Good Fortune Comes

Amao was still a little dazed. He rubbed his eyes and said, "Did I... did I just bump into someone? Weren't there two beautiful girls just now...?"

He was knocked to the ground, and when he got up, his vision blurred for a moment before the corridor disappeared.

Li Fan smiled and put his arm around Amao's shoulder, leading him out of the corridor and into the hall. "We just came in, where are all these beauties? You're getting hungry and wanting more, aren't you? We're all men, and you've been holding back for a while, I understand. Anything you like? If you do, go pick a couple."

"Ah, I, Island Lord, I..." Amao was so moved he wanted to cry. Looking at the beauties on the dance floor, his whole body trembled with excitement.

Li Fan smiled, snapped his fingers, summoned the servants who were serving him, took out a basket of Xun Kingdom gold ingots he had obtained from the previous wooden token mission from his sleeve, and quickly exchanged them for a hundred gold flowers. He filled a flower basket with them and handed it to Amao to hold.

The surrounding Jin Qing' eyes lit up when they saw this, and a group of beautiful women gathered around to surround the two patrons.

Amao was so excited that his legs were shaking.

"My young brother is new here. If you serve him well today, you'll be handsomely rewarded!"

"Yes, sir!"

The servants were all smiles and opened a large private room for them. Amao was surrounded and attacked by the ministers and was soon thrown onto the bed for a fierce battle. Meanwhile, Li Fan set up a beauty illusion array to confuse the Jin Qing, then casually stuffed the two corpses under the bed to hide them. He then put on the Unknown Face, used an invisibility spell to escape from the private room.

System, have you finished analyzing it?

'Genetic information collected, environmental information search in progress, odor molecule matching completed, scene framework completed.'

Turn left, go upstairs, and it's the fourth room on your right.

'Be careful, that protective suit has an anti-radar coating. It's probably designed to conceal itself from the scanning frequency of cultivators' Divine Sense. There might be other people nearby.'

Is there possibly more than one...?

Li Fan checked the private room marked by the Blind Observer System and confirmed that he really didn't sense anything.

But since they've already killed someone, the other side's system must have already notified the others, right?

"Not necessarily. We didn't detect any communication between the apostle and the system just now. We don't know if it's in stealth mode or if it shut down the system itself."

Oh... what? No, you can just turn the system off like that?

"Sure, the standard procedure when encountering something similar is to shut down and lie low. It will automatically shut down if a being at the Enlightenment Stage Realm enters the scanning range. Or, if you want to do something private but don't want it recorded, you can proactively shut it down, like taking advantage of the opportunity to have sex."

... Wow, why didn't you say so earlier!

"Don't worry, this plane is a major source of interference, especially since cultivators are here. It's extremely common for Apostles to experience MIA (Mission Involvement). In fact, they're not communicating most of the time. The general rule is to mark areas where Apostles lose signal as having abnormal deviation values, and continuously raise the alert level based on the duration of the loss of contact. Only when the duration of the loss of contact and the deviation value exceed a threshold will the Apostles be notified to take action."

'Of course, for places like Ink Bamboo Mountain, we should just notify everyone not to enter anymore. After all, it's not easy to send an Apostle here, and it would be a pity if he died. Everyone here is a valuable asset.'

So you're just going to throw me into the mountains?

'Uh... oh, the equipment analysis is complete! Well, the modified civilian spacesuit, besides the standard exoskeleton, bio-sustaining system, composite thermal insulation material, and lightweight stab-proof plates, also features an energized electromagnetic deflection force field and a non-Newtonian fluid impact-resistant filling layer, likely modified from the AGSS anti-gravity sol system. I estimate it offers excellent protection against electrothermal kinetic energy attacks from Golden Core level cultivators. In short, just attack areas not covered by the protective suit.'

"The weapon is a bit of a problem. It's a modified Gauss launcher, seemingly cobbled together, but overloaded. The muzzle energy is enough to penetrate military-grade alloys—truly Martian style. It's enough to pose a significant threat to Nascent Soul Stage cultivators. Be decisive later; kill them all. Don't leave any survivors for them to turn the tables. Prioritize equipment recovery."

No way, you guys really have that much faith in his fighting ability! Weren't you supposed to be a scout, not a soldier? Aren't you supposed to be a valuable asset? And a Gauss rifle? Can we really take him head-on? Shouldn't we plan an escape route for him or something?

"Don't worry, even if there are still people around, it's not you who should be running away now."

Li Fan didn't understand the system's meaning at first.

But when Li Fan reached the door of the fourth room on the right after turning left and going upstairs, he realized what was going on.

The Golden Scale Palace, which operates in this kind of business, has some soundproofing in its guest rooms and private rooms, as well as illusion arrays and the like. However, those illusion-level arrays have no effect on Li Fan's blindness. If he really observes carefully, he can see how many people are in each room, what level they are cultivating, and what postures they are using. But he can't see anything in the fourth room on his right.

Although he couldn't see it, Li Fan's Nascent Soul Realm and the enhanced perception from his Cultivation Method were not fake. Despite the interference inside, he could still hear people talking, moving around, and breathing on the other side of the wall.

There were three people: one was eating in the living room, one was taking a bath in the tub in the side hall, and one was sleeping in the bedroom.

What's absurd is that none of these three were at the Golden Core; they only had a faint and barely perceptible sense of Qi. Judging from their breathing, they were all at the Foundation Establishment stage, having simply practiced some rudimentary introductory skills, at most knowing a little bit of the Body Domination Technique.

So Li Fan stretched out his right index finger, calculated the other party's position, and pointed at the three people separated by a wall three times, 'bang' 'bang' 'bang', and then the sound from inside could no longer be heard.

Li Fan aimed for the head and could tell from the sound that the person was dead, but for some reason, the system did not confirm the kill of the enemy apostle, and of course, he wasn't in the mood to claim the reward.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Fan Door Opening and went in. Almost without touching the ground, he quickly swept across the private room to check the scene, preparing to finish off the attacker.

The room was filled with boxes of equipment that hadn't been unpacked yet. A man sitting at the dining table eating fried noodles suddenly collapsed headfirst into his plate. He had a huge hole in his head, and his brains were spilling out. The man in the bedroom had died in his sleep; the upper half of his skull had been blown off. The half of the body of the man taking a bath floated on the water, turning the pool water crimson.

Aside from the one taking a shower, the other two were fully dressed in protective suits, with camouflage clothing over them. No one wore helmets, but even if they did, it wouldn't be very effective; with Li Fan's finger strength, he could kill even Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, let alone the three Foundation Establishment. However...

He's so weak. Could this be a trap?

Li Fan picked up the fried noodle man's head from the plate and examined it. These people weren't very old, at most seventeen or eighteen, all young. The bathing man looked like a mixed-race person; the other two heads were blown off and couldn't be clearly identified, but they were probably from the cult's territory. They had strange, eerie tattoos on their bodies and faces—were they servants or something?

'A standard four-man tactical team. It must be the one we encountered last night.'

Was it really them who knocked on the door last night? That's it? With this kind of strength, how did they Moon Worship? This isn't normal...

' Li Fan, don't you understand? You're the abnormal one! We usually kill people with guns. Who pokes with their finger like you! Besides, Void Abyss didn't use his physical body; he used equipment!'

Uh, Li Fan was speechless.

"The civilization systems are different, so there's not much to compare. Even with system assistance, cultivation still depends on the apostles themselves. Even if they can read, it doesn't guarantee they'll reach the Nascent Soul Stage. But since they're already here, they can't easily go back. So some apostles still mainly rely on technological equipment."

Wait a minute... So, the cult's legion system can now produce such advanced technology to arm the apostles? And you won't even let them make glass or gunpowder? What's the point of fighting then??

'It would be a miracle if they could even build that. Just these wearable items alone would require at least the entire production line of an Orbit Plant. They probably dug up an old engineering vessel and modified it from existing parts.'

"Besides, what's the use of gunpowder on equipment like that? Stop standing there, open the treasure chest! These packages have anti-detection coatings; it's definitely equipment. It won't kill you."

Okay, the private room was filled with luggage. Judging from the clothes they were wearing, these three were playing the role of servants. They also carried three carrying poles and six large boxes, which were probably various kinds of high-tech equipment.

So Li Fan opened each bag and box one by one to examine them, explaining each one to the system.

The first bag contained armor, extremely thick metal plates, hard and very sturdy. It was a full set of armor, including the helmet, and it looked like something out of science fiction. Li Fan picked up a piece of the plate and tried to bend it. It was indeed quite hard; he couldn't break it even without using his full strength. Even Fake Nascent Soul from a typical Immortal Palace probably couldn't break it with some cheap weapons.

'SBS, the external expansion plate of the space combat armor, a mercenary-grade item, made of military alloy. It's just an empty shell. Before battle, a lighter expansion plate can be replaced, but even Foundation Establishment stage cultivator would probably struggle to wear it; they'd need to activate the exoskeleton's motors to move. That cut was made using a plasma machine; it's likely the original SBS lacked system permissions, so they cut off the armor layer.'

The second bag contained some wrapped lenses, disassembled accessory slots, and a fire axe...

'Industrial-grade single-molecule cutting axe and Gauss rifle components, looks like they're 3D printed, oh, and there's even a sniper eyepiece.'

The third package contained a helmet with a thick goggles, a bulky piece of equipment that looked like an octopus. The huge metal helmet flashed many red lights, and there were eighteen tentacle tubes on the back of its head, connected to a metal box the size of a desktop computer case.

'Wow--GHOSTSHELL! Damn, this is an old relic! A reassuring old relic!'

'Looks like they found quite a bit over there. A military-grade ECCM anti-jamming quantum communication helmet, clearly salvaged from the electronic reconnaissance ship's communication station. It can maintain communication with the mothership via the intranet's quantum network. That apostle must have used it to interfere with our communications last night. It gave me a fright; I thought we were being monitored. Electronic warfare equipment like the Ghost Shell can definitely hack into our channels.'

'Wow, I can't believe someone still uses this kind of equipment these days. I didn't expect the Legion to send over a professional cyber ghost, oh, you know, a hacker. His real body is nowhere to be found, just like those cyber ghosts on the internet! What luck! There aren't many people like that anymore. Not only did you kill him, but you also got a brand new ECCM communication device as compensation. Awesome! Really awesome!'

The fourth package contained a metal box. Inside, it was filled with sponge padding and contained eight glass tubes with metal ends. The middle tube was filled with some kind of viscous, asphalt-like colloid.

'It really is AGSS sol. It was originally designed to help astronauts resist acceleration. It is a synthetic non-Newtonian fluid that has a drastically increased resistance to bullet impacts or knife punctures due to its strong shear thickening behavior. In other words, it is a material used in bulletproof vests.'

You can try punching it to feel the effect; it effectively reduces impact and protects human tissue... Holy crap, one punch and it's ruined! Anyway, when it loses its effectiveness, the aerosol will lose its physical properties and flow out. At that point, you just insert this glass tube into the round opening on the protective suit to replenish it. This is all equipment from the previous generation's Solar System wars; it's amazing the Legion could still modify it, but it's still quite practical.

The fifth bag contained a futuristic mechanical spider, about the size of a pug, somewhat resembling a robot vacuum cleaner. There was also a handheld game controller, clearly a gamepad.

'This multi-legged industrial drone, equipped with optical camouflage and anti-radar coating, has its tool legs replaced with molecular knives and gauss guns. It's likely used for reconnaissance and surveillance. According to standard procedure, one should be deployed outside for scouting and surveillance; it wasn't deployed, probably to save power.'

The sixth bag contained quite a few odds and ends, including small black strips that looked like chewing gum.

'High-energy batteries for protective suits and Gauss rifles'

There were also hexagonal metal strips, about the thickness of a pencil.

'Electrified bullets from a Gauss rifle.'

A silver box, about the size of 'Du Xia' herself.

'Don't open it. It's an explosion-proof, impact-proof, and electromagnetic-proof type. It probably contains explosives. It might be a pre-mixed metal nitrogen detonator.'

A red box, about the size of a drawer, that looked smaller than 'Du Xia'.

'Damn, did these lunatics synthesize a weapon-grade biological weapon?'

'It doesn't seem like it. Their protective suits don't have biohazard defense systems, and the team—a striker, a support gunner, a cyber hacker, and a drone operator—is a standard tactical operations team. They're likely conducting a covert infiltration mission, not a poisoning operation; they're probably carrying out first aid.'

So Li Fan opened the red box, inside which were three needle-free syringes.

'Doping? Emergency medication? We need specialized equipment to analyze it and determine its composition.'

Oh right, there's also a desk lamp, which was supposed to be in the sixth bag. It's lit up on the table now. The blue and white light is quite dazzling.

"That's not a desk lamp; it's an ECM device used to shield against system monitoring and Divine Sense detection. It can emit harmonics to hide the signal source of specific devices, making them undetectable—essentially radar stealth. Didn't you get one too?"

I have one too? Oh right, there's a light. Damn, so it's for preventing surveillance. Can't you just say so directly? Why bother with all those fancy skins...?

This was all the publicly known assets of the enemy system squad that Li Fan happened to stumble upon and then casually wiped out.

Li Fan took out the shiba from his sleeve and threw it on the floor. The four of them lined up neatly in a row, surrounded by a pile of equipment. From the shiba's belt, he also found three red jade Storage Jade carved with the faces of gods and demons. Of course, they were all locked, and he couldn't figure them out for the time being. He played with them and fell into deep thought.

Hmm... how should I put it, it still feels a bit baffling. So much equipment just sitting there outside? Why not store it in Storage Jade? Why is only one person counted as an apostle, while the other three aren't given any points? Surely the other three aren't natives, right?

'Possibly. Aside from the electronic ghosts operating the ghost shells, which require specialized skills, the other equipment here is all civilian-grade stuff; a little training is all it takes, nothing technically demanding.'

"And your reward isn't because that stick is an apostle, but because it meets the definition of a life form of the same level. That is to say, its primordial spirit is at least at the level of a demon."

What? That Xiba is that powerful? He dug up a bunch of equipment, directly trained the natives into a tactical squad, and even cultivated some kind of primordial spirit technique? But his body is only at the Foundation Establishment, and he collapsed in an instant? What kind of inexplicable Cultivation Method is this? Sigh, if only Xuan Tian were here, the Beichen Sword Sect knows the Divine Cult's secrets best... Oh right...

So Li Fan flipped his hand, took out the sword box, and released the rabbit.

After circling around, Yuepo's first words to Li Fan were, "Instead of properly recuperating from your injuries in seclusion, you're just picking through trash here?"

"Junk... no, why does the Beichen Sword Sect keep talking about... well, okay, these things really don't have any 'qi' at all, no wonder they look down on them. They're so cheap you could carry them on a shoulder pole and no one would steal them. They probably really are all collected as scrap..."

"... These guys seem to be from the Divine Cult. Moon Soul, can you tell their background?"

"Oh, so you've started hunting down the cultists' brats, huh? Not bad, not bad at all. Very much in keeping with the spirit of my Sword Sect..."

Hmm, huh? Hey! This guy's pretty impressive, he has three pieces of God Lord Jade!

Impressive? This is just a Foundation Establishment level?

"They've taken the shortcut to evil. Some people in the Divine Cult specialize in cultivating their primordial spirit, not caring at all about their physical cultivation. As long as their primordial spirit cultivation reaches a certain level, they can directly seize someone else's physical body at any time. You've seen it yourself. Look, the curse marks on these three corpses are the Blood Puppet Secret Refinement commonly found in the Blood Record Heavenly Book."

This method involves using a secret technique to devour a person's two souls and six spirits, strengthening their primordial spirit. The remaining body, with one soul and one spirit, is then refined into a guardian blood puppet, which can be used as an avatar. If forced to escape using the Blood Shadow Godly Movement, one can directly transfer into the blood puppet's body without losing too much cultivation. Once one's own blood shadow is refined, these puppet avatars can also be refined into blood shadows, eventually merging into one, thus achieving the Blood God Child Great Law."

Hiss... This... this guy is actually practicing that Blood God Child Great Law?!

"It should be right. Look, he has three pieces of God Lord Jade. This is not fake. It is a reward that can only be obtained by performing a great service that is recognized by the Ten Supreme Divine Lords. It is an unparalleled honor for the followers of the Divine Cult!"

Usually, someone with one of these jade pieces is a disciple of the Divine Lord, and it's one thing for a Dharma Protector or Elder, but this Foundation Establishment cultivator died without even having his scalp peeled off. Looks like he's not even proficient in the Blood Shadow Godly Movement. It's quite rare for someone to earn three great merits and receive a Divine Jade reward like this! If he had the cultivation of Golden Core cultivator, he could activate the God Lord Jade and brand you with the Divine Sect's deadly 'Blood Execution Seal'! Goodness! A triple seal might alarm the Dharma King to come and kill you, right? Hahaha!

"Wow, Pharmacist! You're really lucky! You can brag about almost getting the Blood Execution Seal on Yuntai Peak now! By the way, how did you get rid of him?"

... I... bumped into it.