The next morning, after finishing a simple breakfast, Thuong Sinh did not meditate but carried a small hoe out into the yard. He did not go far, but began moving around the edges of the formation.
He began implementing a plan he called the biological interference system.
Thuong Sinh sought out the mutated bushes with the highest toxicity nearby—the kind of plants he had previously avoided due to their foul stench. He did not destroy them; instead, he used internal force to stimulate them to grow more vigorously right against the formation's boundary. He adjusted his internal force so that these plants emitted a chaotic amount of radiation and heat, perfectly mimicking the characteristics of a high-level mutated monster's lair.
In the eyes of remote scanning devices, Thuong Sinh's camp would no longer be a pure red dot or a suspicious empty zone. It would appear as a heavily contaminated land, riddled with dangerous mutated creatures that any team would want to avoid.
Lam Thanh Moc, holding Thuong An, stood on the porch watching Thuong Sinh busy clearing and rearranging the thorny bushes; she asked curiously: "Are you planning to plant more thorn fences? I see these plants look quite ferocious."
Thuong Sinh stood up, dusting the dirt from his hands.
"Just making our home look more 'integrated' with the forest."
He walked closer, receiving Thuong An from her arms. The boy seemed very cunning today, his jet-black eyes staring fixedly at the jade Formation Eye block on the wooden pillar. Thuong Sinh noticed that after a night living in the spiritual energy environment of the Pure Spirit Grass and the formation, the little one's skin had become rosy, his breathing deep and steady; it seemed the boy's health was improving miraculously.
Thuong Sinh sat on a bamboo chair, placing his son on his lap. He lightly extended a finger, mobilizing a bit of his most harmonious internal force to play with Thuong An's tiny hand.
The formation hides the inside, the toxic disguise hides the outside. With this two-layer defense system, unless an extremely high-level individual personally stepped into the location, otherwise this place would completely disappear from the Neos Corporation's maps.
He looked at Lam Thanh Moc, who was busy drying the newly harvested medicinal materials, then at the son laughing in his lap. All the preparation, all the slaughter out there, in the end, was only to trade for a peaceful afternoon like this.
While Thuong Sinh was enjoying the peace, dozens of kilometers away, inside a skyscraper encased in radiation-proof reinforced glass belonging to the Neos Corporation, the atmosphere was tense to the extreme.
At the 88th-floor operation center, dozens of giant monitors were displaying the thermal map of the Secret Forest Dead Zone. Interlacing streaks of red and blue danced continuously, but at a fixed coordinate, all graphs were displaying a straight gray line.
"Still no response?" Dr. Aris entered the operation room, his voice hoarse from lack of sleep.
"Sir, it has been over 18 hours since the last report," a data analyst hurriedly reported. "The biometric signals of the entire team disappeared simultaneously at these coordinates. The strange thing is... immediately after, our low-orbit satellite station recorded a change in the energy spectrum in that region."
The technician zoomed in on a thermal chart recorded from yesterday evening.
"Look, sir, the coordinate zone containing 'Life Source 01' was suddenly covered by an interference membrane. It is like an energy vacuum; no radiation is emitted, nor is any heat escaping. It has completely... vanished from our sight."
Aris narrowed his eyes at the gray area on the screen.
"There are two possibilities," Aris mused. "One is that an S-class mutated plant species swallowed Team No. 4 and created a closed domain to digest the energy. Two is... someone arrived before us and established high-tech shielding equipment."
"But that Dead Zone does not fall under the control of any current base," the woman beside him spoke up.
"That is exactly why it is valuable." Aris tapped his finger lightly on the table. "Send a notice to the Balance Special Task Force."
The man paused, his eyes gleaming: "Early tomorrow morning, when the sun rises, I want two Predator-X heavy drones to sweep those coordinates using penetrating ultrasonic waves. If that thing is still there, that layer of mist or shielding equipment won't hide it for long."
Early the next morning.
Thuong Sinh was standing on the porch; he sensed that the disguise of toxic thorn bushes and foul-smelling plants he had arranged the other day seemed to have begun taking effect. In his spiritual sense, the house now felt like the lair of a terrifying monster, emitting deathly aura to deceive ordinary senses.
However, as he looked up at the gray sky of the forest, Thuong Sinh suddenly felt his heart skip a beat. An ill omen inherent to a cultivator was warning him.
He turned back into the house, looking at Lam Thanh Moc busy preparing breakfast and Thuong An crawling on the fur rug. Thuong Sinh knew that if he continued to remain passive and wait, the battlefield would erupt right in his yard, and the aftershocks of those people's weapons could harm those he protected.
Thuong Sinh stood silently looking at the Pure Spirit Grass. The three jade leaves were still vibrating, emitting the pure white mist. If not for it, perhaps this place would still be an anonymous hidden corner, but then he looked back at Thuong An, seeing his young son crawling, his few-months-old rosy cheeks, his breath deep and stable.
He could not let the battlefield erupt here; he turned and spoke softly to Lam Thanh Moc: "I'm going to check a few distant traps. If you see the sky suddenly turn dark or hear strange thunder, just stay inside the house; do not take the jade from the wooden pillar."
Lam Thanh Moc paused; her sensitive eyes saw through the bone-chilling determination in his eyes. She did not ask "Why?", only stepped forward to adjust the hem of his coat, saying softly: "The child and I will wait for you to come back for lunch."
Thuong Sinh nodded, went to the corner to take the Gale Leather Armor and placed the Marsh-Blood Sword at his hip, then turned to walk out the door.
Thuong Sinh stepped out of the formation's boundary; the warm, peaceful sensation was immediately replaced by the chill of the deadly mutated forest. He did not follow the familiar trails but aimed straight Northeast, where he sensed something lunging toward his home's position at extreme speed—metallic light specks tearing through the mist.
He mobilized "Phantom Steps", his figure gliding across the canopy like a ghost. This time, Thuong Sinh did not just want to destroy; he wanted to establish a dead zone.
Northeast, about four kilometers from the wooden house, Thuong Sinh stopped atop a large moss-covered limestone block. Above, the engine sounds of heavy drones were very close. Two Predator-X units were sweeping bright red lasers across the ground, searching for traces of something.
He touched the sword hilt behind his hip; the killing intent from the blade, as if sensing its master's will, began to vibrate faintly. Thuong Sinh looked at the two Predator-X drones circling overhead, his purple-black eyes narrowing slightly; he did not choose to face them head-on immediately. He lunged, vanishing into the dense foliage of an ancient tree mutated by radiation.
He mobilized his internal force—not for attack, but for assimilation. The internal force radiated out, threading into every leaf and tree root, blending with the corrosive toxic fumes of the forest. In an instant, the entire few-hundred-meter radius around him became abnormally still, as if the air had solidified.
Whir... whir...
The two Predator-X units sensed the abnormality. Their optical and infrared sensors began jumping erratically due to the change in air density caused by the internal force.
"Level 5 biological interference detected. Activating ultrasonic scanning mode," the soulless mechanical voice rang out.
At the very moment the first ultrasonic wave launched down, Thuong Sinh acted.
He did not draw his sword but only raised two fingers, mobilizing a surge of internal force so condensed it nearly turned into a purple-black thread.
"Phantom Steps"
His figure did not just blur, but seemed to split into four or five dense black afterimages gliding through the air. One Predator-X had just intended to rotate its pulse gun turret toward a dark shadow when Thuong Sinh appeared right on its back.
As soon as Thuong Sinh's feet touched the cold alloy shell of the first Predator-X, its automated defense system reacted instantly at a speed of only a few milliseconds.
"Warning: Physical intrusion detected! Activating thermal reflection protocol!"
Boom!
The drone's shell suddenly heated up to thousands of degrees Celsius, creating a halo of fire to repel everything around it. Thuong Sinh's internal force overflowed into his hands encased in the Gale Leather Armor, forming a thin separation membrane. He did not retreat but stomped his heel hard, using the momentum to leap into the air just as the second Predator-X arrived.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The pulse machine gun beneath the second drone's belly spat a rain of electromagnetic rounds, tearing through the afterimages of "Phantom Steps". Thuong Sinh flipped amidst the void; bullets grazed his cloak, making the air reek of burning.
"Target locked! Launching short-range heat-seeking missiles!"
From both flanks of the Predator-X, four mini-missiles left their launchers, their fiery tails slashing through the mist, lunging toward Thuong Sinh in erratic trajectories.
The four missiles tore through the mist as they approached. Thuong Sinh jumped higher, falling through mid-air; he lightly flicked his hand, and the Marsh-Blood Sword at his hip suddenly moved beneath his feet.
"Sword Kinesis: Gale Transformation"
Thuong Sinh's figure stood firm on the Marsh-Blood Sword, hovering in the sky. Wind whistled past, yet his body remained motionless. Watching the four twisting flares of light lunging toward him, Thuong Sinh did not dodge; his left hand suddenly formed a seal, and a surge of internal force pungent with the hue of blood poured forward.
"Blood-Condensing Mace"
A block of deep crimson energy, as thick as clotted blood, appeared, transforming into a wall before him.
Boom! Boom!
The first two missiles collided with the blood energy block, exploding violently; the shockwave shook the entire pocket of space but could not penetrate the dense defense. The remaining two slipped through the explosion's smoke, following erratic trajectories aimed at his flanks. Thuong Sinh maintained a cold face, his index finger moving slightly.
The Marsh-Blood Sword beneath his feet suddenly vibrated powerfully; a surge of blade-force enveloped the blade, carrying him through an extremely precise sharp turn in mid-air, neatly dodging the two missiles by a hair's breadth.
The first Predator-X, seeing the target still unharmed, immediately activated its Energy Shield. A pale blue halo of light covered the entire drone body, protecting it from conventional physical attacks. Simultaneously, the pulse guns beneath its belly began to rotate their barrels, frantically spitting rounds.
Thuong Sinh retracted the sword into his right hand, his feet treading on the void using internal force.
"Blade Wind"
He swung the sword; a black blade-force over three meters long tore through the air, slashing straight into the first drone's pale blue shield.
The sound of the collision was ear-piercing. The blade-force slashing into the energy shield created a spray of electric sparks. The Predator-X was pushed back a dozen meters; the light membrane vibrated violently and the energy shield shattered into pieces.
Immediately, the second drone from behind also pressed close, launching a rain of bullets to lock off his retreat. Thuong Sinh did not turn his head but knew the wind-tearing rain of bullets was lunging behind his back. He suddenly tilted his body in mid-air, the Marsh-Blood Sword in his hand spinning backward.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sounds of metal-on-metal collisions sparked as the blade parried away the bullets lunging through the air.
"Blood-Condensing Mace"
His left hand seized the void; blood-hued internal force condensed into a dense sphere. Instead of using it for shielding, Thuong Sinh threw the blood energy block hard toward the first Predator-X that had just lost its shield.
Boom—!
The Blood-Condensing Mace block exploded right on its alloy shell; the heavy shock force caused the drone body to dent and lose balance, falling freely for several meters.
The explosion of the Blood-Condensing Mace tossed the first Predator-X away, but at this very moment, gravity began to pull Thuong Sinh down. Amidst the void without a foothold, he did not panic. He flipped his wrist, the hilt of the Marsh-Blood Sword pointing downward.
The sword in his hand flew off, transforming into a streak of black light lunging straight beneath his feet. At the moment his toes touched the sword body, Thuong Sinh exerted internal force to hold tight, borrowing the flying sword's thrust to stand firm while lunging forward like a dark arrow, dodging the remaining bullets from the second Predator-X.
The second Predator-X, seeing the target suddenly accelerate, immediately activated its pursuit missiles. Two heat-seeking missiles left their launchers, erratically chasing behind his back.
Thuong Sinh remained standing on the flying sword, back facing the enemy. He did not turn his head, only used two fingers to form a seal, controlling the Marsh-Blood Sword to perform a sudden 180-degree turn right in mid-air. He had just turned around, facing the two incoming missiles directly.
"Blade Wind"
Without a single redundant movement, Thuong Sinh swung his hand, slashing out a streak of pitch-black blade-force. This blade-force did not aim at the drone, but accurately slashed into the warheads of the two missiles.
Kaboom! Kaboom!
Fire and smoke erupted right in front of him, obscuring the second Predator-X's vision. Utilizing the smoke screen, Thuong Sinh mobilized the Marsh-Blood Sword to carry him through the halo of fire, appearing right at the second drone's flank at a speed its sensor system could not react to.
He retracted the sword into his hand, his left hand already charged with deep crimson internal force.
"Blood-Condensing Mace"
This time he did not throw it, but slammed the dense blood energy block directly into the drone's propulsion rotors.
Crack! Crash!
The sound of alloy fracturing rang out. The second drone completely lost its lift, beginning to spin wildly before slamming into the limestone cliff below.
Thuong Sinh stood on the sword looking down, his face cold and devoid of expression. The two Predator-X units were now only two flickering piles of fire in the misty valley. He lightly retracted the Marsh-Blood Sword, gliding through the air, heading toward the deeper valley to check if any other eyes were peering.