Chapter 53
The intense and chaotic entanglement swept through like a storm, and eventually subsided.
The only sounds left in the suite were the two people's slightly rapid breathing, which slowly calmed down in the silence.
The young man who had been like a powder keg that could explode in front of him in recent days and had been repeatedly tormented by anger and humiliation, finally calmed down completely at this moment.
Lu Cheng lay on his side on the wide bed, sinking into a deep sleep. Even in his sleep, a trace of grievance and fatigue seemed to linger between his brows, but his breathing was long and steady, with a sense of relaxation after overdrawn energy.
A few strands of black hair were wetly stuck to his full forehead, and his usually hard jawline seemed much softer in the dim light. His thin lips were slightly open, revealing a rare, defenseless childishness.
Lin Yao lay on his side beside him, his silver hair spread across the pillow like moonlight. With his fingertips, he gently traced Lu Cheng's sleeping brows, sliding down along his straight nose, and finally resting on his slightly parted lips.
The other person's defenseless sleeping face was reflected in the depths of his blue eyes. A silent, almost sated smile spread across his lips. The calmness and sense of control at this moment gave him a strange sense of pleasure and enjoyment.
However, this indulgent warmth did not last long. Absolute rationality, like an icy tide, quickly washed away the brief warmth.
Lin Yao's eyes regained their calm and clarity, like the deep sea. He rose silently, not disturbing the sleeper beside him. Barefoot on the cold floor, he walked toward the cloakroom.
Soon, he changed into a dark tight combat uniform that was easy to move in. The smooth tailoring outlined the sharp lines, restraining all the fragile beauty, leaving only the agility and coldness of a cheetah.
Her silver hair was neatly tied behind her head, revealing her smooth forehead and a pair of blue eyes that seemed to be able to see through all the fog in the dark night.
Like a ghost blending into the shadows, he silently left the luxurious suite and the "Crown of the Starry Sky" suspended in the clouds.
The target is clear: an abandoned data relay station called "Honeycomb Core Station" located on the edge of the ninth district of City A.
It was one of the many secret bases of the Purifier Organization in City A. The location was the key coordinate he had extracted from the depths of a core member's mind during his secret exploration in City C.
Late at night, District 9 of City A was a stark contrast to the glitz and glamour of the core district. This was the dark side of the technological holy city, where suspended tracks were scarce and massive abandoned industrial pipelines lay crouched on the ground like the wreckage of steel behemoths. The air was filled with the mixed smell of motor oil, rust, and inferior energy fluid.
Lin Yao's figure quickly shuttled between the intricate metal structures and abandoned pipes, like a ghost, leaving no trace.
Finally, he arrived at the "Honeycomb Core Station".
It was a huge hemispherical building half buried in the ground, its outer shell covered with mottled insulation material. The alloy gate at the entrance had long been corroded and deformed, leaving only a gap just wide enough for one person to pass sideways, like an open, silently mocking mouth.
Lin Yao's spiritual thread had already quietly penetrated into it like an invisible tentacle. However, the information fed back was a dead silence.
He slipped in.
The interior was heartbreakingly empty. The once densely packed server cabinets had been roughly removed, leaving only the messy remains of wires and holes for fixing bolts on the floor.
The air was filled with thick dust and a sense of emptiness that had been deliberately left behind after being cleared by humans.
There was nothing of value left on the ground, nor were there any marks or traces on the walls. The place was cleaned exceptionally clean, as if no one had ever used it.
The building is deserted.
Lin Yao stood in the center of the vast, empty and cold space, his blue eyes scanning the complete "nothingness" in the darkness.
A cold, sharp light flashed in his eyes, and was then replaced by a deep calm.
He knew better than anyone what this meant.
His movements were captured, and the Purifiers evacuated in advance, erasing all traces.
This was like a silent announcement: they had discovered him and chose to retreat temporarily.
Is this retreat a deeper lurk? Or... a trap already quietly spread, waiting for him to fall into?
The air seemed to freeze, carrying a silent threat.
But there was no panic or frustration on Lin Yao's face. There was only a calmness that bordered on indifference, and an unquenchable fire of inquiry burning deep in his eyes.
It doesn't matter.
He said to himself silently.
The truth is like the buried core of a star. Even if it is hidden deep down, it will eventually emerge.
As an absolute powerhouse at the top of the Old World standings, he has the patience and strength to peel off this carefully constructed fog layer by layer until he reaches the core.
Trap? He was never afraid of stepping into a trap, because only by going deep into it could he see the whole picture of the trap maker.
He took one last look at the empty stronghold, as if bidding farewell to a useless coordinate, and his figure once again merged into the shadows of the Ninth District, returning silently to the "Crown of the Starry Sky".
The suite was still quiet, and Lu Cheng was still sleeping soundly. Because of Lin Yao's brief departure, his body even curled up unconsciously, as if he was looking for the heat source that he had just lost.
He turned his face to the side, half of his cheek sunk into the soft pillow, his long eyelashes cast quiet shadows under his eyes, his lips slightly pouting, all the sharp angles and hostility he had when he was awake faded, leaving only an unguarded, almost innocent calmness.
Lin Yao stood by the bed, watching him quietly for a moment. The cold, sharp aura faded from his body, assimilated into the warm air in the room.
He leaned down and, extremely gently, like a feather brushing across the water, placed a cool kiss on Lu Cheng's smooth and plump forehead.
"Good night," his voice was as soft as a whisper, with a rare gentleness that he himself was not aware of. "I hope you have a good dream."
This kiss and blessing seemed like a gentle seal to the chaotic storm of tonight.
Standing up, the last trace of warmth in Lin Yao's eyes completely disappeared. He walked to the huge French window in the living room. Outside the window was the never-extinguished, cold and dazzling sea of lights in the entire city of A.
He sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes.
The next moment, an invisible spiritual storm erupted silently with him as the center.
The vast and majestic mental power was like billions of invisible silk threads shining with a faint blue luster, instantly penetrating the expensive energy shielding layer of the suite, ignoring the physical distance, and accurately piercing into the core of City A's huge and complex intelligence network.
City A's intelligence network is the nerve center of the Holy City of Science and Technology. It is protected by countless dynamic encryption protocols, quantum firewalls, and mental mazes laid by high-level psychics. Its defense level is the highest among the four cities.
Any unauthorized intrusion attempt will instantly trigger the highest level of counter-measures and mental annihilation procedures.
However, Lin Yao's spiritual threads were like living beings with self-awareness. They precisely captured the rhythm of every data stream in the network, parsed the ever-changing encryption rules, and gracefully traversed and leaped through the cracks of traps capable of strangling Super S-level spiritual power!
Those impregnable firewalls were like fragile soap bubbles in front of him. With a slight touch of the spiritual thread, they silently dissolved and reorganized, opening a secret passage for him.
The maze of thoughts is like an unfolded three-dimensional star map, and Lin Yao's spiritual core is the only navigation star, guiding the silk thread to accurately find the only way out among countless dead ends.
There were no alarms, no countermeasures. Only a torrent of data, guided by the spiritual thread, flowed like a gentle stream into Lin Yao's sea of consciousness.
Detailed information about the "Rotten Bone Forest", a top-secret assessment report from City A on the out-of-control power of Cinder, the latest developments of the joint wanted order from City D, and even some fragments of peripheral information about the "Ark Project"... countless precious intelligence was screened, stripped, and stored at high speed.
Lin Yao's figure, sitting cross-legged, was reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window. He had his eyes closed, his expression calm and composed. Only the barely visible beads of sweat on his forehead betrayed the intensity of this silent battle.
The silver hair shone with a cold luster in the dim light.
The top of the standings in the old world is imprinting its will on the core area of this holy city of science and technology with the most powerful and unquestionable attitude.
The night was dark, and the undercurrent of intelligence flowed silently at his fingertips, quietly opening the prelude to a new chapter in the game.
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