Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

The thick fog carried the two as they climbed over the towering iron fence and landed on the soft soil.

The dampness of decaying leaves crept up his trouser legs. Meng Zhaowen half-squatted down, his palms pressed against the cool ground. His mental energy spread out like ripples along the scattered roots—the wild grass under the soil, the ivy at the base of the wall, the thorns in the bushes not far away, the pulse of all the plants entered his mind through his nerves, like a living map unfolded.

Three seconds later, he opened his eyes and nodded slightly to Liu Zhen, "Safe."

Forty meters to the northeast, the first hidden sentry post.

Two guards leaned against an old locust tree, smoking. The red glow of their cigarettes flickered in the darkness. Their whispers, complaining about their low wages, drifted on the wind and were almost inaudible amidst the chirping of insects.

Liu Zhen crept forward in the shadows, his boots making no sound as they stepped on the fallen leaves.

Meng Zhaowen squatted in place, his fingers twitching slightly. The wild grass guarding his feet grew an inch taller without him even noticing, nipping any potential noise in the bud.

ten meters.

five meters.

Liu Zhen suddenly sprang up from the darkness, his right hand gripping the throat of the person in front like an iron clamp, while his left palm pressed against the back of the other person's neck.

A flash of blue electricity appeared in their palms and disappeared in an instant. The two men froze instantly, collapsing to the ground before they could even utter a sound.

Meng Zhaowen's vines emerged from the soil, wrapped around the two men's ankles, and dragged them deep into the bushes. Even the half-burnt cigarette butts were swept away and extinguished by the wild grass, leaving only two shallow footprints on the ground, which were quickly covered by the fallen leaves that were wet with night dew.

The second location is behind the artificial hill on the west side.

Liu Zhen leaped from the top of the artificial hill, the sound of his fall drowned out by the weeds in the cracks of the rocks, and simultaneously placed his hands on the tops of the two guards' heads.

An electric arc drilled into their skulls, and their eyes widened suddenly, then lost focus, leaving them limp as if their bones had been removed.

Vines sprouted from the cracks in the artificial hill, dragging the corpse behind the stone, their footsteps completely absorbed by the rock.

The third location is at the edge of the bamboo forest.

Meng Zhaowen first wrapped the sentry's ankle with a thin vine and gently pulled it. The moment the sentry lost his balance and fell forward, Liu Zhen's fingertip was already pointing at his temple.

A flash of electricity, and the sentry's body swayed before he silently fell into the bamboo thicket, the weight of the bamboo leaves rustling like the sound of wind.

Fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh locations.

Twenty minutes, seven hidden sentries.

There were no gunshots, no screams, not even the slightest extra sound.

The guards seemed to have been swallowed up by the night itself, leaving only a few overgrown clumps of weeds swaying gently in the night wind, as if nothing had happened.

The two continued moving towards the main building.

Meng Zhaowen kept his palm pressed against every plant he passed, and the information from the roots was all normal—three hundred meters ahead, the main building was brightly lit, and the light in the study on the third floor was still on, exactly the same as what he had observed over the past three days.

Further ahead was a wide lawn, with neatly trimmed ornamental grasses that were short and dense, their roots penetrating no more than ten centimeters deep, unable to convey any useful information. This was all too common in upscale residential areas, and someone of Song Mingzhang's status would never allow weeds to grow unchecked.

Liu Zhen walked ahead, his back ramrod straight, the faint arc of electricity in his palm occasionally flickering, like a lurking wild beast.

The successful elimination of the seven hidden sentries allowed him to relax his nerves, which had been tense for three days. Unlike the tense atmosphere at Jingyuan Villa, everything here was too normal, as normal as an ordinary wealthy villa area. It seemed that Song Mingzhang really did not expect them to be able to follow Han Dongcheng's lead so quickly.

Meng Zhaowen followed half a step behind him, his glasses reflecting the lights of the main building in the distance, making it impossible to discern his expression. Only his fingers, pressed against his trouser leg, were slightly curled, with a faint pulse still emanating from the plants at his fingertips.

The moment Liu Zhen's boots touched the grass, the sensation under his feet suddenly changed.

It was no longer the soft, loose soil of before, but a hard, compacted surface with almost no elasticity.

The roots of those ornamental grasses were spread out in a thin layer, like a camouflage carpet, underneath which was a cement-like mixture of soil, so hard it hurt your feet.

His heart skipped a beat, and just as he was about to speak, he heard Meng Zhaowen's rapid breathing behind him.

"Liu Zhen".

Liu Zhen suddenly turned around.

Under the moonlight, Meng Zhaowen squatted on the ground, his right hand fingers deeply embedded in the soil, his whole body like a frozen stone statue.

He held that pose for three seconds, five seconds, ten seconds—for someone who needs to resonate with plants, ten seconds of silence is the loudest alarm.

When Meng Zhaowen looked up, her face was as white as paper. She wiped the dirt off her pants with her palm and said in a soft voice, "My eyes are blind."

"From where we stand, the soil is dead; there isn't even half a root that can penetrate it. My consciousness couldn't penetrate more than thirty centimeters before hitting a hard layer. Even the roots of the outer pine forest break off here." He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing. "We might have fallen into a trap; the enemy was prepared."

Liu Zhen's pupils suddenly contracted.

He suddenly looked up and around—the pine forests, bamboo groves, and bushes that had stretched out from the periphery seemed to have been cut off about two hundred meters away from where they were standing, leaving only neat lawns and rounded ornamental trees, without even a single tall tree that could stop a bullet.

They were now standing in the middle of an empty lawn, with the main building lit up two hundred meters ahead and the edge of vegetation two hundred meters behind. They had an unobstructed view in all directions, with no shelter or terrain to use as a foothold, like prey that had been stripped naked and thrown into the center of a stage.

This is a carefully chosen killing field.

They had anticipated that they would sneak in from the densely vegetated back mountain, that Meng Zhaowen would rely on plants to find his way, and that they would lower their guard after clearing out the outer sentries. They deliberately left this open area, waiting for them to reach the point where they had nowhere to escape before making their move.

A faint blue arc of electricity instantly crackled at Liu Zhen's fingertips. He stepped to the side, blocking Meng Zhaowen's path, facing the main building, waiting for the inevitable enemies to appear.

But the enemy did not come out of the main building; the first wave of attacks came from beneath their feet.

"Click—"

Suddenly, the ground around Liu Zhen's feet exploded, and three steel bars as thick as a child's arm shot out from the ground, forming a triangular shape to block his escape route.

That was the positioning—a high-brightness cold light stick was tied to the top of the steel bar, and the dazzling green light instantly nailed the two figures to the empty lawn, like the protagonists on the stage covered by spotlights, even the folds of their clothes were clearly illuminated.

"Get down!"

The darkness was torn apart the instant Liu Zhen tackled Meng Zhaowen to the ground.

All the windows on the second floor of the main building shattered simultaneously, and six orange-red fire dragons spewed out of the windows, weaving into an impenetrable fire net in mid-air, covering everything.