True Solution of the Sword Dao

Tap tap tap...

Crisp footsteps echoed through the empty corridor. The black metal surface reflected a pale green fluorescence, dim and blurry.

Merrill ran at the front, glancing at the wristwatch on her arm as she ran. It was a regular electronic watch, but with a small column of mercury added to one side, resembling a thermometer. At the moment, the column of mercury was slowly descending, having passed a little more than halfway, about one third remaining.

A ring of pale green dots fluttered around Merrill like fireflies. The pale green fluorescent light emanated from these dots, and at the same time, a pale green barrier spread out from these points of light, enveloping everyone.

"How much farther?" Lin You asked, running through the base and feeling an inexplicable shiver. "Why does it feel like it’s been forever..."

"Shouldn’t be much further now, just a few hundred meters," Cheng Guang said, pulling out a compact mirror and checking it. The mirror clearly displayed their current location and the target point. "According to the location of Kelan’s Energy Scepter that we sensed and combined together, we should be almost there."

"The barrier can hold for another twenty minutes; we need to pick up the pace," Merrill whispered.

"Wait!!" Suddenly, Chris called out.

Four people and a cat came to a screeching halt and stopped in their tracks.

Gradually, the four figures faded quickly, finally disappearing into the air.

Then, a series of footsteps came slowly from a branch corridor up ahead. As the footsteps neared, two people dressed in white research attire walked towards them. They were a man and a woman, seemingly engaged in deep discussion, both appearing very absorbed.

The woman seemed rather animated, speaking in a continuous stream of words, but it seemed not to be English, and they could not understand what language she spoke.

The man walked calmly forward, casually responding to the woman’s words now and then, occasionally frowning.

The two continued to speak as they slowly passed by where the four people were invisible.

They quickly disappeared in the corridor behind the group.

"Whew..."

Lin You couldn’t help but let out a long breath. "That was intense... I thought my heart was going to leap out..."

"You’ll get used to it," Merrill said with a smile, "Let’s go, and speed it up. This should be their mealtime. However, we can’t trust the intelligence bought from the market too much. After all, intelligence has its timeliness."

"Thank goodness this is just a regular research facility. What if, in the future, I need to enter a Psychic’s base or something? You definitely can’t buy that kind of intelligence," Cheng Guang said, frowning.

"We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. It seems we need some help in the intelligence area," Merrill also realized this issue, "Relying on buying intelligence in the long term is too big of a burden."

The four people and the cat continued to make their way deeper.

"Wait!!" Suddenly, Cheng Guang’s expression changed slightly, and he stopped.

"What is it?" the others stopped in unison. "Do you notice something?" Merrill, now the leader of the entire team — after all, she was the strongest, most experienced, and quite mature.

"Something’s not right..." Cheng Guang vaguely felt that something was off.

"I also feel a bit uncomfortable," Lin You frowned as well. "I’ve had this feeling since just now."

Cheng Guang nodded.

He took out a small black elliptical metal block with a solemn expression. He gently tossed it.

The elliptical metal block immediately popped out a ring of saw teeth. The black saw teeth spun rapidly, like a saw, and floated in mid-air. At the same time, an invisible wave spread out from between the teeth and extended into the surrounding walls.

"Something’s not right!! There’s no one in all the labs, including the surrounding area!" Cheng Guang’s face changed as he shouted, "No good! We must go back immediately! This is too strange! Even for the night shift, there should be someone left behind!"

"Merrill sister..." Lin You immediately looked toward the team’s actual leader.

Chris bowed his head.

"Babanoya."

"Received."

A trace of red light emerged from the bracelet on Chris’s wrist.

Hiss...

A fiery red line extended from the bracelet, gradually bending to form a bow over one person tall.

With a swish, a fiery red line directly joined the limbs of the bow to serve as the bowstring.

The red giant bow finally materialized, the red light dissipated, revealing the bow’s ruby-like material.

In the blink of an eye, Chris was fully armed.

On the other hand, Merrill also realized the seriousness of the problem.

"Are you sure?" she asked Cheng Guang.

The latter nodded affirmatively.

"Within three hundred meters, not a single person exists. Including those two from just before."

"We’ve been tricked! Go!" Merrill’s face turned dark as she decisively led the team to run back.

****************

Hua Nation, Yan Capital University

Hu...

Lin Fei abruptly sat up. He sat on the bed, the blanket slowly sliding off his body.

Outside, it was quite bright. The air had a slight coolness to it, but mostly it was a gentle stifling heat. A strand of golden sunlight poured in from the balcony, falling on the floor, nearly illuminating the entire dormitory.

Yuan Yicheng and Ye Yuhua had both been intercepted, just now.

With nearly a twelve-hour time difference between the United States and Hua Nation, it was the beginning of night in the United States right now.

Lin Fei glanced at the clock on Shi Ran’s desk across from him. It was 8:15.

There were no early classes this morning, so no one woke up early. They were all sprawled in bed, sleeping in. Even morning reading was too much effort to attend.

"People with silver patterns on their faces and people with four arms..." Lin Fei thought of the information he had just received.

"The other side has no malice, they are just intercepting us," Ye Yuhua’s voice came from the Sword Canon.

That was also the reason Lin Fei did not immediately send Jin Yi to help.

"Plus, they claim to be from the Dark Alliance," Yuan Yicheng said. "Difficult to deal with." It obviously took quite an opponent to make someone as proud as him admit to such difficulty. Clearly, their strength was not lower than his. It might even be higher.

Lin Fei understood, this was clearly the Dark Alliance expressing their dissatisfaction with his unauthorised dispatch of people into their territory. If it were just ordinary people it wouldn’t matter, but for top-level fighters like Yuan Yicheng and Ye Yuhua, their direct deep incursion could cause significant damage. Such a threat, matching their strength, it seemed, was merely a show and a warning.

"Can you get away?" He communicated telepathically to the two.

"It will come at a certain cost," Ye Yuhua said gravely.

Yuan Yicheng, however, was helpless, "There’s no choice; the opponent is troublesome."

"Ye Yuhua, shake off the tail first, then go check on Lin You and the others. The Dark Alliance won’t let go of the Metal Scepter so easily," Lin Fei reacted immediately.

"Got it."

The connection was cut off.

Lin Fei leaned against the head of the bed, gently touching the watch on her right wrist. She closed her eyes slightly, as if to rejuvenate her spirit.

******************

"Hurry up!!" Merrill urged, with sweat sliding down the side of her face along her temples.

All four were breathing rapidly as they ran swiftly back through the looping passageway.

Suddenly Cheng Guang pulled on Chris, who was in front of her.

"?" Chris had just shown a quizzical expression when he saw Cheng Guang pointing to the lower section of the passage ahead.

Everyone stopped.

Merrill seemed to have discovered something. She crouched down, pulled out a key, and gently nudged it forward.

Hum...

A transparent thread was suddenly plucked and made a sound like a guitar string being strummed.

With a snap, the key’s front part was sheer cut off and fell to the ground.

Hiss...

Everyone couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air. If Chris had not been careful and rushed through just now, it’s likely his legs would have been the first thing sliced by the thread.

"It’s indeed a trap..." Lin You’s face turned a bit pale. "What do we do now?" She was a bit at a loss, looking hopefully at Merrill.

Merrill’s face darkened as she stood up.

"It seems the people at this base realized our intrusion beforehand."

"Chris," Cheng Guang called out.

"Leave it to me," Chris slowly raised his massive red bow and arrow, focused.

Hiss... 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The bowstring was pulled taut, and the entire longbow bent slightly.

Countless flames emerged automatically from the void around them, quickly gathering in the middle of the bow, condensing into an arrow made of flame in an instant.

Chris’s eyes slowly lit up with a myriad of red glows.

Whoosh!!

The bowstring was released, and the arrow of flame shot forth swiftly.

Bang bang bang!!!

One after another, the sound of snapping threads rang out.

Numerous transparent threads in front of the four were broken instantly; as soon as they snapped, all threads were lit by the flames and burned abruptly, forming a net of red fire.

Boom!!

Only then came the explosion sound of Chris’s arrow from down the passageway.

A tide of scorching air rushed back through the corridor, fluttering the clothes and hair of the group.

All the transparent threads were quickly consumed by the fire.

"Move!" Merrill shouted, charging out ahead.

"You think of running away? Hehe..." a voice came from in front of the group. A woman with red hair emerged from the passage ahead, dressed in a tight black suit, her full chest adorned with a pale golden badge—a pale golden rose with Arabic numerals 131 on one of its petals.

Alert, Merrill and the others watched her intently.

Feil whispered into Lin You’s ear.

"Prepare for battle..."

"Right," Lin You also realized the gravity of the situation.

Feil nodded his head and instantly turned into black light that flew to Lin You’s wrist, automatically transforming into a pair of silver-white bracelets.

"Second Stage!" Lin You called out in her heart, her hands raising involuntarily.

A mass of silver-white light spots quickly emerged from the void around, swirling automatically around her hands. The light spots condensed into a pair of silver-white metal gauntlets in an instant.

The back of each gauntlet sported a diamond-shaped blue gem; the white cuffs extended up to her elbows, forming a pair of blue-and-white long gloves.

"Partial equipment!"

Merrill also slightly raised her hand, and a pair of light green glasses materialized upon her eyes in an instant. This was her first display of her Second Stage transformation.

All three used partial transformations to significantly reduce the energy consumed. Although overall performance was diminished, there were no issues with mutual complementation.

"Little You!" Merrill called out loudly, stepping to one side.

"Okay!" Lin You, her body enveloped in swirling ice-blue diamond crystals, brushed past Merrill and charged straight at the red-haired woman, her gloves leaving a trail of fine silver-white frost.

Boom!

A fiery red arrow shot swiftly past Lin You’s side, aiming fiercely at the red-haired woman.

At the same time, a faint green halo appeared on Lin You, with numerous green seeds floating behind her.

The three demonstrated an extremely well-coordinated effort, clearly the result of comprehensive training.

The red-haired woman nimbly jumped back.

"Pandora!" she called out softly.

A dark shadow suddenly appeared in front of her.

It was a huge black spider, taller than a person and twice as wide. Its dense green eyes looked extraordinarily disgusting. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)