Chapter 276: (276) Infiltration! & (277) How Dare You!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
At the Tianji Mecha Clan headquarters, a shadowy figure dropped stealthily into the flower garden. At this particular time, this landing spot was precisely the blind spot of all the patrols and sentries ...
With just one step, Ling Lan slipped into the corridor of the garden. By this time, Little Four had long cooperatively manipulated the surveillance feed of the corridor. In the monitoring room, the monitoring staff could only see images from several seconds ago ...
Ling Lan's speed was ghost-like, leaving only a streak of shadowed light as she passed through the dim lighting of the corridor. Crossing the corridor, she arrived at the foot of the main building. She did not choose to enter the hall, instead dashing over to a blind spot by a wall.
Then, Ling Lan's hands could be seen to fly swiftly, aiming for the irregular spots on the wall, using them as makeshift handholds to pull her entire body up, crawling up the wall like a lizard in the blink of an eye to reach the fourth floor. At this moment, Luo Lang was stowed within one of the bedrooms on the fourth floor. She needed to rescue Luo Lang first before she considered anything else.
Moreover, Little Four had already given her a view of the entire headquarters beforehand. Therefore, she knew that the 4th floor, which was where she was climbing to now, had a room with an unlocked window. She would be able to open it and enter from there, and there was coincidentally no one inside at the moment. This was undoubtedly a good opportunity which could shorten the time Ling Lan needed to infiltrate the base.
Ling Lan came to that window, and lightly pushed it open. In the silent depths of the night, even the lightest creak would be striking. Ling Lan was extremely calm — without any hesitation in her movements, she opened the window just wide enough for her body and slipped into the room.
Right outside the room was the main corridor — Little Four was already displaying the image of the corridor outside for Ling Lan, notifying her of the closest patrol. They were still a distance away, so Ling Lan did not hesitate to open the door, just as if she were still in her own villa. She walked out blatantly into the corridor, without any bit of the sort of wariness and care one should have when breaking and entering into someone else's home.
Ling Lan had faith in Little Four's judgment, and Ling Lan did not have the time to spare anyway, because Little Four had told Ling Lan that someone with nefarious intentions against Luo Lang was already heading towards the bedroom Luo Lang was in. She needed to hurry.
After travelling for a distance, Little Four suddenly warned her that there were two patrollers approaching from around the corner.
With a fleeting step, Ling Lan was at the corner. Several nimble steps up the wall later, she had climbed up to the crossbeam, and laid herself flat over it. If someone came up from behind Ling Lan, Ling Lan's figure would be clearly exposed to the eye, but from the opposing direction, Ling Lan's body was entirely obscured by the crossbeam. It would be impossible for the incoming patrollers to discover her presence behind the beam ...
Perhaps the patrollers too did not expect that the impregnable headquarters 1 in their eyes would actually be infiltrated by an enemy, who had already gotten to the 4th floor. Mind you, security was strict on all floors below this one, so any intruder would typically not be able to get past the 2nd floor. Thus, they were somewhat slack, casually breezing past the crossbeam, never once considering to even lift their heads to look up 2 ...
Ling Lan waited for the two men to pass below her, then quietly dropped back down to the ground. In order to eliminate any latent problems, her palms whipped down like knives, chopping onto the napes of the two men.
The two men toppled as the chops landed, and Ling Lan grabbed hold of a man with each hand. She then dragged them to the next equally empty room and tossed them into it.
These were all just small fry, so Ling Lan did not intend to be too harsh on them. In the internal energy she had used during the hand chops, she had only included a little bit of her innate talent's special power. If the other did not manage to clear out that bit of special power, their progress would be greatly impeded — this was Ling Lan's punishment for their role as accomplices to the villain 3 .
After tossing them into the room, the remaining matters would be Little Four's responsibility. Little Four would lock the doors, and just as when they had been on the spaceship, before the morn of the next day, the men's communicators would be non-functional. Before Ling Lan had completely vented her rage, Little Four would ensure the men had no chance of contacting the outside world.
After settling the two men, Ling Lan swiftly hastened towards her destination. Along the way, with Little Four's advanced warnings, in order to avoid detection by the enemy, Ling Lan employed sneak attacks to bring down all enemies in her path before they could notice her.
Meanwhile, in the monitoring room, as Little Four had used a constant loop of false images to replace the video feed, those patrollers taken down by Ling Lan still appeared to be patrolling along their designated routes, again and again ...
********
The white-uniformed youth finally felt the pain in his head leave him, his spiritual power recovering to his normal levels. He walked out excitedly from the infirmary in the base, prepared to properly enjoy the spoils of victory he had gained today. Thinking of that beauty finally capitulating to pleasure under his body, his heart felt hot; it was as if he had not felt this excited in a long time.
The white-uniformed youth was the dux of the starship command specialization, named Shi Mingyi 4 . He was one of the vice regiment commanders of the Tianji Mecha Clan. Technically, he was unqualified to take on a vice regiment commander role based on his abilities, but he just so happened to have a batch of faithfully loyal subordinates, one of whom was even the best mecha expert in the clan beneath the regiment commander. Due to that subordinate's emphatic support, Shi Mingyi had become a vice regiment commander of Tianji last year.
Since shouldering the role of vice regiment commander, Shi Mingyi had used the resources of the Tianji Mecha Clan quite often to seek out information on all the fair-faced youths in the various specializations. Of course, he was cunning about it — those with substantial family backgrounds, he would not dare to touch; he typically went after those from common stock, or those students without very significant backgrounds. One after another over the past year, there had already been five or six youths who had fallen into his wicked hands. And now, these victims had all become team members in his fold, holding him in extraordinary love and admiration, loyal to a fault.
It was also precisely for this reason that Shi Mingyi's fondness for men had not yet been exposed. Adept at deception, he used his trump card to gather a great deal of good favour among the regular cadets, setting himself up as a sunny, righteous, and honest person. He was the consummate good student in the instructors' eyes, the dux who the students respected, the just vice regiment commander of the Tianji Mecha Clan ...
Moreover, Shi Mingyi knew very well where the secret of his success laid — apart from himself, no one else knew that his spiritual mutation was Hypnotism. No one other than his closest confidantes knew he liked men. On the outside, he buried this proclivity of his deeply. Even though all types of gorgeous young men were gathered by his side, due to his own handsome appearance, he fit in well enough that no one had ever thought anything of it ...
As a vice regiment commander, Shi Mingyi had a personal lounge within headquarters, at the end of the 4th floor. Even though it was just a small bedroom of about 20 square metres, it was furnished lavishly, with the entire floor covered in shag carpeting.
When one opened the door and entered the room, the first thing one would see would be a grand old-fashioned wooden armchair directly facing the doorway. However, this armchair was very strange, taller than regular chairs by 30 to 40 centimetres, almost at the height of a standard table. Who knows whether it was truly meant for sitting on or was just a decoration. Behind the armchair was a thick cloth curtain, hiding the scene deeper into the room from view.
Shi Mingyi cast a careful glance out the doorway, confirming that there was indeed no one there before softly shutting the door behind him. After that, he deadbolted the door and set a protective passcode, assuring that other than himself, no one else would be able to enter his room.
That done, he stepped past the armchair and parted the curtain. Inside, there was only a single circular waterbed, with chains as thick as one's thumb draping down from it on all sides, culminating in a strange aesthetic. Additionally, on the ceiling, a flat and sparkling mirror was embedded, clearly reflecting everything on the bed.
A youth in a green uniform was lying on the bed. On his delicate face, his eyebrows were knitted, his eyes closed tightly. It looked like he was deeply unconscious, but perhaps because there was some discomfort affecting his body, for his complexion was pale, causing him to look even more pitiful and fragile. The sight of him almost caused Shi Mingyi to be consumed by the flames of lust — he wished desperately that he could morph into a ravenous wolf and gobble up this delectable youth instantly.
This lovely youth on the bed was precisely the one Ling Lan had spent so much time and effort to find, Luo Lang.
Besides the large bed, there was nothing else that could be seen within the room. The walls on all four sides were covered by thick, floor-length curtains.
Shi Mingyi gulped, slowly walking over to sit on the edge of the bed. He gently stroked that exquisite face of Luo Lang, so enchanted that he almost did not want to stop.
His fingers slid down slowly from Luo Lang's face to his neck, and then slowly unfastened the buttons on Luo Lang's uniform. He tugged open the top of the uniform forcefully, revealing the white shirt inside it, along with a faint trace of soft white skin.
Right then, Shi Mingyi could hold back no longer — he ripped apart the white shirt impatiently, and with a tearing sound, the rest of the buttons were sent flying, and Luo Lang's lovely body was exposed just like that before Shi Mingyi. The two pretty pink nubs on Luo Lang's chest almost made Shi Mingyi salivate ...
"Exquisite, truly exquisite ... who would have expected such an exquisite beauty to appear in the First Men's Military Academy? All those I have sampled before were just trash!" exclaimed Shi Mingyi, his fingers trailing down Luo Lang's chest. He revelled in the sensation he was receiving from his hand, feeling how smooth and warm the other's skin was, how supple ...
Perhaps these touches made Luo Lang uncomfortable, for his brow creased even more noticeably. However, the effects of the anaesthetic were too strong; he still laid there unmoving.
Shi Mingyi had initially planned to properly savour the other, but seeing the other unresponsive like a dead fish, he felt somewhat dissatisfied. After some thought, he tugged over a chain hanging by the head of the bed, and looped it around Luo Lang's left hand, securing it. Next, he pulled yet another chain from the other side and secured Luo Lang's right hand as well.
Then, he pressed a button at the head of the bed, and the curtain on his left-hand side was pulled aside to reveal a cabinet. Inside the cabinet were countless sex toys, and even some SM equipment 5 , and there was of course several high-tech safes installed within it as well.
Shi Mingyi pressed a finger onto the screen on one of the safes, and the initially dark screen lit up to display a numbered keypad. Shi Mingyi deftly keyed in a string of numbers, and with a dull click, the door of the safe sprang open. There was a considerable number of medical agents inside it, as well as several one-use syringes.
Shi Mingyi removed two tubes of agent from the safe, and then took out a one-use syringe set. He filled the syringe with one of the agents, walked over to Luo Lang, and injected its contents into Luo Lang's arm. This was closely followed by the next tube of agent, which he also injected into Luo Lang's arm.
After doing all this, Shi Mingyi discarded the one-use syringe set into the rubbish bin. He then shut the safe, returned to the bed, and pressed another button. The curtains drew close once more, restoring the room to its original state.
===========================
Very quickly, Luo Lang moaned and opened his eyes, and saw the white-uniformed youth beaming at him. Luo Lang's expression changed drastically, for he knew now that he had not managed to escape in the end, and had been abducted by the other.
He struggled, then heard the clinking noises coming from above his head. Looking up, Luo Lang saw his hands bound in metal chains, and as the anaesthetic had not worn off completely yet, he still felt weak and powerless.
"Who are you? Which organisation are you from? Why did you capture me?" Luo Lang quickly calmed himself down and spoke up to ask. His voice was rather hoarse and weak — in Shi Mingyi's ears, it naturally had a particular flavour of enticement.
"Shi Mingyi, 4th year dux of the starship command specialization, and vice regiment commander of the Tianji Mecha Clan. And as for why I captured you?" Shi Mingyi smiled and reached out to stroke a hand over Luo Lang's face, expression besotted as he said, "That's because I like you ..."
Luo Lang tried to evade Shi Mingyi's fingers in revulsion, but was unsuccessful. And then Shi Mingyi's words registered, causing him to freeze for a moment, but he quickly understood and yelled in rage, "Let go of me, you pervert!"
"A pervert, is it? If I must become a pervert to like you, I will willingly succumb to this depravity!" Shi Mingyi's face shifted to reveal a bitter smile. This expression startled Luo Lang, but logic quickly reasserted itself as he scolded, "Of course you're a pervert, or else how could you do something like abduction?"
Shi Mingyi's body jerked back as he pressed a hand to his forehead. He closed his eyes to rest his mind for a beat before opening them again. Right then, his initial seemingly earnest smile was nowhere to be seen ... there was only darkness and a trace of ruthlessness left on his face. "Still not working? Who could have expected that your spiritual power is this strong, actually repelling me once more, reflecting damage back at me. Looks like, I need to first let you taste the all-consuming pleasure of the body before you'll be willing to submit to me."
That said, he began to take off his clothes. Luo Lang's irises contracted, and his pearl-white teeth bit down harshly on his own lips. He was trying to use pain to chase away the effects of the anaesthetic, desperately circulating the Qi-Jin in his body, hoping that he would be able to recover enough Qi-Jin for a final suicide attack.
Yes. Luo Lang was prepared to die with his enemy in his attempt; he would not suffer this humiliation ...
Within the yawning emptiness in his body, Luo Lang suddenly sensed the presence of internal energy again. Pleasant surprise flashed through Luo Lang's eyes, but very quickly, his expression changed once more, the initial paleness of his face being replaced by a rosy flush.
"Haha, you're feeling it now, right? This is some ultra-potent aphrodisiac. It will make you beg me to give it to you again and again, turning you into a complete slut ..." Shi Mingyi began laughing gleefully at the sight.
He was just about to rip off the clothes on the lower half of Luo Lang's body when a frigid aura enveloped the entire room ...
"How dare you!" A glacial voice rang out by Shi Mingyi's ear, instantly dousing Shi Mingyi's blazing fires of lust with a deluge of ice-cold water, cooling him down rapidly.
Meanwhile, on the bed ... Luo Lang, who had been planning to kill himself along with his captor, had relieved joy shining from his eyes. His line of sight had coincidentally shifted to look up at the mirror on the ceiling, and from its reflection, he could see a stony and stately figure standing at the curtain by the door — it was Ling Lan!
"Boss ..." Luo Lang cried out emotionally. His eyes turned red uncontrollably, as his heart full of rage, sorrow and despair instantly melted into a pool of tender emotions. So this was Boss, his boss that deserved his loyalty and trust ... he had come at this most critical moment to save him.
Shi Mingyi whipped his head around in shock, and seeing that familiar figure before his eyes, his expression shifted as he called out, "Ling Lan! It's you ..." He reflexively looked towards the area behind Ling Lan. He had clearly set a passcode — didn't Lu Yong-guang say before that no one would be able to crack the lock, and would only be able to break down the door by force to enter? How then had the other snuck in without a sound? Without him sensing anything at all?
"You've made me angry ... you, have to pay the price for your transgressions!" Ling Lan's face was a sheet of ice, for she had seen Luo Lang's current state. The killing intent in her heart waxed thicker. The blood-soaked killing intent concealed deep within her body all this while abruptly exploded out into the room, instantly dominating the entire space.
Qi Long, Luo Lang and the other little companions who had grown up alongside Ling Lan held special places in Ling Lan's heart. Ling Lan took care of them like her own younger brothers — in fact, in Ling Lan's heart, they were even like sons to her — the emotions she invested in them were beyond the norm.
Ling Lan's killing intent was extremely dense now, but she controlled it skilfully, not allowing any bit to leak out of the room. As the main target of the killing intent, Shi Mingyi instantly felt himself plunged into a crimson world. Countless knives of light and swords of shadow hurtled towards him — he felt himself being pierced by these countless phantom blades, but also felt his limbs being sliced off bit by bit, his gut dissected, and his heart torn out, but he could not die. He watched helplessly as his body, his innards, were finally reduced to a puddle of bloody water, which then vanished without leaving a trace.
This was not only physical agony — it was also a spiritual torment. There was a moment where he even wanted to end his life by biting his tongue off, unwilling to bear this endless suffering any longer 6 ...
In reality, he had really bitten his tongue. However, perhaps because he did not have enough strength, or perhaps he did not really want to die in his subconscious mind, for although he had bitten his tongue, he had only wounded it and not severed it completely. Still, this allowed him to stumble onto an escape by chance — the intense pain shook him out of the illusion of hellish torment, to return to reality.
However, even so, the power which had crashed onto him from the start had still caused internal injury to Shi Mingyi. The moment he regained awareness, a lance of blood spurted from his mouth, and his entire body wavered on his feet.
At this time, Shi Mingyi could already tell that he was no match at all for Ling Lan. He had some understanding with regards to force of presence. He knew that it was one of the abilities one gained in the late stages of Qi-Jin. He had studied it and formed it himself — it would push a crushing pressure onto the intended target, effectively subduing them. He had never before encountered such a formidable embodiment of presence however. Its power was not only presented on a physical plane, but also on a spiritual one. If he had not stumbled onto a way out of its effect by chance, he might have been trapped in its endless torments until he died.
Shi Mingyi knew that he had misstepped this time. Who knew that the seemingly easily bulliable Luo Lang actually had such a powerful boss behind him? Shi Mingyi did not want to die, so he decided to use his last resort ...
"Boss Ling, I think this is a misunderstanding." Shi Mingyi tolerated the pain in his mouth, forcing a stiff smile onto his lips.
Ling Lan quirked a brow at these words. "Oh?" She had sensed a strange tendril of spiritual power trying to invade her spiritual domain.
This should be a type of spiritual attack, but it was not one Ling Lan was familiar with. It did not cause any discomfort, and seemed exceedingly harmless. Of course, Ling Lan would not permit any strange spiritual power to just invade into her spiritual domain. With a swift spiritual shake, she crushed this cord of spiritual power.
Sure enough, the moment Ling Lan destroyed this cord of spiritual power, Shi Mingyi's body jerked, his already pale face becoming even paler, losing all trace of blood. She even saw the other's eyebrows lock tightly together, the muscles on his face spasming. It looked like the rebound force had been extremely powerful — the other had not been able to bear it without reacting.
"Little Four, what spiritual power is this?" Ling Lan was curious, so she asked Little Four within the mindspace.
Little Four immediately answered, "This is a type of mid-level awakened innate talent, Mesmerise!"
Sensing Ling Lan's confusion, he explained, "It's actually what you call 'hypnotism' in your world. With this ability, a person can beguile another to change how they view them ..." Little Four silently wiped off the cold sweat from his forehead — luckily, he still had nine instructors to be his solid backup, otherwise he would not have been able to elaborate anything on this kind of mysterious awakened innate talent ...
Ling Lan's initially tepid face became frigid once more — this type of ability in the hands of such a scumbag ... how many innocent people had suffered at his hands? In an instant, Ling Lan decided to rid the other of this innate talent.
Shi Mingyi found that his Hypnotism had backfired on him, and felt a surge of despair. He knew now that the other was most likely someone with a mental spiritual mutation, able to defend against this ability of his, just like Luo Lang. He was not content to just give up and be captured, so when he saw Ling Lan appear to be thinking about something, he leapt forwards with a spring of his right foot, pouncing towards Luo Lang on the bed, planning to grab Luo Lang to use as a hostage ...
As long as Luo Lang was in his hands and the opponent became afraid to act, it would give him the chance to sound the alarm in Tianji's headquarters and he would be able to live! Yes, he did not want to die ... because he had seen the boundless killing intent within the opponent's eyes!
"You're asking for it!"
Seeing Shi Mingyi try to grab Luo Lang in a final desperate bid for survival, Ling Lan growled furiously.
Following this sound, Shi Mingyi's darting body crashed onto the ground. A powerful spiritual charge had been sent straight at his brain — he only felt his brain being struck harshly, and then there was a soft 'splat' as if his brain had split open, and he fell unconscious.
Ling Lan's figure shifted and she was instantly by Luo Lang's side. She asked, "Luo Lang, how do you feel?"
"I'm okay, Boss! I just feel weak." Despite the red flush suffusing Luo Lang's face — the aphrodisiac in his body already beginning to show effect — because it was still in the early stages, he could still bear it. He was extremely ashamed about how he had been captured so easily, finally even needing to trouble Boss Lan to come save him.
"Anaesthetic?" Ling Lan scanned Luo Lang's body, and found that the anaesthetic had already mostly run its course. As long as they waited patiently, Luo Lang would return to normal, but there was still another extremely strange agent within Luo Lang's body.
"What is this?" Ling Lan was rather puzzled.
"Boss, Luo Lang has been dosed with an aphrodisiac." Little Four had described Luo Lang's condition to the instructors of the learning space. When he had told Instructor Number Nine, she had kicked him right out of her space, while Instructor Number Five had only reacted with a sleazy and lecherous smile. Fortunately, Instructor Number Four had taken pity on him and secretly told him the answer ... but, what was this thing called an aphrodisiac? Little Four decided to rifle through his databases to find out.
"What?! Aphrodisiac?!" The veins on Ling Lan's head popped out in anger. She swept a freezing gaze at the unconscious Shi Mingyi lying on the ground, and unhesitatingly lifted a foot to stomp heavily on the other's unprotected back. She ground her heel mercilessly into his back for a moment, and the cracking sounds of bones breaking could be heard. Shi Mingyi's backbone had been pulverized by Ling Lan 7 .
"Is there an antidote? Little Four, search the scene." Ling Lan ordered as she broke the chains holding down the wounded Luo Lang.