Courtyard House: Home Alone

The East Asia Hotel is a three-story building with a large courtyard at the back. Through his observations over the past two days, he learned that the guests at the East Asia Hotel were mostly members of the Black Dragon Society who came for training, with a very small number of traitors.

At this time, the hotel rooms were basically empty, because they were all conducting language training in the basement of the backyard, mainly focusing on learning local dialects. The teachers were traitors from various regions.

Those who remained on the ground were guards and several Black Dragon Society members responsible for watching over the hotel.

They wore black, gray, and light gray kimonos, with samurai swords at their waists. Their eyes warily scanned the surroundings, and they occasionally whispered a few words to each other, their tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible arrogance.

In a corner of the backyard, there were some discarded wooden crates and miscellaneous items, which provided an excellent hiding place for Lin Yifan's appearance.

Without hesitation, the instant he appeared, two bullets flew out of his space, piercing the heads of the two guards at the basement entrance.

Next, he went to the hotel lobby and killed the four Black Dragon Society members there. To avoid being discovered too early, he collected the bodies of the four Black Dragon Society members and threw them behind the clutter in the backyard.

He glanced at the empty three-story building, then teleported into the underground training base. The basement was more spacious than he had imagined, filled with a strong smell of tobacco and the musty odor of cheap tatami mats.

The narrow corridor has more than a dozen rooms on both sides, each with its door ajar. Intermittent Japanese conversations and imitations of various regional dialects can be heard coming from inside.

Lin Yifan moved quietly, walking along the cold wall. His mental power had already thoroughly explored the layout and personnel distribution of the entire basement.

In the largest room at the end of the corridor, there seemed to be even more people gathered, and a stern voice could be faintly heard reprimanding someone. A thought struck him; that was likely the person in charge or an instructor here.

Instead of acting hastily, he first inspected the small rooms on both sides one by one. In each room, there were seven or eight trainees dressed in uniform gray uniforms, memorizing dialect words on a blackboard, while a traitorous "teacher" speaking the corresponding dialect sat next to them, giving them fawning instructions.

Lin Yifan moved through these rooms like a ghost, and the sounds inside would suddenly stop as he entered each one.

With his mental power, he fixed the bullets in the warehouse and precisely aimed them into their brains. The trainees and their traitorous teachers didn't even have time to utter a sound before collapsing to the ground, lifeless.

He moved extremely fast and silently, and in just a few minutes, nearly a hundred trainees in more than a dozen rooms were all subdued.

After dealing with these "small fry," Lin Yifan took a deep breath and set his sights on the large room at the end of the corridor.

He could "see" fifteen people inside, one of whom had a significantly stronger aura than the others, suggesting he was a trained martial artist.

He slowly pushed open the door and saw a space resembling a classroom, with densely packed Chinese sentences written on the blackboard and Japanese pronunciations marked next to them.

Fourteen members of the Black Dragon Society, dressed in black samurai attire, stood ramrod straight, while a middle-aged man with a mustache and wearing a kimono stood with his back to the door, holding a pointer in his hand, seemingly lecturing them.

"...Remember, you are not merely language learners, but the vanguard of the Empire, venomous snakes infiltrating the hearts of the Chinese! Use the language you have learned to infiltrate their army, government, and factories, and obtain all valuable intelligence! Understand?"

"Hey!" the fourteen Black Dragon Society members responded in unison.

Just then, the man in the kimono seemed to sense something, and he turned around abruptly, a fierce glint in his eyes: "Who?!"

He saw Lin Yifan at the door, a young man he didn't recognize, looking at them with a cold gaze.

"Who are you? How did you get in?!"

The man in the kimono demanded an explanation, his hand unconsciously reaching for the katana at his waist. The four Black Dragon Society members behind him immediately went on alert, assuming fighting stances.

Lin Yifan didn't answer, only a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips. In his eyes, these people were nothing more than lambs to the slaughter.

Before the other party could make a move, he moved swiftly and appeared in front of the fourteen Black Dragon Society members like a ghost.

The fourteen men only saw a blur before a powerful force struck their chests, the sound of their sternums breaking clearly audible. Before they could even scream, they were sent flying backward, spitting blood, and crashing heavily into the wall, their fate unknown.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. The man in the kimono's pupils contracted sharply; he hadn't even seen Lin Yifan's movements. He knew he had encountered a master and dared not be careless in the slightest. He swiftly drew his katana from his waist, and with a flash of light, the blade slashed towards Lin Yifan's head with a sharp whistling sound.

The slash was swift and ruthless, clearly the result of years of intensive swordsmanship training. However, in Lin Yifan's eyes, the speed was laughably slow. He slightly shifted his body, easily dodging the blade, while his right hand flashed out, his index and middle fingers joined together, precisely striking the kimono-clad man's Adam's apple.

With a soft "crack," the man in the kimono's Adam's apple shattered instantly. His eyes were filled with unbelievable terror. He opened his mouth but couldn't make a sound. His body went limp and collapsed to the ground. After a few twitches, he was lifeless.

Having eliminated the last threat, Lin Yifan glanced around the large room, which reeked of blood, his eyes remaining completely calm.

He walked to the blackboard, looked at the contents on it about how professors disguised themselves and spied on others, and a hint of disdain appeared on his lips.

These so-called "imperial elites" were nothing but a bunch of chickens and dogs in the face of absolute power. He didn't linger in the basement; after confirming there were no more survivors, he turned and left the temporary training base.

The backyard of the East Asia Hotel returned to silence, as if nothing had happened. Only the faint smell of blood lingered in the air, indicating that a secret cleanup had just taken place.

When he reappeared, he was already standing across the street from Fuji Corporation. He checked his watch; it was exactly 8 p.m. His spiritual power enveloped the entire corporation, and he discovered that quite a few people had not yet returned.

Realizing it was a bit early, he teleported twice to a location 500 meters from Haiguang Temple.

Yesterday's reconnaissance led him to the location of the hidden artifacts and gold, which were concealed in a small underground warehouse beneath the main hall.

Tonight's primary objective is these cultural relics and gold; as for the Japanese regiment outside, there will be plenty of opportunities to kill them later.

Besides, no one can say for sure what those gold and cultural relics are worth, and killing all the Japanese soldiers outside would mean breaking the agreement. The construction of Beiping hasn't even started yet; now is not the time.

With a thought, Lin Yifan silently brought the artifacts and gold from the underground warehouse into his space.