One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

"Teacher Nie, Miss Chen Duo, this is the last I can take you." Xiao Yang turned around, his eyes filled with worry beneath his hat brim. "Go through the row of blue containers at the back. There's a Lalamove van parked at the very back, license plate ending in 339. The driver is one of ours; he'll take you to the fork in the road on the southern slope of Moon Mountain. From there, go up the mountain, following the red line on the hand-drawn map I gave you yesterday. It'll take about two hours to walk until you see the outline of the target base's back mountain. The rendezvous point is there; our people, disguised as forest rangers, will provide you with final intelligence support and necessary equipment replenishment."

He paused, then pulled two bulging black fanny packs from under his seat and handed them to Nie Lingfeng: "These contain specially made climbing ropes, suction cups, high-energy batteries, a miniature thermal imager, and some signal jamming and counter-surveillance gadgets. The base's monitoring and sensing systems are definitely very advanced, and these might come in handy. Also, there are four 'smoke bombs' inside. These aren't ordinary ones; they contain a special powder that can interfere with most bio-electromagnetic sensing, which can create chaos and blind spots in critical moments."

"Thank you, Master Yang." Nie Lingfeng took the fanny pack, handed one to Chen Duo, and tied the other around his own waist. It was heavy in his hand, but it contained many practical and useful items.

"Be extremely careful," Xiao Yang solemnly warned again. "The Yaoxing Society is a den of dragons and tigers. Our branch has limited resources; at most, we can only provide some support and intelligence on the outermost perimeter. If something really happens, it will be difficult to provide timely assistance. Everything... depends on yourselves."

"Understood. Let's go." Nie Lingfeng nodded and opened the car door. Chen Duo also slung her backpack over her shoulder and followed him out of the car.

Following Xiao Yang's instructions, the two quickly passed through the row of tall blue shipping containers. The logistics center was already bustling with activity in the early morning; the roar of forklifts, the thud of containers hitting the ground, and the shouts of workers filled the air. No one noticed the two "outdoor enthusiasts" dressed in outdoor gear and hurrying along.

Soon, they found the white van with the license plate ending in 339 and the "Lalamove" logo. The door was open, and a middle-aged driver who looked honest and simple, wearing a freight company uniform, was leaning against the door smoking. When he saw them, he put out his cigarette, nodded, and didn't ask anything. He just opened the back door of the van.

The carriage was filled with empty plastic baskets and miscellaneous items, but a small space had been cleared at the back, where two moisture-proof mats were laid out. Nie Lingfeng and Chen Duo crawled inside, and the driver immediately closed the door. The carriage was instantly plunged into darkness, with only a few faint rays of light filtering through the gaps in the ceiling.

The vehicle started quickly and smoothly drove out of the logistics center, merging onto the suburban highway. The speed was slow and steady. The cabin was a bit stuffy, but bearable. Chen Duo sat down against the wall, clutching her backpack, and closed her eyes, seemingly trying to take a break. Nie Lingfeng leaned against the other side, closing his eyes to rest, but his senses were fully alert, keeping a close eye on the movements outside and the route.

After about an hour of driving, the car gradually left the town area, the road became bumpy, and the sounds outside the window changed from traffic and people to the sound of wind in the mountains and the occasional birdsong. After another half hour, the car slowly came to a stop.

The rear door opened, letting in blinding sunlight and fresh mountain air. The driver stood outside, pointed to a rugged dirt road half-hidden by weeds that stretched upwards, and whispered, "Go up this road, and at the end there's an abandoned forest ranger station. We'll be waiting for you there. All the best."

Nie Lingfeng nodded to the driver, then pulled Chen Duo out of the van. The van didn't linger, turned around, and drove away, quickly disappearing behind the trees around the bend.

Before them stretched a vast, boundless mountain range. They were currently in an inconspicuous valley on the southern slope of Moon Mountain. Tall trees and dense shrubs surrounded them, and a narrow, moss-covered path, barely wide enough for one person, wound its way into the depths of the forest, disappearing into the clouds halfway up the mountain.

From here on, they will have to rely on themselves.

Nie Lingfeng took a deep breath of the moist, fragrant mountain air, his gaze sharpening and becoming calm. He glanced at Chen Duo beside him, who was equally alert, her bright green eyes scanning the surroundings warily, and said in a low voice:

"Let's go up the mountain."

Without further hesitation, the two embarked one after the other on the hidden path leading to the secret base of the Yaoxing Society, a path that also led to more unknowns and dangers.

In the early morning, the mist in the mountain forest had not yet completely dissipated, like a milky white veil, clinging to the dark green canopy and flowing gently in the breeze. The path underfoot was slippery and muddy, with moss-covered stones and tangled, exposed tree roots forming natural barriers. The air was moist and fresh, mixed with the scent of earth, decaying leaves, and the faint sweet fragrance of some unknown wildflower. The birdsong was crisp and clear, yet it only accentuated the depth and tranquility of the forest.

Nie Lingfeng and Chen Duo climbed swiftly and silently along the path, almost completely overgrown with weeds. Both possessed superhuman physical abilities, making the mountain path a mere obstacle for them. Nie Lingfeng incorporated the essence of "Wind God's Movement" into his steps, his movements ethereal and his footsteps incredibly light, leaving almost no visible marks on the slippery ground. Chen Duo, on the other hand, moved like a nimble lynx, leaping freely through the forest with a strange rhythmic quality, as if naturally connected to this ancient mountain landscape.

After walking for about an hour, Xiao Jing reached the end, where a steep rock wall covered with weathered gravel and low shrubs blocked his way. According to the markings on Xiao Yang's hand-drawn map, he needed to start moving laterally from here, following a hidden path that was almost non-existent on the map, trodden by wild animals, to reach the ridgeline behind the target base.

Nie Lingfeng stopped, his sharp gaze scanning the complex terrain ahead. The rock walls were steep, but not insurmountable. The key was that since the Yaoxing Society had built its base in such a location, it was impossible for it to lack an early warning system. Ordinary cameras and infrared sensors might be obscured by the dense vegetation, but what about more advanced vibration sensors, sound collection arrays, or… energy fluctuation detectors?

He gestured for Chen Duo to be quiet, then closed his eyes and heightened his senses to the extreme, like an invisible tide slowly spreading towards the rock face and the distant forest.

Sight, hearing, smell... these conventional senses are temporarily blocked. In his "mind's eye," the world presents a different scene. The flowing wind, the faint but stable "qi" breath in the earth's veins, the life force field of growing plants, the subtle fluctuations of insects and small animals... all the flow of energy and information unfolds in his consciousness like a three-dimensional painting.

Then, he "saw" it.

Beyond the rock walls and dense forest ahead, besides the naturally occurring life and energy fields, there are also some discordant, cold "nodes" bearing obvious traces of artificial carving. Like tiny, dim spiders, they lie prostrate on treetops, in rock crevices, and even in the shallow underground, radiating extremely weak but strangely regular probing ripples at a constant frequency. Some detect vibrations and ground pressure, some collect sound waves of specific frequencies, and a few seem to be able to sense abnormal "qi" fluctuations or life energy intensity within a certain range.

As expected, there was a network of warnings. And the network was diverse and interconnected, forming a large-scale early warning system covering the perimeter of the base. Even if a direct assault managed to avoid most of them, it was difficult to guarantee that one or two wouldn't be triggered. Once the alarms sounded, the entire base's security force would be alerted, and the infiltration plan would be ruined.

"Nie Lingfeng?" Chen Duo called softly. She could feel the focused aura emanating from Nie Lingfeng, and she also vaguely sensed that something seemed "wrong" ahead, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

"It has 'eyes' and 'ears'." Nie Lingfeng opened his eyes, a flash of dark golden light passing through them. He pointed to several seemingly ordinary tree branches and rock crevices ahead, "There, there, and underground... there are things there. We have to go around them, or... make them temporarily 'blind' and 'deaf'."

He pulled a rudimentary device, about the size of a palm, with a monochrome LCD screen, from the black fanny pack Xiao Yang had given him. It looked like an old-fashioned electronic dictionary. This was a "portable multi-functional signal analyzer/jammer (knock-off)" provided by Xiao Yang, capable of detecting and interfering with common types of electronic sensing devices within a certain range. The principle was roughly to scan electromagnetic signals in a specific frequency band and then emit stronger interference waves to suppress or simulate deception.

Nie Lingfeng fiddled with it for a bit and turned it on. The screen lit up, displaying constantly changing waveforms and numbers. He adjusted a few parameters, aiming the detection and jamming modes at the front.

"Beep beep... Warning, multi-band encrypted detection signal detected... Model identification in progress... Suspected 'Viper-III' ground vibration sensor, 'Silent Ear' broadband acoustic wave acquisition array... Energy fluctuation detector model unknown... Interference protocol matching in progress... Matching degree 73%... Can attempt regional short-term suppression or simulated deception, estimated success rate 68%, duration not exceeding 120 seconds..."

The device emitted a cold, synthesized electronic voice, and the data on the screen scrolled rapidly.

With only 120 seconds, a success rate of less than 70%, and a limited suppression range, crossing this warning zone completely silently is unrealistic.

Nie Lingfeng put away the jammer, his brow furrowing slightly. It seemed that using hard technology was risky. So…

He turned his gaze back to the steep rock face and the dense forest above, his mind racing with calculations. The early warning nodes were mainly distributed on the ground and in the low sky, their coverage of the high sky and… underground seemed relatively weak? Moreover, their detection range was fan-shaped, with overlapping blind spots. If he was fast enough and chose a tricky path, perhaps he could force his way through the blind spots and through speed without triggering an alarm.

"Chen Duo," Nie Lingfeng turned to look at Chen Duo, who was warily observing a large, colorful butterfly trying to land on her backpack (which she gently blew away with a frown), "Wait a minute, just walk the way I tell you to, as fast as you can, don't stop, and don't touch anything, understand?"

Chen Duo refocused her attention and nodded seriously, "Yes!"