Martial Sovereign of the Turbulent World

Chapter 190: Chapter 188: Infiltration

In the inky blackness of the night, Fu Juemin sped forward, his body low.

It was as if he had returned to that time on the Luan River, when he had infiltrated the county magistrate’s mansion alone at night.

Of course, Shenghai was a much, much larger place than Luan River.

After leaving Ink Garden, Fu Juemin followed the trail of the Guardian Demon’s aura, heading north of the Western Realm.

The path was desolate, lined with vast tracts of farmland that had been forcibly seized by the rich and powerful, yet remained undeveloped.

A half-built Western-style church stood solitarily by the roadside. Occasionally, the lights of a distant home would pierce the desolation, and from those bright spots came the sounds of clamor and laughter—they were all low-class dance halls, brothels, opium dens, and gambling parlors, deliberately set up in these remote areas.

Fu Juemin ran over the thin frost, his great strides carrying him across the cold and scarred land.

It was at times like this that the strength of his foundation truly showed. His 37 points of Attack and 17 points of Life gave him far greater stamina than an ordinary Martial Artist.

His breathing was long and steady. A ceaseless stream of energy rose from deep within his body, replenishing what he spent on the run. He had been chasing for nearly twenty minutes since leaving the Western Realm. Not only did he not feel tired, but he seemed to be getting faster.

The Guardian Demon had slowed down after escaping Ink Garden. It probably never expected him to give chase, or rather, that he had a way to track it.

Fu Juemin pursued it using the Bird Form Crane Walk from his Five Beasts Qigong, and the distance between him and the Guardian Demon was constantly shrinking.

Gradually, he sensed the moisture in the air grow thicker, and a faint, dull roar of a tide reached him from up ahead...

Five minutes later, Fu Juemin stood atop a pile of rubble. A single cold star broke through the dark clouds overhead, casting a thin layer of light upon him.

His eyes glinted as he silently observed the scene before him.

Not far from his feet was the murky, churning river. This was the west bank of the Huangling River.

To the north was the Su River channel. To the south, he could see the brilliant lights of the Public Concession on the opposite bank. To the east was the Sixteen Wharves Pier, from where the distant sound of a freighter’s horn carried.

And at the junction where these waters met, a massive, gray complex of buildings lay crouched in the thick darkness of the night.

Towering concrete walls, barbed wire stretching into the distance, and the silhouettes of patrolling sentries armed with rifles... all formed a heavily guarded, standard military fortress.

On Shenghai Beach, only one place matched this description—

The Jianghai Defense Command.

Luo Zhengxiong’s territory!

Fu Juemin clearly sensed that the Guardian Demon had used the cover of night to make a sharp turn here and disappear directly into the steel-and-concrete behemoth before him. Without a doubt, this was where it had come from.

Combining this with the Demon Minion he had killed earlier, who had been dressed in a crisp, black military uniform, the answer was all but certain.

The Guardian Demon had been sent by either Luo Zhengxiong or Luo Chengying specifically to assassinate him and Aunt Ding.

Fu Juemin wasn’t particularly surprised that Luo Zhengxiong was involved with Demon Fiends. He had previously learned from Xu Hengjiang, a remnant of the Ghost Camp, that Luo Zhengxiong had long been colluding with Westerners, providing them with living people as "research" consumables.

’So, the expert guards around Luo Zhengxiong are likely not traditional Martial Artists, but rather something like that Western gentleman I saw last time who couldn’t be killed by ordinary means... or perhaps they’re straight-up demonic aberrations or other fiends?’

Fu Juemin contemplated silently. This would explain why Zhao Jigang, a Martial Artist in the Gratitude Sensing Realm, along with his large group of Martial Arts experts, had to go to such great lengths to find an "opportunity" just to latch onto Luo Zhengxiong.

As the commander-in-chief of the Jianghai Defense Command, Luo Zhengxiong controlled tens of thousands of elite troops. His public-facing power was unmatched in all of Shenghai. What he needed more were forces and methods for the shadows.

And compared to a Guardian Demon with a bizarre ability like Hiding in the Shadow, traditional Martial Artists—"products" of a bygone era—were indeed lacking. It was only normal that Luo Zhengxiong would look down on them.

’Should I keep chasing it?’

Fu Juemin weighed his options briefly, then leaped lightly from the pile of rocks and charged toward the distant headquarters.

He had already been planning to find time to scout out Luo Zhengxiong on his own, so tonight was the perfect opportunity.

For an ordinary person, infiltrating such a heavily guarded military restricted zone would be next to impossible. But for Fu Juemin, it was much simpler.

Sticking to the dark side of the riverbank to approach the fortress, Fu Juemin found a deserted spot, activated [Soft Bone], and silently slithered up the cold, rough concrete wall.

He activated [Yao Ling] at the same time. He passed through the electrified barbed wire on the wall and landed on the other side without alerting a single sentry on duty.

Fu Juemin’s feet had just touched the ground when the searing white beam of a searchlight swept over.

His body flickered, and like a ghost, he flashed into the shadow of a nearby pile of sandbags. The searchlight beam skimmed over his head, stretching and shrinking the silhouettes of the soldiers at the visible sentry posts.

Once the coast was clear, Fu Juemin slowly emerged and scanned the area before him.

All around the base, he could see machine gun emplacements built from wooden crates and sandbags, as well as dense networks of sentry posts and patrol teams.

The area he had infiltrated seemed to be very close to the garage and the armory, so security was especially tight. There were guards every five steps and sentries every ten. Through the night wind, he could occasionally hear the dull rumble of vehicles and the CLANG of iron gates opening and closing.

In the distance was an open expanse of darkness. Fu Juemin squinted, faintly making out the blurry outlines of training facilities like horizontal bars and sandpits.

Further on was a brightly lit main building. He saw a rather large military truck stop in the open space in front of it. He had assumed it was transporting some important military supplies, but to his surprise, when the tarpaulin at the back of the truck was lifted, out came women in cheongsams, all heavily made-up.

They looked as if they had been brought straight from some nightclub.

Fu Juemin silently memorized the locations of the various areas within the base, slowly forming a detailed map in his mind.

Activating [Yao Ling], his Perception spread out like an invisible net, rapidly capturing the sound signals scattered wantonly through the night.

The sounds of officers and dancers laughing and carousing in the main building, the clamor of low-ranking soldiers playing finger-guessing games and cards in the barracks, the footsteps of patrols, coughs, the sounds of changing guards... And from deeper within, he could even seem to hear the RUSTLE of a fountain pen on paper and the BEEP BEEP of a telegraph machine.

Fu Juemin moved swiftly through the shadows of the buildings, his brain working like a precision instrument, constantly receiving and processing the vast amount of information gathered by [Yao Ling].

The whole process felt like playing an immersive "stealth game."

He had considered using [Painted Hide] to disguise himself as an officer or a guard and infiltrate the headquarters’ main building for a look around. However, considering his main objective for the night was to hunt the Guardian Demon, he gave up the idea.

Following the lingering trail of the Guardian Demon’s aura, Fu Juemin moved deeper into the headquarters.

He had expected it to get harder the deeper he went, and he was even prepared to fight at any moment. But unexpectedly, the entire base was heavily guarded on the outside but lax on the inside. The further he went, the more unimpeded his path became.

By the time he found the place where the Guardian Demon had last disappeared, the vast area was completely deserted, without a soul in sight.