The light and shadow quickly transformed into a silver screen several meters square, gently enveloping the traces of the two intersecting auras. The moment they came into contact, the screen suddenly emitted a blinding light, but it only flashed for a moment before stopping, then turned into a clear blue background. The blue background gradually evolved into the shape of rippling water, and blurry images from reality appeared on the screen. However, they looked extremely blurry, as if they were taken by a low-resolution camera while someone was moving at high speed. Even if Ling Yun and Xiao Rou's eyesight was extraordinary, they could not see what was happening on it.
“No, those two are very vigilant. They dispersed all the magnetic elements, so I can’t collect enough magnetic force to display images and sounds. I also don’t know what they’ve been doing,” Xiaorou said.
This result was within Ling Yun's expectations. After all, they were two super strong individuals. It would be strange if he could easily capture their residual images. He nodded and said decisively, "Xiao Rou, let's split up. You follow the trace of aura in the south, and I will follow the original strong individual. We can't miss either one."
"Okay." Xiao Rou simply replied, her gaze towards Ling Yun filled with tenderness. "Be careful, husband, that person is very strong."
"I'm strong too, wife." Ling Yun smiled confidently, flicked his index finger, and a barely visible silver thread shot out from his fingertip, directly entering Xiao Rou's body. Then, Ling Yun gently tapped his chest with his index finger, and the other end of the silver thread entered his body.
"What is this?" Xiao Rou was surprised to feel the silver thread that had entered her body. A surging aura emanated from it at any time. The other end of the silver thread that had entered Ling Yun's body seemed to be connected to an incomparably blazing sun. That was Ling Yun's incredibly powerful mental field. After countless life-and-death tests and tempering, Ling Yun's mental field had been condensed into a small silver ball, yet it emitted light and heat comparable to the sun.
"We can sense changes in each other's mental energy fields and their location through this silver thread. This way, even after we separate, we can still know our situation. In critical moments, we can also use the silver thread to transmit information, but the information can only be transmitted once; otherwise, the silver thread will break due to excessive weight," Ling Yun explained.
This silver thread was a product of his sudden inspiration, a contraption created based on the curse. After improving the data of the copying ability, he removed the core part of the curse and strengthened the connection between the two points, thus enabling it to function as a form of communication and location determination. Due to time constraints, the copying ability could not be further optimized; otherwise, it would have eventually given rise to instant communication similar to a telephone line.
The silver thread disappeared in a flash when it entered Ling Yun's chest. Unless one is a powerful individual with equal strength and ability, no one could detect the subtle connection between the two.
The two embraced briefly before immediately separating and turning away. There was plenty of time ahead; romantic feelings were only temporary. If they could rescue Xia Lan, better days were yet to come. Ling Yun wasn't worried that the powerful figures Xiao Rou pursued would harm her. The girl's progress was undeniable; Ling Yun himself wasn't even sure how far she had grown. However, with her signature move, the Destructive Thrust, Xiao Rou was capable of protecting herself even against opponents of general rank or higher.
The girl who used to be forced to flee and constantly hunted has now become a world-renowned super strong person.
…………
Several hours later, Ling Yun stopped at the edge of a desolate forest. He had once again traveled hundreds of kilometers, and his presence gradually weakened and disappeared into the forest. However, Ling Yun did not choose to enter immediately. Instead, he cautiously scanned the entire forest with his senses. The panoramic view was divided into several angles, like the tentacles of an octopus constantly reaching out in all directions of the forest.
This shouldn't be a primeval forest, Lingyun made his first judgment. The edges of the forest were neat and uniform, showing signs of human planting, and the tree species were relatively simple, mostly banyan trees with a few maple trees. The trees were evenly spaced, and the vegetation between the trees was not lush, lacking the layered greenery and ancient feel of a primeval forest.
Most importantly, this forest wasn't large, only a few tens of square kilometers. The panoramic view easily penetrated the entire forest, transmitting its full appearance from various angles into Lingyun's mind. In the vast wilderness stretching for thousands of kilometers, this solitary forest seemed extremely abrupt and abnormal. The vast majority of the other areas consisted of wild yellow or dark brown shrubs, swamps, and loess areas—clearly the primary crops of the western wilderness. The small forest was merely a cover for some specific purpose.
Four identical red iron signs were placed in the four directions around the edge of the forest. The sign was a skull with a diagonal cross, painted in a shocking blood red. Below it, in a small line of English, was written: "Danger, Do Not Enter," without specifying what the danger was.
Ling Yun smiled slightly. He was certain that this was the headquarters of the U.S. Bureau of Supernatural Abilities. The panoramic view in his mind clearly showed every corner of the forest. On branches, trunks, and even leaves that were not easily noticed, there were high-tech miniature surveillance cameras distributed every few meters.
These miniature surveillance cameras are only the size of an aspirin tablet and have excellent camouflage capabilities. They are painted the same color as the leaves and branches and cleverly embedded inside, making them difficult to detect even for someone with excellent eyesight who is staring at the tree trunk.
It is charged by solar energy and has an electronic transmitter on the back that continuously transmits the monitored video to the data acquisition unit via radio waves every second. Ling Yun once saw this kind of pocket camera in a secret military weapons magazine. It is also sold sporadically on the black market, with an average cost of more than eight thousand US dollars, and it is priceless.
Based solely on the sheer number of cameras scattered like stars, Ling Yun knew it must be the U.S. Special Abilities Agency. Even if it wasn't, it was at least an extremely secretive location like the U.S. Military Region 51. Otherwise, no force would be so generous as to scatter precious high-resolution cameras throughout the forest like seeds. Moreover, the surveillance equipment was just one of the most inconspicuous high-tech facilities in the forest. Ling Yun also discovered many disguised laser tubes that resembled tree branches. The rays emitted by these devices could generate temperatures exceeding 10,000 degrees Celsius, capable of instantly piercing through a steel plate ten meters thick.
The defenses were quite tight, Ling Yun thought with a sneer. He swaggered into the forest. Besides high-definition cameras and laser tubes, the panoramic view also detected all sorts of high-tech devices he couldn't name, but Ling Yun ignored them, as if he had entered a secret weapons display area rather than a forest.
No wonder there were no soldiers or guards on duty nearby, not even a single superhuman. These well-disguised high-tech weapons alone were enough to deter any ordinary person. Even for superhumans, evading the tracking of these high-tech weapons would be extremely difficult; if a surveillance camera was triggered, the laser beam would instantly turn the intruder into a sieve.
As Ling Yun approached the forest, his figure began to fade and then disappeared into the air. The miniature camera futilely recorded a leaf or branch suddenly move and then quickly return to stillness, recording the empty scene with bewilderment, and then transmitting it back to a certain screen via radio waves.
To avoid detection by electronic scanners that could detect his energy activity, Ling Yun also used his Eye of Illusion. Although he had great confidence in his stealth skills, he didn't know what these high-tech weapons were for, so he didn't dare to be careless. He moved through the not-so-dense jungle like a cat, and fortunately, he encountered no obstacles along the way. Soon he arrived at the heart of the forest.
Ling Yun stopped beneath a towering, majestic tree. The heart of the forest remained unchanged, filled with the same trees as the outside, except for the absence of miniature cameras, laser pointers, and other surveillance or weaponry. It seemed all the high-tech equipment was there solely to protect an extremely precious and rare tree species.
These disguises could not hide from Ling Yun. With a flash of his Eye of Illusion, Ling Yun could see that this was a huge barrier with the function of overlapping space. Although the barrier of overlapping space was rare, it was not surprising to a superpower organization like the American Bureau of Superpowers. What was surprising was that the barrier of overlapping space was cleverly combined with the most advanced modern technology, so that the barrier not only preserved its own characteristics, but also had the features of modern technology.
The barrier is invisible to the outside world. This invisibility has a dual nature. On the one hand, it is technologically invisible, with the surface of the barrier having the dual function of reflecting light and avoiding infrared scanning. On the other hand, it is invisible on its own, which can specifically shield against the supernatural scans of powerful superhumans. The two complement each other to form a completely new invisible structure. Any one-sided scanning method from the outside may trigger the barrier's alarm system, making its protection extremely strict.
Chapter 366 Crossing the Barrier
Ling Yun didn't use his senses to touch the barrier. As a master of barrier manipulation, he had already realized that this was a trap specifically designed for people with superpowers. If he used his mental field to probe the structural points of the barrier, the high-tech particle sensors would immediately deliver a 100,000-volt current to the visitor. Even for people with superpowers, most would not be able to withstand such a fierce attack, and it would also expose their whereabouts.
In the Eye of Illusion, the barrier appeared as a huge, round sphere, like an inverted, transparent giant bowl, inside which lay a lush, distorted, dense forest. It was as if a giant funhouse mirror was reflecting the external forest, but Ling Yun knew this was just an illusion. The barrier could present any illusion that might deceive outsiders, as long as it so desired.
Through the Eye of Illusion, Ling Yun could see countless tiny red dots moving irregularly back and forth on the barrier's surface. These dots were invisible to the naked eye, and even infrared scanning could not detect them. The red dots flashed in a net-like pattern on the surface, only occasionally revealing blank rectangles. However, the rectangles were not in fixed positions, but at fixed intervals, they would always appear in a certain spot.
Ling Yun thought for a moment and guessed that the blank rectangles exposed by these red dots should be the entrance and exit passages of the barrier. It seemed to be some kind of nameless high-tech method. Why do these Americans like to mix high-tech stuff into supernatural arts? Ling Yun cursed inwardly.
As the red dots magnified in his field of vision, Ling Yun realized that each red dot was a tiny, constantly changing number. All these constantly changing numbers formed a digital structure on the surface of the barrier, creating a dynamic combination lock with an astonishingly large number of numbers. Unless one possessed the corresponding access card, it was impossible to enter. The barrier itself had locked away all false information except for the dynamic combination lock, making it impossible to falsify anything.
Ling Yun was somewhat troubled. If the entrance and exit were simply set by the structural frequency of the barrier, then even without using sensory exploration, the Eye of Illusion and the Copying Ability could quickly analyze the structural frequency settings, at most taking a little longer. This would allow him to crack the barrier's exit. However, now that the barrier was combined with technological means, the Eye of Illusion was useless. Although the Copying Ability could analyze the data changes of the dynamic password, the problem was that Ling Yun didn't have the corresponding access card, making it a futile effort.
There was no other option but to resort to brute force. The Eye of Illusion had already scanned the structural points of the barrier. Destroying just one of them would immediately trigger a chain reaction, given Ling Yun's current abilities. Although doing so would inevitably alert the enemy and cause a great tremor inside the barrier, Ling Yun couldn't care less about that in order to find out if Xia Lan was inside.
A flash of silver light appeared as Ling Yun was about to gather his mental energy field for a powerful attack. Suddenly, the red dot on the interface began to flash rapidly, and a rectangular blank space appeared a few meters to Ling Yun's left. Then, the interface started flashing incessantly.
Ling Yun immediately dispelled the psychic power he had just gathered, sensing that someone was about to emerge. A thought flashed through his mind, and he already had a plan. Fortunately, he had been maintaining his concealed state, so there was no need for him to deliberately hide anymore. Only a powerful expert of the same level with exceptionally keen senses could possibly discover him, and even that was only a possibility.
A moment later, the blinking of the rectangular blank space stopped, and a small gap suddenly appeared on the interface. Then, the gap gradually widened and lengthened, forming the shape of a door, and a tall white figure walked out from inside.
This was a robust American with striking blond hair and blue eyes. He appeared to be in his forties, with slightly graying chestnut hair, tired dark circles under his eyes, and a pair of gold-rimmed anti-radiation glasses perched on his prominent nose. He was wearing a white lab coat, and it was clear at a glance that he was an underground worker for the American Bureau of Paranormal Abilities.
To Ling Yun's surprise, although this foreign guy was physically strong, he was just an ordinary person. Ling Yun's senses had already touched his skin, but the foreigner was still completely unaware.
He took out a pack of Camel cigarettes and an unnamed lighter from the pocket of his white coat, lit them, and began to puff away outside the barrier, gazing at the distant trees with a rather leisurely expression.
Ling Yun then realized that this guy had come out to catch his breath after a long day at work and had a smoke to calm down, rather than deliberately leaving the barrier for some reason. In this heavily guarded and well-protected secret area, the fact that this foreigner could enter and exit with such priority and without anyone stopping him meant that he was no ordinary staff member of the Special Abilities Bureau.
This is quite different from the headquarters of the Chinese superpowers.
Inside the Superpower Headquarters, Ling Yun saw no ordinary people. Everything within the headquarters was handled by the superpowered individuals themselves, including cleaning, cooking, maintenance, and other tasks. Chinese cultivation emphasizes the unity of heaven and man, and daily life is also part of cultivation. Therefore, superpowered individuals not only had to complete the tasks assigned by headquarters but also had to be strictly self-reliant in their daily lives and even maintain the various public facilities within the headquarters. Ordinary people were not allowed to enter the Superpower Headquarters; in fact, due to the Skynet barrier, they couldn't even get in.
Ling Yun couldn't help but become very interested in this mysterious Bureau of Superpowers. For some reason, he suddenly remembered what Elder Theodore had once said, and his eyes narrowed. Perhaps the Bureau of Superpowers really had some shocking secrets to reveal to the public. This was a good opportunity to find out the truth.
The gap in the barrier had closed by now, but the foreigner in the white coat seemed unconcerned. Ling Yun smiled to himself, and his invisible sensory tendrils probed the foreigner's white coat pocket, finding a thin card. Ling Yun remained calm, used his copying ability to scan the entire card, and then silently retreated.
The data analysis results came out quickly. The card was just an ordinary laser-etched access card, corresponding to the dynamic combination lock of the barrier. The cardholder only needed to swipe on the interface, and the barrier would automatically open a gap to allow entry. It can be said that the barrier and high technology were integrated quite seamlessly.
The only minor inconvenience is that the foreigners' access cards are fingerprint cards that record the cardholder's vital signs. If any of the cardholder's indicators differ from those recorded by the barrier, the barrier will immediately and automatically lock onto the cardholder. If the cardholder is a superhuman, the lock will become an imprisonment. This is perfectly normal; given the Superhuman Bureau's tight security, they naturally want to prevent others from stealing cards or brazenly breaking in with the cardholder's severed limbs.
However, Ling Yun was also aware that all he needed was the laser data on the entry and exit card; he had other ways to handle the rest. Once the foreigner entered, Ling Yun could take the opportunity to follow him in.
A moment later, the foreigner finished his Camel cigarette. He seemed unsatisfied and took out a second Camel from his cigarette case, intending to light it again. Just then, a pleasant telephone ring sounded from another pocket on his white coat.