Chapter 322: Hiding in hiding (4)
"Sneaking into the Great Library is a completely foolhardy move. You have no idea how strictly the First Team has secured this place. The sloths and snails are there to fool people. If you dare to violate the rules and take a step inside..."
"Is the first captain about to descend from the sky?" Ji Huaisu asked.
"Jingsha's punishment is about to fall from the sky," Li Ke corrected. "I don't think anyone wants to try to arm wrestle with Master Shenshu, right? So we have to take a shortcut and try this."
She handed Ji Huaisu a black, stand-up collared trench coat. The blonde girl looked like a professional assassin, her sharp eyebrows and starry eyes radiating a murderous aura. Li Ke then brought him leather gloves and long boots, but she was still not satisfied.
"I always feel like I'm missing some breath..."
"Make your expression more fierce?" Vander suggested.
Ji Huaisu showed his fangs viciously.
"No, no, no, now all you need is a 'Violent Dog Inside' card."
"Try this, don't make faces."
Chu Hengkong threw a pair of sunglasses at Ji Huaisu. After putting on the sunglasses, he put his hands behind his back without saying a word.
"Great, at least it looks like it. Please maintain your cool demeanor and don't move, or I might burst out laughing later." Rico chuckled, "Now look at our other special envoy... Oh my god."
Chu Hengkong had just buttoned the last button of his chosen black robe, a stand-up collar. A neatly arranged Chinese button adorned the center of the jacket, and the hem flared out like a swallowtail for easy movement. He slowly put on his sunglasses and nodded slightly to Li Ke.
"Dude, you look like you can take out an entire division by yourself." Vander's eyes widened.
"He really has a face that can kill without bloodshed. I think he's more professional than a real expert..."
"I'm a professional." Chu Hengkong said.
"Then we're relying on you, the professional," Rico clapped her hands. "Please help us with the check!"
The waiter, prepared in advance, took the clothes and packed them into boxes, not forgetting to flatter the distinguished guest's taste. It would be hard to find such an efficient service industry in Jingsha, except for the luxury goods store in Mansa Star Castle.
The First Lineage, Mansa Star Fort, is the oldest of the Thorns and the undisputed center of power. Powerful individuals gather in the House of Lords at the heart of the star fort. Prosecutors and lawyers exchange sharp arguments amid the pounding of the gavel in the Supreme Court. Witnesses, after leaving court, retreat to their luxurious homes for dinners, leading a dance on the floor before retreating into the shadows to invite conspirators.
The power scattered among various forces has been concentrated in this giant city. There are too many big figures who are not easy to mess with. You can't guess which dignitary will pass by you, so you can only be diligent and kind to others.
Ji Huaisu muttered: "I think the third lineage is closer, what about Mansa Star Castle..."
"The big city atmosphere is too strong, just like my hometown." Chu Hengkong commented.
"Does it make you feel familiar?"
"No, it's boring."
"That's why I never come to Mansa Star Castle unless I have a job," said Li Ke.
She led the group along the avenue in front of the municipal square. The ginkgo trees lining the road were meticulously tended by the municipal gardeners, not even a speck of dust on the leaves. Chu Hengkong noticed that there were fewer animals or aliens among the local citizens, and most of them were well-dressed humanoids. This seemed to be a certain aesthetic tendency of Jingsha's upper class.
"Mansa Star Fortress tends to have more tree people." Rico noticed his gaze. "The Poetry Umbrella has a balanced distribution of all races. The amusement park has a large number of small animals, the barracks are mostly insects and demihumans, and the farm is a paradise for winged people and farming races."
"Tree people are you and Mr. Trek like this?"
"Yes, we have the blood of the sacred tree flowing in our veins—don't ask me how our ancestors did it, I really don't want to know." Li Ke sat down in an open-air cafe on the street. "Give me your clothes, I'll mark them."
Green sprouts sprouted from her fingertips and drew five-pointed stars on the collars of their windbreakers. Then the sprouts grew into miniature morning glories and sprayed them each with a spray.
"Identification complete, scent recognition complete, breath control at the standard particle level of 3... I almost forgot about you."
She conjured another purple flower and sprayed it at Fander, who felt uncomfortable all over: "What the hell is this smell?"
"You'll know in a moment." Li Ke chuckled. "Now let's talk about the plan. The Great Library is strictly guarded, and the Dust Zone is absolutely inaccessible. But the Divine Guards have another way. Prosecutors from the Supreme Procuratorate of Mansa Star Fort need to enter and exit the Great Library at any time to retrieve files, so there is a special internal passage on the 6th floor of the Procuratorate. Let's go through the passage to the library."
"Your plan sounds like 'Robbing a convenience store is too risky, so we're going to rob a bank,'" Vander said. "I'm just looking up a book, isn't it? It doesn't matter if I wait seven days for my crappy paper. I don't want to be in jail in Mansa Star Castle!"
"Okay, I admit I have selfish motives... First, I'm tracking down the whereabouts of a batch of goods, and now I've found a connection to the Procuratorate. I have to sneak in and see what's going on." Li Ke smiled wryly. "Secondly, I also want to go to the Great Library to look up some information. Your information is all in the dust layer, so it must not be good stuff. Our interests are aligned, right?"
Ji Huaisu and Fander both looked at Chu Hengkong, the one making the decision. Chu Hengkong mentally assessed the risks. Olek's reminder had only arrived that morning, and he didn't think Misfortune would make a trip for such a trivial matter. That information must be of some significance to Fander.
More importantly, the old octopus was killed by demons the day he handed over the key. Apparently, some demons disagreed with Orlek and didn't want Finder to get the library's information. These demons were probably connected to the mastermind behind the entertainment, and if they got to the library first, things would be very difficult to predict...
"Don't take risks unless necessary. Will your father's connections in the procuratorate be of any use?"
"If the prosecutors were trustworthy, I wouldn't have to investigate this," Rico said. "But I think if we were caught, Dad would still be able to save our skins... maybe."
"How do you solve the disguise?"
Li Ke rolled up her sleeves and "pulled" out a very thin layer of bark from her arm. She covered her face with the bark, and her expression immediately changed into that of a middle-aged woman with a stern temperament.
She took off her beret, changed the color of her hair and put it up, and put on a black dress, the standard outfit for old-fashioned aristocrats. In the blink of an eye, she became a female prosecutor in her early 40s.
"Chengkongyi is so convenient." Ji Huaisu exclaimed.
"I've practiced this skill specially." Li Ke said proudly, "Change your clothes and let's go."
·
"Please show me your ID, thank you~" Xiaohua sang, "I wish you a happy day~"
The divine power detector in the background beeped twice, indicating that the backpack was harmless. The prosecutor put away the luggage and went inside. Xiaohua, with her cartoon-like features, hummed along to the hall music.
This flower grows everywhere in Jingsha. You can often find it wherever you look. Many people can't tell whether it is a citizen or a plant (they probably don't know it themselves). In any case, this flower is probably a citizen, because it has even been working as a security guard at the Procuratorate.
"Next, please... Oh! Prosecutor Fresa, thank you for your hard work."
Xiaohua jumped slightly. It was obvious that the three people approaching her had just returned from field work. A senior prosecutor and two agents were the standard configuration for a field team. The male agent at the back had a particularly menacing aura, looking rather intimidating.
Prosecutor Fresa flashed her ID card. Database verification passed, identification passed, and scent recognition passed. Xiaohua's eyes swept across the projection screen. "Wait a moment, who's the other one...?"
The life detector showed another breath. The male agent wearing sunglasses reached into his pocket and took out a thing tied in a cloth bag.
"Evidence." He said succinctly, "There is contamination from compound outsiders, please pay attention."
Xiaohua was terrified: "Well...according to the regulations, the tainted witnesses need to line up in a row..."
"One of me is enough."
"Yes, please!"
There were so many unique Transcendents out there, who wanted to dwell on this? The man in sunglasses first passed the pitiful, tainted witness through security. A warning sounded, a faint hint of demonic contamination. He then went inside to inspect the equipment.
"Wait a moment." The female agent suddenly said.
The male agent turned back wordlessly. Xiaohua swayed left and right, following their gazes.
"You've been with the devil for too long, and you might be contaminated by his presence."
"Impossible." The male agent asserted.
"The instrument is still working, that is, it can do precise identification!" Xiaohua said hurriedly, "There won't be any accidents, it should be..."
It stared intently at the male agent as he walked through security. No alarm bells went off. Xiaohua breathed a sigh of relief: "That's what I told you!"
In the back, "Prosecutor Fresa" quietly withdrew her fingers and pulled back a flower vine connected to the security device. After she and the female agent passed through, the little flower slumped down on the table.
"How frightening!" it muttered to itself, "Why are all the prosecutors militant?"
Prosecutor Fresa and two agents hurried forward, nodding to acquaintances from time to time. The "tainted witness" in the bag whispered, "You bastards!" when no one was around.
"I'm sorry, but I can't think of a way to dress you up as a decent person. You're too distinctive looking."
"How did you get past security?" Ji Huaisu whispered.
"All of Jingsha's mechanisms share a common flaw: they're extremely, extremely reliant on local technology. Unfortunately, the city-state's local technology is almost entirely wooden. If you're skilled in plant grafting and have the ability to absorb divine energy, you can easily deceive them," Rico said. "We tree people are quite talented in this area... Go to the fifth floor."
Rico led them to the evidence room, as if she had been there countless times. She gestured for them to wait outside the door, then rummaged through it for a while before uttering a curse.
"Damn it."
Chu Hengkong turned his head and found Li Ke staring at an empty box.
"No more?"
Li Ke's face was gloomy: "The inspiration mushroom was taken away."
(End of this chapter)
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