Chapter 168: Is This Mission Really Right?
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr"How far from us?" This teacher should be the leader of this team. At hearing his team member"s report, he could not help but frown.
"Not even 1000 metres away," replied the scanning teacher.
" Xiao Lai 1 , watch the surroundings carefully. Don"t let the other teachers discover our tracks," arranged the leader decisively.
"Yes, Leader!" The scanning teacher Xiao Lai received the command.
The leader waved a hand behind himself, and five figures disappeared instantly from the area with several hushed swishes.
Meanwhile, in the direction of true north, Ling Lan was sprinting across the ground, instructing Little Four inside the minds.p.a.ce to help her find the most appropriate hunting grounds.
"Little Four, here?" Ling Lan abruptly stopped her steps and asked Little Four.
"Yes. There are no scout students at all within 1000 metres of this area." Although Little Four did not know why Ling Lan was so concerned about the presence of scout students, as a follower, he had a responsibility to meet his boss"s requests.
"Alright, then let"s wait here for prey to come!" The hunting grounds Ling Lan had chosen was a large, dense forest deep within the academy. This area was already far from the various large dormitories — a typical person would not choose to come to this sort of dark and desolate place, unless they were students who were trying to be clever and hide for the whole 24 hours of the grand armed melee.
With a few flying leaps, Ling Lan disappeared soundlessly into the forest.
Not even a minute later, the team of five teachers appeared where Ling Lan had disappeared.
"Right here. A minute ago, the monitoring device detected his figure here. He entered the forest and disappeared from this point," Xiao Lai pointed at the direction where Ling Lan disappeared.
"Can we not find his precise hiding spot?" The leader looked out into the quiet forest and asked.
"No way to pinpoint it. This place has almost no monitoring facilities, unless we mobilise the satellite system of the mainframe," said Xiao Lai regretfully, "I still cannot hack into the Central Scout Academy"s mainframe to obtain its control rights ... its level is no less than the mainframes of our military headquarters."
The leader said then, "Only a minute has pa.s.sed. He can"t have gotten far. Let"s chase!" That said, he was the first to jump into the forest. His team members did not hesitate, jumping into the forest with him. They were just going in to handle a 13 year old babe, they had no worries about strategizing to avoid forests or any disadvantageous locations.
The group dashed far a length of ground, until when the leader suddenly halted and closed his eyes, carefully sensing the environment around him.
"The other"s presence suddenly disappeared. How did he do it?" The leader"s expression was dismayed. If the target escaped this time, they would find it very difficult to explain things when they returned. It should be known that chances to finish off the other without leaving obvious traces were extremely rare; so, their ringleader had already given the execution order — that brat had to die in this grand armed melee.
"Could it be that we chased too far and overtook him?" asked one of the team members. They absolutely could not believe that a 13 year old plus child could beat them in terms of travel speed.
"Of course not!" The leader harrumphed. He could sense the disturbances where the other had entered and moved through the forest, so of course this was impossible.
However, he also believed that, with their speed, it was impossible for them not to have caught up to the other. Thus, the most likely possibility was that the other had a kind of miraculous concealment method, and was hiding somewhere at the side to avoid their detection.
"He should be close by! Let us spread out and search. Search properly, don"t overlook any suspicious places." The leader made a decision instantly. "Also, don"t forget what we came here to do ..."
The leader swept a cold look over all the team members. "Kill him. Don"t be soft-hearted and show any mercy! That is our mission!"
"Yes, leader!" The four of them acknowledged the orders. Their initially somewhat relaxed expressions instantly became serious. They each chose a separate direction and then began slowly searching outwards.
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"As expected, they are here to kill us ..." Inside Ling Lan"s minds.p.a.ce, Little Four dutifully projected what all 5 of the men were doing.
"Argh, why are that fellow"s movements so accurate? He"s about to find us!" Little Four jumped up in fright inside the learning s.p.a.ce.
"Don"t panic!" Ling Lan consoled Little Four. She peered intently at one of the teachers — well, let"s just call them teachers for now — who was already very close to her location ... she needed to find an opportunity to land a one-hit killing blow.
The moment these people got close, Ling Lan knew she was facing the second great crisis in her life ever since that first a.s.sa.s.sination attempt when she was six. These five people were all combat experts in the middle to late stages of Qi-Jin. In particular, that team leader had even fully mastered the Qi-Jin stage, like her, and was just waiting for that last catalyst to spark the insight to enter a new domain.
The other was getting closer and closer to her hiding spot, yet Ling Lan"s heart was becoming increasingly calmer. Her heartbeat slowed immensely, almost going into a state of hibernation as she laid there unmoving.
One step, two steps, three steps ... the other was already right in front of her. The shoes on his feet almost stomped on her fingers, but even so, Ling Lan"s heart was still as clear as ice. Unafraid even if the sky collapsed, she did not move a single inch.
Just as the other was about to approach one step further, the neighbouring shrubs about a metre away suddenly rustled. That person instantly turned with a look of caution upon his face, ready to go and investigate the situation over there. Right then, Ling Lan moved!
Ling Lan"s right hand was gripping a conical weapon, transparent in colour and emitting a trace of cold air — it was an ice cone made via the use of Ice Affinity. At present, this was the largest weapon Ling Lan could condense with her talent. Hmm? You ask, wasn"t Ling Lan"s right hand broken? Why can she still use a weapon?
Well, apparently, when she had met Zhang Jing-an"s punch with a punch, Ling Lan"s right arm had been unharmed. She had just pretended it was injured to give the impression of weakness, as for who would fall for it ... that was not something Ling Lan needed to consider.
However, the ice cone in her right hand was not Ling Lan"s most reliable weapon; her real killing move was a spiritual charge.
In this generation, spiritual attacks were an ability that only combat experts at the Domain stage or ace operators could possibly have. Take a good look, they could only "possibly have" it. Indeed, both these parties must possess immense spiritual power and ability to advance that far, however, just having the spiritual power for it did not mean they could use spiritual power attacks. Only if they awakened an innate talent in this vein could they possess this ability. For example, the spectre ability gained from spiritual mutation was a type of spiritual attack.
However, Ling Lan was an oddball. She did not awaken any spiritual attack type innate talent, but because she had the instruction of the learning s.p.a.ce, she had gained this formless yet powerful killing move through m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic training. This was also why Ling Lan dared to hunt the 5 people after her who were Qi-Jin stage experts like her.
In fact, the rustling of the shrubs that pulled the opponent"s attention had also been Ling Lan"s doing via manipulation of her spiritual power. Undoubtedly, this time, Ling Lan had planned very well. All the reactions of the opponent were within her calculations.
A fierce spiritual charge would cause the opponent"s head to be struck by an abrupt force. Zhang Jing-an, who had just stepped into the early stages of Qi-Jin, had fallen unconscious without being able to put up any resistance 2 ; however, this teacher before her, who was already at the mid-stages of Qi-Jin, was only stunned for 2 seconds before regaining consciousness.
But these 2 short seconds were enough for Ling Lan to kill the opponent several times over. The ice cone created by Ice Affinity plunged mercilessly into the other"s chest. Ling Lan did not hesitate at all after her successful strike, backing off instantly. Without even glancing at what would become of the opponent, she left!
That last strike had already revealed her killing intent. If she lingered for even a beat, she would be surrounded by the other 4 people. At that time, she would truly be put in a tight spot with the odds against her.
The moment Ling Lan left, the ice cone piercing the other"s chest shattered, becoming countless translucent and glittering spots of light to disappear into the air. Without the continued support of Ling Lan"s Ice Affinity, the ice cone had no way of maintaining its shape; this was also a reason for Ling Lan to choose weapons created via Ice Affinity. In the end, only these 5 people would know what her killing weapon was 3 .
"Xiao Lai!" Rushing over, the leader yelled out in shock. It turned out that the first team member killed by Ling Lan just happened to be Xiao Lai, the one who had awakened a hacking innate talent and who could hack into the monitoring systems to track her. As hacking talents belonged to the spiritual series of awakened talents, Xiao Lai had had great resistance against Ling Lan"s spiritual charge. However, he was still not completely immune to Ling Lan"s spiritual charge, and so had finally died under Ling Lan"s sneak attack.
Fearfully, Xiao Lai pressed desperately on the wound at his chest, trying to staunch the blood gushing out, as he mumbled over and over again, "I don"t want to die, I don"t want to die ..." They had initially thought that this was an extremely easy mission — they only had to kill a 13 year old scout, and they were all elite soldiers ...
"Xiao Lai, hold on!" The team leader took out some medicinal agents and fed them to the other. However, he too knew that it was useless. Unless they could get supplementary blood to maintain the other"s minimum blood level within the next 3 minutes, and then obtain a replacement heart within 2 hours, even a G.o.d would be unable to save him.
But now, they were in the Central Scout Academy. Moreover, they were impersonating teachers to a.s.sa.s.sinate a student within the academy. They had no way of requesting emergency aid, and so had no way of receiving a.s.sistance. In other words, the leader had no way of bringing Xiao Lai back to their own territory within 3 minutes.
Hiding at one side, Ling Lan bit down fiercely on her own palm, hoping the pain could alleviate the discomfort she felt in her heart. The person she had just killed was not the virtual humans created by the learning s.p.a.ce, and neither was he an enemy nation mecha warrior like on planet Demonbeast, nor was he a traitor who had betrayed her trust.
He was very likely just a regular soldier who did not know the truth beforehand, someone who had just simply accepted a mission ... yet, she could not be merciful just because of this. She could not die. She definitely could not die. Early on, she had already made a vow — in this life, she wanted to live safely, securely, and freely. If anyone tried to interfere with this goal, she would not care even if she had to morph into a demon to defend it ...
"Leader! Is this mission really right?" asked Xiao Lai, eyes filled with doubt as he breathed his last.
"Xiao Lai!" The team leader howled lowly, tears falling silently from the corners of his eyes. Just as Xiao Lai had said, was this mission really right? Why did they have to kill a half-grown kid? Could it be because the child"s father had betrayed the country, so they suspected the child would also become a traitor? Why did they have to go so far to prevent something yet to be decided?
The team leader slowly closed Xiao Lai"s wide open eyes. When he lifted his head once more, his gaze was sharp and cold, "Xiao Lai, until now you do not understand. We do not need to know what is right or wrong. Once you"ve entered the organisation, the mission is number one! Don"t worry, I will kill him and avenge you. A comrade"s blood is not wastefully spilled." The team leader"s killing intent became thick and overbearing. His entire aura gradually began to fluctuate and become unstable, even showing faint signs of going berserk.