On a dark, rainy night, Mu Lin had just used his wood-elemental techniques to position himself on a large tree outside a four-story villa. He planned to investigate this place. At first glance, the villa looked like any ordinary mansion owned by a wealthy individual. However, only those who had entered knew it was actually the headquarters of all church personnel in London.
After a week of tedious investigation, Mu Lin had checked every church in London. While such a task would be extremely difficult for an average person, it was quite simple for Mu Lin, although it required a bit more time than usual. Driving around with a map of London in hand, he methodically visited each church. Upon arriving at one, he only needed to pause briefly for its information to imprint itself in his mind. It was during this search that he discovered the clergy there were high-ranking church officials emitting noticeable energy fluctuations. Quietly following them eventually led him to this villa.
Tonight marked Mu Lin’s first close-range surveillance of the villa. During the day, he had simply driven past it slowly while using his mental sensing abilities to detect the villa’s tight security and various installed surveillance devices. He dared not stop the car, fearing that a moment of carelessness might alert the people inside and complicate his future operations.
The rainy night rendered the streets nearly deserted, amplifying the challenge of Mu Lin’s surveillance. Fortunately, he had recently been practicing his elemental evasion techniques. Thanks to his wood遁术, he managed to land accurately on a large tree not far from the villa. Although hundreds of meters away, this tree offered the closest cover to the villa.
Mu Lin would not approach the villa easily, especially since it was surrounded by other buildings. He could not forget the time in Boston when he reclaimed a family’s estate whose core building was surrounded by outer residential structures. If he hadn’t acted by chance, he might have suffered a major defeat.
That had only been a small black-market family, yet they had such a setup. Now, facing a powerful organization supported by the Y government and its citizens, Mu Lin was even more determined not to repeat the mistakes he made back then. At the time, he thought his movements were well hidden, never suspecting that these people could trace him all the way to a farm. This incident revealed that the enemy had experts he was unaware of. All of this forced Mu Lin to be even more cautious in concealing his actions.
Hidden among the leaves, Mu Lin cautiously employed both invisibility and Wood遁术. He wasn’t sure whether the enemy possessed any unknown high-tech devices. Indeed, about ten minutes after Mu Lin arrived at the tree, two plain-clothed guards emerged from the villa, carrying a box, and stopped directly beneath the tree. Although they didn’t visibly carry weapons, Mu Lin knew there were likely numerous hidden weapons aimed at the tree. If the two guards detected anything suspicious, heavy weaponry would be deployed to destroy both the tree and anything on it.
Thanks to his Wood Release technique, Mu Lin had temporarily become part of the tree itself. The two guards began scanning the tree with a device. Mu Lin recognized it immediately—a life-detection instrument. In the pitch-black night, this device could pinpoint any living being nearby.
Mu Lin had previously tested this very device in his own laboratory, using it to detect himself after employing the art of invisibility. The results had shown that the device could indeed be deceived. Now, seeing the enemy using the same equipment, Mu Lin finally felt a slight sense of relief.
After a while, the two guards packed up their tools and grumbled as they returned to the villa. Indeed, anyone would be unhappy about being sent out in such terrible weather. Carefully, Mu Lin retrieved several jade stones from his ring and arranged them into a perfect circle to prevent energy leakage, before finally revealing himself within the formation.
“Damn it!” he muttered to himself, unable to contain his excitement. Seeing the heavy security, he knew he had arrived at the right location. He had employed his teleportation technique from ten kilometers away, which had cost him a considerable amount of spiritual energy.
After resting briefly, Mu Lin began using his mental sensing abilities to scan the buildings around the villa. As expected, the layout was similar to what he had seen in Boston. The building directly in front of him, where he was perched, was exactly where the security operations were based. Several high-powered night-vision cameras inside were feeding real-time footage to connected computers. One camera was specifically focused on the tree—Mu Lin had practically delivered himself right into their trap. No wonder someone had come so quickly with the life-detection device. If he hadn’t been cautious and immediately used his teleportation technique and invisibility, he would have been discovered by now.
Perhaps the enemy had intentionally left this tree untouched, using it as bait to catch intruders like him. Otherwise, why would a camera be focused on it? Mu Lin thought to himself, *What tight security!* Now, his next step was to find a hidden spot inside the villa where he could use his invisibility technique to enter.
Starting from this building, Mu Lin slowly extended his mental sensing abilities toward the main villa. Through his senses, the surrounding environment was transmitted directly to his brain, allowing him to perceive everything inside the buildings as clearly as if he were seeing it with his own eyes during the day.
Because he was using his sensing abilities at such close range, Mu Lin dared only to move slowly. He feared that someone—or something—might be monitoring this invisible energy. If his presence was discovered, it would make future infiltration twice as hard, and he might not even succeed. Worse, it would send a clear signal to the enemy that he had come.
He knew that once the enemy was alerted, this place might either become an empty shell or a deadly trap, like that submarine ambush at sea. If it turned into the former, he and his family would have to brace for retaliation. After all, no one can be on guard forever. If that happened, he would be forced to abandon everything and constantly protect his family. Given Mu Lin’s energetic and restless nature, such a life would drive him mad.
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