The silhouette had arrived at the outer wall of the mansion.
Standing on a thin tree branch, concealed by the shade of the leaves and the darkness of the night, the owner of the silhouette was a man.
He stared at the mansion in front of him before snorting.
“Hmph! What a waste of money. This so-called advanced technology is nothing more than this.”
The man spoke in Chinese as the moonlight illuminated his face.
He was Liu Jianmin, a master martial artist from the Liu Clan, one of the hidden martial families in China.
He observed the patrol routes before deciding to ignore them.
These mortals wouldn’t be able to perceive him even if they tried.
He jumped from the tree toward the mansion. Using his qinggong, he stepped on the leaves as they flew through the air, moving like the wind as he passed over the mansion’s wall.
But…
The moment Liu Jianmin landed on the ground, two squads of fully armed personnel quickly closed in on him.
Their faces were covered by masks, and they wore goggles designed for thermal detection.
“Freeze!”
The squad leader shouted as the two assault teams pointed their guns at the unknown intruder.
A few minutes earlier, HQ had called to inform them that the motion detection system had detected strange movement in the backyard of the mansion. The team that had been standing by in the security room quickly moved out to investigate the area.
With their thermal goggles, they detected the intruder like a sore thumb amidst the darkness and coldness of the surrounding area.
The teams were armed with both assault rifles and submachine guns, and every barrel was pointed at the intruder.
But the intruder didn’t even show the slightest hint of nervousness on his face.
They knew that something was wrong.
The team leader signaled for his men to spread out while securing the perimeter, preventing the intruder from escaping.
From the team leader’s perspective, the intruder didn’t appear to have any firearms. The intruder was also wearing a traditional Chinese Tang suit, which didn’t provide much room for hiding weapons.
At most, he could be carrying a short sword, dagger, or pistol. But from the team leader’s discerning eyes, there didn’t seem to be anywhere to hide such weapons. The Tang suit appeared to fit the old man perfectly.
Yes…
The intruder was an old man.
This also made the team leader wary.
He had never seen an old man who could move better than men in their prime.
“Freeze! Hands in the air and slowly kneel down!” the team leader repeated his order once again.
First, he needed to force the old man into a position where he couldn’t easily resist. He needed to see the old man’s hands first, in case he was holding some kind of weapon.
The team leader wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was simply following protocol by the book when it came to dealing with an intruder.
But in this case…
It was a mistake.
The old man suddenly shifted to the side.
The assault team opened fire almost instantly.
RATATATAT!
Muzzle flashes erupted in the darkness as bullets tore through the air where the old man had been standing only a moment ago.
But Liu Jianmin was already gone.
His body moved with such speed that the soldiers could barely follow him. He twisted, stepped, and turned between the streams of gunfire with movements that seemed almost impossible for a human body.
Then…
Boom!
A powerful strike slammed into one of the assault team members.
The soldier’s body was launched through the air and crashed into another group of soldiers.
“Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”
The second group immediately stopped shooting, afraid of hitting their own men.
That hesitation lasted less than a second.
But this was another mistake.
To Liu Jianmin, a second was more than enough.
With a few steps using his qinggong, he crossed the distance in an instant.
One moment, he was several meters away.
The next, he was already among them, closing in to melee range.
His fist struck another assault team member in the chest.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bones rang through the night as the soldier’s rib cage shattered like dry twigs.
Before the man could fall, Liu Jianmin turned and struck another soldier with his elbow, then swept another’s legs out from under him.
“ARGH!”
“Get him!”
“Watch your fire!”
The soldiers shouted over one another as they desperately tried to react.
But Liu Jianmin moved too quickly, and his positioning was highly tactical. He deliberately positioned himself behind the assault team’s own men, making it extremely difficult for the others to fire without hitting their comrades.
The team leader raised his rifle and tried to get a clear shot.
Liu Jianmin immediately grabbed one of the soldiers and pulled him into the line of fire.
The team leader stopped himself from shooting.
“Damn it!”
Every time he found an opening, Liu Jianmin shifted one of his own men into the way.
It was as if the old man knew exactly where every rifle was pointed before the soldiers themselves did.
The fight quickly devolved into a chaotic melee.
Some soldiers abandoned their rifles and drew their knives, switching to close-quarters combat.
The team was composed of military elites. Their CQC skills were nothing to scoff at. Their movements were disciplined and coordinated, and they knew how to surround an opponent.
But that was by the standards of normal military personnel.
To Liu Jianmin, a master martial artist, their movements were painfully slow.
Their footwork was crude, their attacks were predictable, and their defensive stances were full of openings.
There was simply no comparison.
One soldier swung his knife.
Liu Jianmin tilted his head, letting the blade pass beside his face, then struck the man’s wrist and sent the weapon flying.
Another rushed him from behind.
It was as though Liu Jianmin had eyes in the back of his head. He stepped aside and used the soldier’s own momentum to throw him into the ground.
A third attacked from the side.
One kick sent him sprawling.
The soldiers kept coming.
Liu Jianmin kept dismantling them.
The situation repeated itself.
Within moments, bodies were scattered across the ground.
Some soldiers lay unconscious. Others clutched broken limbs and screamed in pain, while several were barely breathing.
The two entire assault teams had been completely wiped out.
Liu Jianmin looked at the piles of bodies in disdain and snorted.
All of this was being broadcast into the operations room at the field HQ.
James, who had been watching the monitor, immediately stood up.
“Teams C, D, and E! Move in! Lethal force authorized! Neutralize the intruder immediately!” James shouted into the communication device.
With this command, the entire mansion lit up with alarms.
Three squads of fully armed men rushed out of the security barracks and toward the intruder’s last known location.
But unfortunately, by the time they arrived, the intruder had disappeared.
“Team E, stay here and call the medical team! Team D, scatter and search!” The team leader of Team C commanded his people, and the team quickly scattered to search for the intruder.
Unknown to them, Liu Jianmin had already infiltrated the building.
He had received a directive from the chairman to kidnap the otherworlders. However, he did not know the deeper details about them, not even the basic information that they were cultivators.
From the information brought back through the lives of the sleeper agents, they only knew that the secret guests of the US this time were somehow related to the giant creature that had laid waste to Natchez.
And they needed these secret guests to clarify more information.
Liu Jianmin stepped through the hallway. He did not have the layout of the mansion, but he trusted his sharp senses, honed through years of martial training.
He was walking toward the place where he had sensed people.
From his perspective, there was one room on the second floor that contained people and another room on the third floor.
Liu Jianmin decided to gamble and headed for the stairs. With a few steps using his qinggong, he quickly arrived on the third floor.
This was because, in his experience, the most important person usually stayed on the highest floor.
Liu Jianmin walked toward what appeared to be the master bedroom. Then he noticed a girl standing in the hallway, directly in front of the double doors of the master bedroom.
The girl appeared to be Chinese. Her face was beautiful, comparable to that of the celebrities Liu Jianmin had tasted back in his homeland.
Her face was pressed against the door, her eyes peering through the gap as if she were trying to sneak a look at what was happening inside.
Liu Jianmin was speechless.
He never thought he would encounter a pervert in a place like this.
The girl seemed to sense his presence. She looked at him and waved her hand, gesturing for him to go away.
Then she simply ignored him and continued peeking through the door.
Liu Jianmin stepped closer.
His sharp hearing immediately picked up a series of moaning sounds.
They were clearly the sounds of a lustful activity taking place inside.
Yet the girl seemed completely unfazed by his presence, remaining focused on whatever was happening behind the door.