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Meng Zu avoided several Ten Rings sentries along the way. After reaching a patch of high ground, he shut off his motorcycle and slowly climbed to the top along the rock face.

Lying prone on the ground, Meng Zu took out his binoculars and looked in the direction indicated by the arrow. He saw a settlement in a basin surrounded by low hills. Numerous weapons had been placed there, while quite a few people carrying rifles patrolled back and forth nearby.

"This should be the Ten Rings' base."

As his gaze shifted, he spotted a cave. Four riflemen stood guard at its entrance. Meng Zu realized this would be difficult. The settlement had only one exit, and there were sentries stationed atop the surrounding hills. Silently rescuing Tony Stark was going to be troublesome.

After carefully observing the sentries' positions, Meng Zu made a plan. It was still daylight, and if he tried to approach the base now, the sentries would definitely spot him. He could only wait until nightfall.

Meng Zu hid behind a large boulder and quietly waited for the sun to set. Once darkness fell, he immediately climbed down from the summit and jogged toward the Ten Rings settlement beneath the cover of night.

Naturally, Meng Zu left the motorcycle behind. The surroundings became extremely quiet at night, and the sound of an engine starting would be far too noticeable. The Ten Rings sentries would spot him easily.

Two hours later, Meng Zu finally reached the foot of a low hill on the outskirts of the Ten Rings base. Carefully avoiding the sentries' lines of sight, he made his way to a rock halfway up the hill and surveyed the settlement below.

The entire settlement was brightly lit, and many people were eating. Meng Zu saw a bald man emerge from the cave. After pointing into the cave and saying something to the four guards at the entrance, he headed toward a tent.

Meng Zu activated Clue Guidance once more. The red arrow pointed into the cave, confirming that Tony Stark was inside. After studying the settlement's layout, he thought, Looks like I need to cut off the power. Otherwise, there's no way to sneak into the cave.

Meng Zu did not act immediately. He planned to move at two or three in the morning instead. By then, many people would be asleep, and fewer people would make things easier.

Time passed bit by bit, and the Ten Rings members in the settlement went to rest. Only a small number remained on patrol. Even the four guards at the cave entrance had been reduced to two. At one in the morning, some people came out to change shifts, while the men who had previously been vigilantly watching the surroundings returned to their tents to rest.

Perhaps because this was their main base, the men taking over the shift were somewhat lax. Some chatted while others played cards. Meng Zu took the opportunity to move along the high rock walls beyond the reach of the lights, drawing closer to the generator.

Relying on the passive skill Basic Stealth, Meng Zu moved without making a sound and went unnoticed by every Ten Rings member. Once he reached the closest point to the generator, he calculated the distance to the cave. The moment he shut down the generator, the Ten Rings would surely investigate. That would be his best chance to enter the cave.

At two thirty in the morning, someone near the generator got up to use the bathroom. Once the man had gone far enough away, Meng Zu picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the generator's switch.

Bang.

With a soft sound, the stone struck the generator switch dead-on. The entire camp was instantly plunged into darkness. The sudden change left the Ten Rings members unable to see anything, and Meng Zu used the opportunity to rapidly close in on the cave.

Ten Rings members shouted in the darkness. Meng Zu could not understand their language, but he could roughly guess what they meant. It was nothing more than orders to check what had happened.

Several beams of light appeared in the distance. The Ten Rings members had turned on flashlights and headed toward the generator. Those beams naturally drew the attention of the other Ten Rings members.

The two men at the cave entrance could not help taking a few steps forward to look toward the lights. Meng Zu happened to reach the cave at that moment. With Basic Stealth, he silently slipped into the cave behind them.

A minute after Meng Zu entered, the entire camp lit up again. One Ten Rings member asked the people in front of the generator, "What happened?"

That member replied, "Same as before. The breaker tripped again."

"I told you this generator was done for. We should buy a new one."

"Then go tell the boss."

Unlike outside, the cave was completely dark. Even Meng Zu found it difficult to see his surroundings with the naked eye. Fortunately, he had prepared in advance. He took out a pair of night-vision goggles, put them on, and followed the arrow from Clue Guidance.

The cave was deeper than Meng Zu had expected, and there were actually two Ten Rings members inside. The two men were groping around in the darkness, searching for something.

Meng Zu did not alert them. He slipped past them and finally arrived at a door. He gently pushed it open and entered.

The first thing Meng Zu did after entering was take out a small square film and stick it over the camera above his head.

Only then did Meng Zu examine the place. This cave room was fairly spacious, roughly one hundred square meters. On a workbench to one side lay numerous cylindrical steel plates of various sizes, along with several scattered blueprints.

The lights in the room suddenly came on. Meng Zu knew that the Ten Rings members had restarted the generator, but it did not matter. He was already inside.

Removing the night-vision goggles from his head, Meng Zu walked to the workbench. He picked up several blueprints, overlapped them as in the movie, and held them up to the light. A robot appeared on the drawings.

It looked like Tony Stark was already building Mark 1. Meng Zu had worried that there would be no Iron Man, but it seemed he had been overthinking it. Then again, it made sense. Tony escaped in the Mark One armor three months later. Mark One had been hammered out piece by piece by Tony himself. Tony had to keep the Ten Rings from discovering that he was secretly building armor while making them believe he was manufacturing weapons according to their demands. He naturally could not build Mark One openly, so it would certainly take quite some time.

Meng Zu walked into another room in the cave and saw two people sleeping. One of them was Tony Stark, though Tony was nowhere near as polished as he looked on television.

Tony wore a gray tank top. His hair was a mess, his face was somewhat dirty, and most importantly, a round object emitting a blue glow was embedded in his chest. Meng Zu knew that thing was the First-Generation Miniature Arc Reactor.

Meng Zu looked at the other man. He wore a brown shirt and was bald, probably in his sixties. More than half the beard on his chin had turned white.

"Is he Ethan?" Meng Zu carefully examined Dr. Ethan, the man who had not only saved Tony Stark's life, but also saved his soul.

Looking at the two sleeping men, Meng Zu said, "All right, stop pretending. I know both of you are already awake."