Unlike the Sensō-ji in Dongdu, the Sensō-ji on the outskirts of Ninghu was really a very small temple. As one of Ninghu’s tourist attractions, it was crowded with people in the daytime, but at night, the whole area around it seemed deserted.
At twelve o’clock in the evening, a convoy of six Toyotas slowly approached the gate of Sensō-ji. None of the six cars had their lights on and they just inched forward in the dim light of daytime driving lamps. The cars moved so slowly that they looked sneaky.
In the back row of a Toyota in the middle of the convoy, Li Tianlan sat quietly. Looking at the gate of Sensō-ji which was getting closer and closer, his expression was indifferent and his eyes were shining with cold light.
The research inst.i.tute under Sensō-ji was arguably the most important hunting target of his visit to Ninghu. But honestly, at the very beginning, he didn’t really pay too much attention to Sensō-ji, in fact. Presently, he was at the stabilization phase of the Fire-flaming Realm. Although he had levelled up his strength by a large realm through medicine, in terms of real combat strength, he was undoubtedly powerful. After all, he should be at the Pseudo Invincible Realm of the Qi-controlling Realm, and he possessed the Wind and Thunder Veins, the Buddhist Incantation of Nine Words, the unique skills of the Li family…
With so many unique and exceptional conditions on him, his current combat strength was absolutely beyond all expectations. He might be unable to beat some experts at the Peak Stage of the Thunder-shocking Realm, but it was not difficult for him to escape. He originally planned to a.s.sa.s.sinate an internationally renowned scholar with ordinary strength in Sensō-ji. He thought that even if the inst.i.tute under Sensō-ji was heavily guarded, a.s.sa.s.sinating Dubian Xiangyuan would not be more difficult than a.s.sa.s.sinating Miyamoto Shinei. At the worst, he could leave directly after killing Dubian Xiangyuan and then come back to kill the other two relatively unimportant targets later.
But after receiving the news from Xitian Mingzi, he realized that Sensō-ji was by no means a simple place.
According to Xitian Mingzi, his action of going to Sensō-ji was tantamount to stepping into a deadly trap.
But killing Dubian Xiangyuan was not the most difficult task on his hunting list.
“Is Zhongzhou State’s intelligence incomplete?”
“Or does Ye Fengcheng really have an ulterior motive?”
Li Tianlan thought and breathed deeply. There was something profound in his eyes as he looked out the window. His contact with Ye Fengcheng at the Sky Academy was not much, or even very little. But on the inside, his impression of the frivolous, unruly middle-aged man was not bad. If Ye Fengcheng knew about the situation of Sensō-ji and deliberately distributed this hunting target to him, his motive would be extremely execrable.
“Is he an enemy?”
“Or a leader as well as a teacher?”
Li Tianlan was a little tired inwardly. The unity of all parties should have been achieved when it came to the national plan of Zhongzhou State. And if there was someone who harbored an ulterior motive in this situation, it was absolutely disgusting. So after he heard Xitian Mingzi’s elaboration of Sensō-ji, during the whole day, there was anger in his heart which was about to spurt out.
The inst.i.tute under Sensō-ji codenamed Black Sun. Its total area was not large, and the upper and lower floors added up to an area of less than 10,000 square meters. Inside, however, the inst.i.tute was made of a myriad of special alloys, and each of the key corridors housed an array of a.s.sault weapons. From the entrance to the core zone of the inst.i.tute, there were nearly 30 gates that were made of alloys, which were three to five meters thick, all requiring pa.s.sword, fingerprint and pupil verification. Under normal circ.u.mstances, Li Tianlan would be trapped and die there before he could even get through the first door. What was worse, according to what Xitian Mingzi said, there was also a small group of the Kusanagi Force inside the inst.i.tute!
Xitian Mingzi vaguely mentioned the Kusanagi Force. She didn’t mean to hide things about it from Li Tianlan, because she herself knew little about the top-secret force in East Island. The few words and speculation she said were so confusing, but Li Tianlan understood one thing.
Xitian Mingzi said that the Kusanagi Force was a truly invincible team!
Enclosed s.p.a.ce, invincible team, and heavy obstruction.
This was simply a hunting operation that could not be completed.
If it hadn’t been for the appearance of Xitian Mingzi or Xitian Financial Group, he would have been stuck in the Black Sun Inst.i.tute.
He lit a cigarette in silence and the aura of his body grew colder.
“Are you sure you want me to go with you into the Black Sun Inst.i.tute, Tianlan?”
Xitian Mingzi’s solemn, cold voice sounded in the car. The charm on the face of the rich miss of Xitian Clan had completely disappeared, and she looked at Li Tianlan with eyes full of seriousness and cold.
“You don’t dare, do you?”
Li Tianlan responded by asking calmly. As he spoke, the smoke of the cigarette wantonly drifted onto Xitian Mingzi’s face.
“Yes, I do.”
Xitian Mingzi shook her head calmly and said, “It’s just not necessary. You have been given the inst.i.tute’s reset pa.s.sword, so the Black Sun Inst.i.tute is now open to you. I’m not so powerful. If I act with you, I may be a drag on you in case of an accident. I still stick to my guns. Perhaps it is the right thing for me to stay here and coordinate with you, if you trust me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Li Tianlan squinted at Xitian Mingzi’s graceful face and said with a faint smile, “I cannot trust you. I did get the reset pa.s.sword for the inst.i.tute, but I’m not sure whether you have another higher pa.s.sword.”
He waved his hand and continued with a deadpan expression, “I believe in the sincerity of Xitian Financial Group and you also have good reasons for relying on help from Samsara. But I can’t trust you. You may think I am timid and afraid of death, but you must go with me to the Black Sun Inst.i.tute.”
“This is not cowardice.”
Frowning, Xitian Mingzi whispered, “You are too suspicious.”
Li Tianlan smoked and kept his countenance.
“What if I stick to my opinion and stay here?”
Xitian Mingzi quietly looked at Li Tianlan and suddenly asked.
Li Tianlan paused, turned, and looked at Xitian Mingzi.
The two looked at each other in silence, and the atmosphere inside the car suddenly became somewhat oppressive.
After a long while, Li Tianlan twitched the corners of his mouth and said placidly, “I can’t let anyone who might control my life and death get out of my hands, even if the odds are low.”
“So, if I insist on staying here…”
“I will kill you all and then enter the Black Sun Inst.i.tute. You might or might not have a pa.s.sword. You may or may not harm me. But as long as you’re dead, all those possibilities are gone.”
The atmosphere froze all of a sudden.
For a moment, Xitian Mingzi could not even breathe.
She didn’t breathe deeply until Li Tianlan’s cigarette had burned out. She said coldly, “Xitian Financial Group bears you no malice, Tianlan. The reset pa.s.sword in your hand indeed possess the highest authority, and we will not harm you. Aren’t you afraid you’ll kill the wrong people?”
“If Xitian Clan can prove their position afterwards, I will apologize to you for my actions.”
Li Tianlan answered.
“Apologize?”
“What’s the use of apologizing when we’re dead?”
Xitian Mingzi bit her lower lip. Through the dim light, Li Tianlan’s face appeared clear yet blurred in her line of sight. His thin lips pressed together tightly, as if showing infinite firmness and indifference.
An old saying in Zhongzhou State suddenly came to Xitian Mingzi.
I would rather harm others than be hurt by them.
The convoy stopped less than 100 meters away from Sensō-ji.
The lights of the vehicles went out completely.
Li Tianlan threw the cigarette b.u.t.t out of the car and looked at Xitian Mingzi, saying smilingly, “Are you going with me?”
He knew the sincerity of Xitian Clan well. For the moment, Xitian Yingji, the owner of Xitian Financial Group, had been held secretly under house arrest in Dongdu by the Divine Wind Force and Ministry of Finance. Xitian Mingzi’s brother was also held under house arrest. Of course, this kind of house arrest was not mandatory and it didn’t look like house arrest at all. Xitian Mingzi eluded numerous sight lines and succeeded in meeting him with nearly twenty of the best members of her family. Furthermore, she announced her position and divulged some secret information. From this point of view, there was nothing wrong with Xitian Clan seeking Samsara’s help.
But Li Tianlan dared not and could not bet.
He shouldered too much, so once anything that threatened him appeared, he would extinguish it without hesitation, at all costs!
“Yes.”
Xitian Mingzi glanced at Li Tianlan. Finally, she bent and spoke softly.
They both got off at the same time in the darkness. In the dim moonlight, they rushed to Sensō-ji a hundred meters away.
The small wooden doors of the temple were tightly closed.
Li Tianlan and Xitian Mingzi got over the wall without any sound.
With her hand, Xitian Mingzi motioned to Li Tianlan to act separately.
Such being the case, Li Tianlan was not afraid of Xitian Mingzi running away. He nodded slightly and rushed straight to the abbot’s courtyard mentioned in the intelligence.
Sensō-ji was not big, and there were only three monks in the temple. The abbot was of the Fire-flaming Realm and his two disciples just entered the Ice-condensing Realm. This was the guard force of the Black Sun Inst.i.tute on the surface. It was powerful, but Li Tianlan didn’t think highly of it.
The abbot’s courtyard was located behind the temple. As soon as Li Tianlan stepped into the courtyard, a bright streak of light was already in his sight. The saber radiance appeared accompanied by a very sharp shout. “Who?”
Li Tianlan staggered away from the saber radiance. He didn’t even bother to say a word and his two silver swords flashed suddenly.
In the bright saber radiance, a flame disappeared right after it appeared. Li Tianlan’s figure, however, was already outside the courtyard, heading for the central hall.
The entrance switch of the Black Sun Inst.i.tute was at the third knuckle of the left hand of the Buddha statue in the hall. When Li Tianlan opened the mechanism, Xitian Mingzi’s figure happened to appear in the hall.
The floor in front of Li Tianlan broke apart, and a two-meter-wide entrance appeared directly in front of them. The pa.s.sageway behind the entrance extended all the way down, and the light there was soft yet bright.
Li Tianlan looked at Xitian Mingzi with a straight face and said calmly, “Go down.”
There was a complicated look in Xitian Mingzi’s eyes. She walked straight ahead into the pa.s.sageway, gritting her teeth.
Li Tianlan was not far behind. After entering the pa.s.sageway, they had just walked less than ten meters when the cracked floor closed automatically behind them.
“The internal switch is in lab No. 1. Now reset the pa.s.sword, Tianlan.”
Xitian Mingzi said softly.
Li Tianlan looked quietly at the Black Sun Inst.i.tute in front of him. In front of them were corridors with a metallic l.u.s.ter. Rooms were juxtaposed with each other on the corridors and looked solemn and grim. The metal walls reflected a soft sheen. Everything around them seemed brighter than ever.
Li Tianlan took something like a remote control out from his pocket and pressed a series of numbers.
“Crack…”
Inside the Black Sun Inst.i.tute, the sound of metal clashing rang out. The light within the inst.i.tute dimmed for a moment and then brightened again.
Xitian Mingzi led the way ahead. She casually pressed the b.u.t.ton of the elevator down to the second floor underground and strolled idly.
The Black Sun Inst.i.tute was an important part of Night Spirit.
And Xitian Financial Group was also a significant component of Night Spirit. Interestingly, it was well known throughout East Island and Asia as a technology consortium.
In other words, a lot of alloys and all the clever designs in the Black Sun Inst.i.tute were made by Xitian Financial Group. Some of the weapons in it were also placed by Xitian Financial Group.
As for the reset pa.s.sword in Li Tianlan’s hand, it was set a long time ago. It was a task handed down personally by Tian Xin, one of the lords of Night Spirit. It also showed how fierce the infighting between Night Spirit and the East Island government had been over the years.
With this reset pa.s.sword, everything in the Black Sun Inst.i.tute was nothing for Li Tianlan.
If he had not met Xitian Mingzi today, even if he rushed into here, it was estimated that he would have been trapped here.
The elevator went from the first floor underground to the second floor underground.
Xitian Mingzi looked calm and led the way ahead.
The environment on the second floor was exactly the same as that on the first floor, but with fewer rooms and a feeling of precision and science fiction everywhere. Xitian Mingzi led Li Tianlan to an alloy door in the central area. She then turned to look at him and said gravely, “Remember, kill him with one fatal strike, Tianlan!”
One fatal strike!
These words were even directly related to the success or failure of their visit.
Li Tianlan squinted at the alloy door in front of him and, without hesitation, kicked it directly.
“Bang!”
The whole floor seemed to be shaking, and the alloy door was flung open due to great force. The edges of the two swords in Li Tianlan’s hands emitted dazzling light and his body rushed into the No. 1 laboratory of the Black Sun Inst.i.tute.
Xitian Mingzi was not far behind.
“Who is it?”
A roar of surprise and anger sounded suddenly.
In Xitian Mingzi’s sight, the whole laboratory was suddenly filled with a great deal of bright lightning.
A middle-aged man in a kimono who had lightning encircled him had stopped Li Tianlan simultaneously.
Behind the middle-aged man, an old man in a research suit quickly retreated after freezing for a while.
“Boom!”
Li Tianlan exchanged a blow with the middle-aged man in a split second. After throwing a fatal blow with all his strength, he stepped back and the middle-aged man was sent flying due to the impact.
“Doctor! Be quick!”
The middle-aged man spat blood and shouted with an appalled expression.
There was no need for him to open his mouth, because the old man who had been retreating had already made a sound.
“Dongdu, mythical horse, Beihai, Divine Wind, Setting Sun…”
Words came out of the old man’s mouth one by one.
“Crack…”
In a corner of the laboratory, the three statues standing side by side started to vibrate instantly, and numerous densely dotted cracks began to appear on the statues.
“Loyalty, fearlessness, blood, invincibility…”
Xitian Mingzi’s facial expression changed drastically.
Her pretty face twisted in a moment and her eyes were gleaming with undisguised fear. Her voice was completely distorted and sounded unusually sharp. “Tianlan, come on, stop him! Quick!”