail were colorful and glowing, revealing a strange beauty.

James particularly liked this fish. He remembered that it took a lot of effort to get it. Perhaps many sentinels who went deep into the contaminated area died.

But it's all worth it, after all, it's so beautiful and makes me feel happy.

James moved closer to the fish tank, admiring the fish as it ate with a look of pain and despair, just like a human.

I wonder if this monster still has any memories of its time as a human

I've never heard its sound before, he thought with a smile.

A figure was faintly reflected in the glass of the fish tank.

The man appeared almost suddenly, his cold eyes reflected among the water plants and beautiful stones, like a ghost suddenly appearing in the water.

James turned around in shock and subconsciously released his spirit body.

His spiritual form is a caiman, with reinforced armor, fangs with powerful bite force, and amazing short-term explosive power.

As soon as the crocodile appeared, its body became huge, and it opened its bloody mouth and bit the invader.

Seeing the crocodile rushing towards him, the count felt that he was not too panicked.

Although he had been pampered for many years, he was still an A-level high-level sentinel after all. He had a powerful spiritual body that could change his body shape at will.

Besides, he didn't seek to defeat the invader, he just needed to hold him off for a short moment.

With just a short gap, he could press the alarm under the table.

His spirit body would also expand to a gigantic size in a short period of time, and the rolling and fighting would crush the furniture and destroy the door, and would definitely attract a large number of guards outside the door.

The Earl began to calm down, and he looked coldly at the man who had invaded his bedroom. He felt extremely angry in his heart.

The man was wearing a black tank top, a turban on his head, and holding a short knife in his mouth. He quietly sneaked into his bedroom like a ghost, breaking into his most private territory.

It's simply unforgivable.

He would make the intruder pay, just wait until the next moment when the guards rushed in.

Once they caught him, they cut off his arms and legs to prevent him from dying. They tortured him meticulously bit by bit to make him realize how unforgivable the crime he had committed was.

James saw that his crocodile had opened its huge mouth and blocked the oncoming sentry. Its sharp fangs would bite off his legs in the next moment if he didn't step back.

But. It's unbelievable.

The invading assassin did not retreat.

The purple firefly rushed forward regardless of anything and approached right in front of him in the blink of an eye.

When the dust settled, the cold purple eyes stared down at him. The cold knife was already against the earl's neck with the exquisite necklace.

Everything happened in a flash.

The Count realized belatedly that his crocodile had bitten into something. He could clearly feel the teeth sinking deeply into the flesh and bones.

He looked blankly and found that his spirit body was biting a killer whale.

When people are in life-threatening situations, they will subconsciously seek benefits and avoid harm.

The man in front of him, this sentinel with a killer whale as his spiritual body, did not stop for even a moment to breathe when facing a deadly crisis.

He simply summoned his own spirit body and stuffed it into the giant crocodile's guillotine-like mouth like a meat shield.

Trauma to the spiritual body will also cause great pain to the main body and will seriously affect the actions of the Sentinel himself.

The killer whale's tail is exposed to reveal white fish bones under the huge bite force.

But his true form, the sentinel, stood firmly, with the sharp knife against the earl's neck.

The faint light of the energy stone reflected in his cold eyes, but there was no trace of pain.

This is a madman.

James' forehead was covered with cold sweat, and he had to slowly withdraw his finger that had almost touched the button.

He was just a few tenths of a millimeter away from pressing the alarm.

He hadn't even come to his senses yet. He couldn't believe that a high-ranking sentinel like himself would be defeated in a single blow.

Although he also knew that his level was pushed up by his family using various expensive genetic drugs, he had little real battlefield experience.

But in the past performances, he had always been able to easily defeat the guards around him, and his A-level sentinel qualifications were clearly displayed on him. He naturally enjoyed the flattery from those around him.

He always thought that he was a strong man.

"What do you need..." The count lowered his head, wanting to negotiate, wanting to buy time.

After all, he holds such a huge fortune, there should be nothing he cannot buy, including his own life.

It's no big deal.

Able to turn danger into safety.

"I'm back from contaminated area No. 35." This was the only sentence the sentry in front of him said.

Contaminated Area 35? The place where the insect jade lives

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

Without hesitation, without doubt, take life.

There was no room for bargaining for him.

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

The thin blade accurately cut his vocal cords and trachea.

He covered his neck with his hands, looked incredulous, and slowly knelt down.

A large amount of blood flowed into the lungs from the cut trachea.

He experienced an extreme pain like drowning.

The pain is so severe that one wants to die, but cannot die for the moment.

The Earl, who never cared about other people's lives, crawled on the ground, covering his bleeding neck with one hand and reaching forward with the other hand. He twisted his expression and made a tiny guttural sound, begging the assassin in front of him to spare his life.

In the face of death, the honorable Earl shed his aristocratic halo and became no different from any ordinary person.

The same fear, the same fragility, the same fear of death, the same desire to live.

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

"I know there's more than one of you. Write down the other people's names. Maybe you still have time to get into the treatment cabin."

His tone was very calm, like a straw floating on a sea of blood, making the dying person want to reach out and grab it.

James covered his neck, tears and snot running down his face, and shook his head desperately.

He wanted to say, "Don't do that. They are all big shots. Even I can't afford to offend them. It's not something a sentinel like you can handle alone."

Yet he could not utter a sound.

The death-like sentinel didn't want to listen to him and just squatted in front of him, waiting for him to reach for the only straw.

The dying count had no choice but to stretch out his hand, dip his trembling fingers in blood, and write down a row of names.

He saw the sentry pick up the blood-red name, shake it in the air, and read the blood-red names carefully.

Finally, in his eager gaze, the murderer's eyes rekindled the purple fluorescence.

***

Ni Ji felt that he had messed up the scene a bit, but he had no other choice. He had to smash the nobleman's brain to prevent anyone from seeing the memories in the corpse's brain again.

He sat in the luxurious bedroom splattered with blood, and turned on the personal terminal on James' arm with the light of the energy stone in the fish tank.

The funniest thing is that the personal terminal worn on this corpse controls all the electronic equipment in the Earl's Palace.

After opening it with his iris and fingerprint, and adding a little bit of technology, it is easy to erase any security records that the murderer wants to clear.

Human technology has regressed thousands of years, and productivity has been severely disrupted. Even if we can barely use products found in the remains of the past to fill in the facade, they are ultimately just some fake frames put together from here and there. It is very easy to destroy them if you really want to.

Especially for a top student who graduated from Sentinel Academy and has been in the polluted area for many years.

Ni Ji carefully cleared everything and after making sure that no personal information was left, he stood up.

"I saw it." A voice sounded in the fish tank.

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

"I saw everything and killed."

"Good. I'm glad."

The creature, which had no human form, spoke incoherent, intermittent human language.

"kill me."

"I do not want to live."

"End it all for me"

"Otherwise I saw it."

In the end, he could not utter anything else but kept saying over and over that he did not want to live anymore.

Ni Ji stared at him for a while through the glass. The creature's eyes were very similar to those of humans, full of bloodshot and painful expressions.

"It's okay, don't be afraid, my hands are very quick." His tone was light, with a hint of tenderness in the coldness, and he dipped his hand into the colorful fish tank.

On the way back, Ni Ji deliberately changed the route and took a lot of detours.

In the future, even if someone finds the ventilation duct, it will be impossible to determine its entrance and exit from the traces left by the interconnected pipes.

He crawled forward along the cold, sealed pipe.

The killer whale's tail was badly injured, and the overuse of his senses brought waves of throbbing pain deep in his brain, making his body feel uncomfortable.

But these are nothing, at least the first step is completed.

The dim ventilation duct was full of dust, with a little light coming through the vents.

In this narrow space, there were noisy conversations and jokes, filled with various smells of alcohol that were particularly pungent to the sentinels.

Ni Ji remained silent, maintaining his lightness without making any sound, and crawled forward quietly.

Suddenly, not far from his eyes, a small tentacle emerged from the gray-black pipe.

That small tentacle is pointed, like a curious creature exploring an unknown environment.

After it emerged, it opened up suction cups of various sizes in the air, twisted its body and began to grope around.

Ni Ji froze for a moment.

Most of the time, sentinels and guides will not release their spiritual entities into the crowd at will.

He didn't know why the guide's spirit suddenly appeared here, in such an inexplicable and hidden place.

He only knew that the man was nearby.

Maybe she is sitting down there now, holding a glass of water, with a bored expression on her face.

Ni Ji didn't dare to move.

I can't let her know, and I don't want her to discover all this.

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

He knew that guides were different from sentinels, and guides did not have the same sharp five senses as sentinels. They could not catch subtle sounds, smells, and movements in the distance.

The power of a guide lies in the spiritual level.

For example, these tentacles in front of us have no eyes and cannot see themselves. What they can capture are the subtle fluctuations in the emotions of living things.

As long as I can control my emotions and not let them show any emotion, they won't find out, Ni Ji thought.

They cannot discover themselves when they are not seen by the main body.

keep quiet.

Mental quietness.

I can do it.

He lowered his body, making himself like a stone or a piece of iron in a ventilation duct, an object without life or emotion, motionless.

The spiritual sea guards the garden deep under the sea. The waves on the sea surface slowly calm down, and a layer of floating ice gradually forms. The ice seals the entire ocean.

The ocean was silent and still, without a single ripple.

The tiny tentacles stretched out from the ventilation duct and began to touch left and right, exploring everywhere.

No emotions are found here, and there are no living things. In its brain which only has simple consciousness, it can do whatever it wants in such a place, and the entity will not get angry.

It touched a strange object.

The tentacles arched up and twisted into the shape of a question mark.

It felt a little strange.

There was clearly no emotion here, it was a dead object. Why did it give it a familiar feeling

As long as it is a living creature, it has emotions, it can feel pain and happiness. It has never encountered anything that can block its emotions.

Another companion stuck his head out of the pipe, and the two tentacles touched each other, exchanged opinions, and decided to explore the "thing" in front of them.

(End of this chapter)