Late afternoon.
At dusk.
The farm villa stood quietly in place.
The setting sun cast a golden sheen over it.
The farm had been abandoned for some time, so the weeds had grown very tall.
And as darkness swallowed the land,
the surroundings grew pitch-black.
An ordinary person walking through it would have struggled to notice anything just a few meters away.
"The young man in the villa is no simple fellow. He almost noticed us."
"You're overthinking it. No matter how capable he is, he's still just an ordinary person."
"Exactly. Haven't you noticed he's been quiet these past few days?"
At that moment,
three figures crouched among the overgrown weeds,
moving slowly and cautiously, as if afraid of being discovered.
They wore black tactical outfits and each held a compound crossbow. Quivers on their backs were filled with sharp alloy arrows that glinted coldly.
Compound crossbows were enormously powerful and could fire in rapid succession. In the mountains, they could take down wild boars and bears. Their power even surpassed that of ordinary small firearms. They were explicitly prohibited, yet the three men carried them in their hands.
"Ask me, we don't need to be so cautious at all. So what if we're spotted? We can just shoot the guy dead."
The speaker was a short man, but his tone was vicious. He spoke as if human life meant nothing to him.
"What are you talking about?"
The man in the lead frowned. "The timing is too sensitive. The higher-ups warned us not to take any lives, or it'll be difficult to clean up afterward."
Their backing might be powerful, but there were still things they had to be wary of—especially since this wasn't some remote mountain wilderness.
If they killed someone, they would inevitably leave clues behind.
Unless there was no other choice,
they absolutely couldn't act recklessly.
"I was only saying," the man replied, lowering his head and saying no more.
But his eyes remained full of malice, like a venomous snake.
The leader didn't press him. He raised his wrist and checked the time. "According to the company's predictions, the meteor should fall around eight. When it does, you two remember: don't hesitate. Take the item and leave immediately. Then the mission will be complete."
"Understood."
The others answered, then asked curiously,
"Captain Zhao, I heard a lot of meteors are falling in different places tonight. We're just one of the teams assigned to this mission."
"Correct."
Captain Zhao nodded. "There should be over a hundred teams. But some meteors will burn up from friction when they enter the atmosphere. Who knows if we'll be lucky enough to see one reach the ground? If we are, we won't have to worry about money for the rest of our lives."
He clearly knew more than the others, and understood how seriously the company took this mission.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have devoted so many resources to it.
"Over a hundred teams?"
One of them exclaimed. "Who exactly is our company's boss?"
He knew that his own team's equipment alone had cost over a million, not even counting the personnel.
If there were over a hundred teams with the same gear, wouldn't that add up to more than a hundred million?
"Don't stick your nose into things you shouldn't ask about. Otherwise, you might not even know how you lost your life." Captain Zhao rebuked him. The subject was clearly taboo for him, and he didn't want to discuss it further.
After all, to put it plainly, they were nothing more than hired muscle raised by the company. In ancient times, they would've been servants. A servant prying into his master's affairs was just asking for death.
"Yes, yes. I won't ask again."
Realizing he'd crossed a line, the man said no more.
The others shrank back as well, then focused their attention ahead.
Of course, they didn't forget to keep an eye on the nearby villa. If anything went wrong, they would strike at once.
Meanwhile,
inside the villa,
Lu Yuan had already turned off the lights and was sitting alone on the living room sofa.
"This is the last day. If the target is the meteor, then the people hiding in the dark will definitely make their move tonight." He gazed at the now completely dark sky and muttered to himself.
Lu Yuan was certain that there were people in the farm, and that he wasn't their target.
The reasoning was simple: if he were, they would've acted long ago.
They wouldn't have waited this long.
That left only one explanation: the extraterrestrial meteor.
He knew that some forces had far-reaching means and could use modern technology to observe the stars.
Discovering and calculating where a meteor would land wasn't difficult, either.
The question now was:
Did that mysterious force know about the Heavenly Sword Embryo?
And if they were ordinary people, why couldn't he find them with his current abilities?
As he pondered,
time passed little by little.
Soon,
it was eight o'clock at night.
The moon shone bright in the sky, and the stars glittered brilliantly. Everything seemed as calm as usual.
But after an unknown length of time, the night began to brighten.
Beams of fire abruptly appeared, streaking across the sky with deafening roars like fighter jets racing overhead.
When people looked up, they saw tens of thousands of meteors, packed together like raindrops.
Ordinary people who had no idea what was happening
hurriedly grabbed their phones to take pictures and capture the moment.
The sight was beautiful, but also a little terrifying.
Most meteors burned up completely from atmospheric friction after entering the atmosphere.
But some of these broke through the atmosphere and entered the stratosphere.
One meteor even fell straight down.
It was small,
but fast. If it struck the ground, the impact would be powerful enough to rival a small bomb.
"It's coming."
At that moment, the three mysterious men hiding in the farm's weeds spoke at once.
None of them moved, though. They clearly knew that getting too close would put them in danger.
Boom!
At last,
with a tremendous roar,
the meteor struck the ground, erupting in a blaze that stretched dozens of meters in radius and setting the surrounding weeds on fire.
"It's less than a kilometer from us. Move." Seeing this, the leader immediately gave the order.
Their mission was simple: recover the meteor as quickly as possible.
So, at his command,
they charged out without the slightest hesitation, moving far faster than ordinary people.
The three men moved nimbly and didn't seem afraid of the wildfire, charging straight into it.
It turned out that their clothes had a special fireproofing and cooling function.
Soon,
the three-man team reached their destination.
The meteor's impact had left a crater several meters across.
At its center lay a stone, steaming and surrounded by magma. It wasn't very large—about the size of a soccer ball—and its surface was pitted. But if you looked closely, you could see strands of golden light glimmering inside it.
"We're incredibly lucky. We actually found a real meteor. The company will definitely reward us when we bring it back."
Captain Zhao was thrilled. He hadn't expected much at first,
but now everything was different.
There might be a hundred teams, but how many would actually find a meteor?
The three of them had struck it rich.
The company would invest heavily in them from now on.
The other two were overjoyed as well, and immediately prepared to climb down and carry the meteor away.
But just then, a young voice suddenly rang out.
"Gentlemen."
"Trying to take something from my place without even saying hello? That's very rude of you."
Before you continue