Chapter 212: Killing Everyone Still Counts as Infiltration

Chapter 212: Even if We Kill All, We Still Infiltrate

At 03:05, a six‑person squad set off in a Warrior anti‑mine ambush‑counter vehicle.

At 03:45, upon reaching a point twenty kilometres from Huadu City, on the brink of entering mountainous terrain without reliable paved roads, the six men shouldered their weapons and continued on foot toward the city.

At 04:25, the six arrived at the outskirts of Huadu City and, skirting the Old Jun Cliff where the palace stands, closed in on the palace.

At 04:30, Chen Jian led the team up the mountain.

‘Drone, lower altitude; initiate intermittent electromagnetic suppression.’

‘Do not let the guards notice any irregularity; focus on jamming communications. If you detect something, ease the suppression temporarily.’

‘Xie Liu, Ji Xing, sweep the north and south flanks, paying special attention to the main road on the north side that leads from Huadu’s urban core to the palace.’

‘Li Shi, stay behind as rear guard; if the infiltration fails, you are responsible for extracting us.’

‘If any anomaly appears, follow the Battle‑Cranium’s directives and deal with it promptly.’

‘Remember, do not fire! And do not give them a chance to fire!’

‘Understood.’

‘Copy.’

Chen Jian’s orders were issued; Xie Liu and his companion answered at once, then slipped left and right from the formation, dispersing their vigilance as Chen Jian had instructed.

Their silhouettes vanished into the darkness; Chen Jian turned to look at Xu He, intending to tighten the rope gag around his mouth, only to be stunned to see that the man had somehow bitten through the rope and spat a mouthful of blood‑stained saliva.

Just as Chen Jian raised his gun, Xu He had already lifted his hand.

‘I’ll go in with you! I won’t speak!’

‘I promise I won’t utter a single word!’

Xu He’s expression was earnest, and Chen Jian keenly noted that, compared with earlier, his face now seemed markedly more ‘normal.’

Perhaps being close enough to his objective had restored a sliver of sanity to him?

Chen Jian paused briefly, then said resolutely:

‘You may go in, but think carefully—this matter also involves you!’

‘Don’t cause trouble for the rest of us!’

Xu He nodded heavily; Chen Jian looked up, and at that moment the four of them stood less than two hundred metres from the palace above.

On the sheer cliff, the pale‑gray walls of the palace rose like a monolith.

What should have been an insurmountable natural barrier proved only a modest inconvenience to the few Saint‑blooded and to Chen Jian, clad in an exoskeleton.

The motors and hydraulic systems roared at full thrust; Chen Jian vaulted onto the protruding cliff face, and at the instant his feet touched ground the hydraulics compressed with surgical precision, rendering his heavy steps featherlight.

He made not a whisper that could raise alarm, and the loose rock that fell was snatched mid‑air by Xu He below, his speed astonishing.

Looking down, Chen Jian saw Xu He grin exaggeratedly in salute, then gently set the stone he’d caught onto the ground.

The boy was truly awake.

Chen Jian pressed onward; five minutes later he stood beneath the palace wall.

At that instant, through the drone’s eye, he spotted a six‑man guard squad approaching the wall from a distance.

‘Attention, target One is about to reach the kill zone.’

‘Decision point countdown: fifteen, fourteen, thirteen.’

The Battle‑Cranium’s countdown crackled in his earpiece; Chen Jian turned and signaled, and Lei Jie and Xu He fell into step behind him.

‘Eight, seven, six.’

‘Final decision, final decision.’

When the voice rang, Chen Jian drove his legs into the ground and sprang upward, tall and swift.

Simultaneously, Lei Jie and Xu He vaulted onto the wall, then descended with fluid grace.

‘Blade!’

Chen Jian issued a terse command; the three drew daggers in unison and surged toward the three guards who had their backs turned, utterly unaware.

Chen Jian’s blade pierced a guard’s spine; with a slight twist he withdrew, switched his grip from right to left, and drove the point into another’s throat.

Blood erupted instantly; Chen Jian released the hilt, thrust his left hand under the victim’s armpit and clamped his chest with all his might, pulling back while supporting the first fallen foe and laying him gently on the ground.

At the same moment, Lei Jie and Xu He each completed their own kills.

The whole sequence flowed like water, each motion as if meticulously choreographed.

From the cadence of the steps to the timing of the weapon swaps and the arcs of the arms, the precision was mechanical.

An enemy whose throat had been slit but not yet dead was strangled at the chest; a torrent of blood was forced out, then poured back into his throat, drowning his labored breaths.

The noise was reduced to a whisper; the six men hidden in the blind spots of the other guards fell silently to the ground.

Without a pause, Chen Jian drew the pistol already chambered in his holster, while Lei Jie seized his suppressed submachine gun.

Chen Jian gestured repeatedly, ordering Lei Jie to swing to the side and secure the attack point marked by the Battle‑Cranium, while Xu He was left in place to undertake a crucial yet simple task:

Hide the bodies and, if possible, eliminate any enemy that draws near.

It was undeniably a waste of a powerful Source‑blood warrior’s combat potential, but lacking seamless coordination, Chen Jian preferred to leave him there rather than risk dragging him into the fray.

Xu He seemed puzzled, yet recalling his promise to Chen Jian, he dutifully nodded.

Chen Jian glanced at the drone’s feed; by then Xie Liu and Ji Xing had completed their assault, and every guard at the kill zone had been neutralized.

The first‑stage attack had succeeded, but it was only the simplest portion.

From here on, the guards’ lines of sight interlaced; to eliminate them all without alerting anyone required an expansive yet precise global perspective and the swiftest, most decisive execution.

Chen Jian inhaled deeply; his tactical visor displayed the latest time series calculated by the Battle‑Cranium.

‘Advance to the right to attack point Two: countdown fifteen, fourteen, thirteen.’

Chen Jian waited in silence for the countdown, and as the final three seconds ticked down he rose quietly, ready to sprint.

Three, two, one.

Charge!

Chen Jian leapt from the cover at the corner, then stepped forward, using the silent advantage of his hydraulics to shift swiftly behind a new piece of cover.

At that very moment, the second attack sequence entered its decision countdown.

Three, two, one.

After the rhythmical countdown, Chen Jian rose again, turned left and lunged.

Before him stretched a long alley.

At the alley’s end, a second patrol squad of guards had just rounded the corner.

In the instant he lunged, Chen Jian had already raised his gun and aligned his sights.

Without hesitation, as soon as the target came into view, he pulled the trigger.

‘Da!’

A faint crack sounded, and the bullet pierced the first man's skull.

Then, a shot fired from behind a guard struck down two enemies in the second row with pinpoint accuracy.

Chen Jian unleashed three successive shots, each finding the head.

The struck foes had no moment to react, yet the clatter of their weapons striking the ground as they fell rang oddly harsh in the silent night.

“Establish electromagnetic suppression, block all signals!”

When Chen Jian's command was issued, it was as if an invisible field unfurled, rendering every electronic device within the palace dead.

This marked the infiltration's entry into its second phase, shifting from “complete concealment” to a “potential exposure” combat mode.

Unlike the first phase, their aim was no longer to wound the target unnoticed; now they raced against time to eliminate those who had already sensed the anomaly, cutting every alarm chain.

In this stage, randomness grew stronger, and whether the operation would proceed smoothly sometimes hinged entirely on luck.

Fortunately, they had already forged an unrivaled informational edge. The mighty AIs Fuxi and Zhanlu had taken over all intelligence analysis, freeing the few to devote themselves solely to battle.

“Enemy guard squad spotted 40 meters to the right, three persons.”

“Detected blind spot in enemy surveillance, decision countdown 3, 2, 1.”

“Click!”

“Click‑click!”

At the instant the countdown began, Chen Jian had already reached the pre‑planned firing position; as the timer expired, he and Lei Jie simultaneously pulled the triggers, silencing the three foes who were probing the source of the noise.

The trio's location lay precisely within Ji Xing and Xie Liu's control zone; the moment the enemies were hit, the two leapt over obstacles, surged to their front, caught the three bodies, and then turned slowly.

That maneuver refreshed the enemy’s warning signal, buying the squad at least ten more seconds.

When the others realized the scouting party had vanished, Chen Jian would already have redeployed to a new attack point, ready to intercept them further.

All actions unfolded smoothly and swiftly; within a mere five minutes, Chen Jian and his comrades moved through the palace like phantoms.

Gunfire crackled incessantly, enemies fell one after another in the hush, and when the outer targets were cleared, the palace guard had already been reduced by fifty men.

At that moment, the opposition seemed finally to grasp the gravity of the situation.

The scent of blood began to pervade the air, a trace no method Chen Jian employed could ever conceal.

Outside the building marked by Xu He as the “Sleeping Palace,” a squad of more than twenty gathered, poised to meet the enemy.

Meanwhile, others shouted and beckoned their comrades, pouring out from the palace’s main gate in a frantic search for the “potentially present” foes.

The infiltration entered its third and final stage.

Now there was no room for restraint.

Kill with full force; no living enemy may be left behind!

Lei Jie had seized a favorable position, his QCQ201 trained on the enemies outside the sleeping palace.

When the last mobile patrol left the courtyard surrounding the palace, Lei Jie immediately pulled the trigger.

“Click‑click‑click‑click‑click—”

Bullets rained down from the high wall at an angle; amid the dense hail, Xie Liu, Ji Xing, and Xu He surged into the crowd, blades flashing outward to reap lives.

On the battlefield, never firing into friendly fire is a cardinal rule.

Yet for the three Holy Blooded, weaving through the barrage was as effortless as a dance.

In the brief span of a glance, a squad of nearly twenty had already been halved.

The few survivors were then dispatched one by one by Chen Jian’s whisper‑quiet pistol.

Ten seconds.

In just ten seconds, every guard within the sleeping palace was eliminated.

At that instant, Zhanlu had also locked onto the positions of over thirty enemies on the perimeter, preparing a fresh kill sequence.

The palace descended into utter chaos.

Shouts and screams rang unceasingly.

Someone finally discovered a corpse, and another finally raised a gun.

But their positions were too scattered; before the lightning‑fast Holy Blooded could even lift a weapon, they were cut down.

Chen Jian did not rush into the sleeping palace; he knew those inside could not escape.

Behind the sleeping palace lay a cliff; the queen was merely a mortal—where could she possibly run?

The immediate priority was to wipe out all peripheral enemies, preventing them from firing the first shot.

Chen Jian swiftly swapped magazines, ready to storm out of the palace and clear the foes who were almost all turned away from him.

And then, at that very moment, the scenario he dreaded most finally unfolded.

“Bang!”

A violent gunshot cracked through the air.

Chen Jian turned toward the source of the sound and saw that Xie Liu had, at last, lagged behind.

“Enemy! Enemy!”

The report jolted every palace guard awake; a heartbeat later, gunfire erupted in a deafening roar.

Damn!

The enemy numbers were overwhelming—six against a hundred; the uncertainty was simply too great.

Even with the aid of a powerful AI, there was no solution to such a deadlock.

“Open fire at full power!”

Chen Jian gave the decisive order, and Li Shi, already prepared, pulled the trigger.

Heavy‑caliber rounds mercilessly swept the ground as Chen Jian turned, kicked the tightly shut door of the sleeping palace, and surged forward.

“Bang!”

“Boom!”

A massive explosion roared, striking Chen Jian’s chest like a hammer, sending him sprawling backward.

Damn!

Broad sword...?

After a brief pause, Chen Jian sprang to his feet.

Nezha’s formidable shield deflected the hail of shrapnel, and amid the rising smoke, the situational awareness system instantly locked onto the moving target.

“Don’t move!”

Chen Jian shouted, raised his hand, and fired.

“Click!”

The bullet struck the man by the window squarely in the right leg; he staggered only a heartbeat before enduring the pain and climbing out the window.

Where do you think you can run?

Chen Jian pressed forward, and within a few strides he was already at the windowsill.

He knew that the figure he had glimpsed was none other than the so‑called Queen of the Flower City.

And now, his opponent was at the end of the road, with no escape left.

He followed the other's footsteps, leapt through the window, and at that very moment a massive blaze erupted.

Instinctively, Chen Jian slipped to the side, raising his gun to aim at the spot he remembered the foe occupying.

Yet when the flames receded and his vision cleared, he was stunned to find that his target had vanished.

Where is the person!?

From his earpiece, Fuxi's voice crackled suddenly.

“Commander, above us!”

Chen Jian snapped his head upward.

There, several pillars of fire were soaring rapidly into the sky.

Damn.

Rocket craft? Jetpacks?!

Not just one?!

No, you really think you can get away like this?!

Chen Jian even found the scene somewhat amusing.

He exhaled slowly, then said:

“Zhanlu, take control of the drones.”

“Take down all these fireflies!”

(End of chapter)