Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

The straight-line distance from outside the town to this outpost is approximately 1,200 meters.

At her speed, a full sprint would only take her a few dozen seconds.

But a charge will leave obvious footprints.

Moreover, if the soldiers inside the tent react quickly enough, they could likely raise the alarm before she gets close.

She can't force it.

She first needed to create an opportunity for these soldiers to lower their guard.

Or, wait until it gets darker.

The days are very short in Kitahara during winter.

The sun is already setting in the west; it will get dark in two hours.

Li Su decided to wait.

She crouched even lower, hiding on the shady side of the earthen embankment.

The north wind blew over her head, carrying fine snowflakes and the scent of withered grass.

She didn't move.

Like a stone.

Like the quietest hunter in this wasteland.

Time passed by, second by second.

The sun slowly slid down from behind the gray-white clouds.

The sky began to darken.

One by one, the lights in Shiquan Town came on.

The light was dim, a mixture of the color of oil lamps and stove fire.

At the military outpost on the south side of the town, the soldiers also lit a fire.

The light from the campfire leaked through the gaps in the tent, casting flickering shadows on the snow.

Li Su stood up from behind the earthen embankment.

Her body made no sound.

She bent down and moved quickly forward along the grassy ditch.

The wind was blowing from north to south at that moment.

The wind, carrying snow and dust, suppressed her scent and traces.

She approached the sentry post silently, like a shadow close to the ground.

Five hundred meters away.

Three hundred meters.

One hundred meters.

She stopped.

A patrolman is walking this way along a fixed route.

The man walked slowly, head down, carrying a long spear in his arms, the barrel covered with a thin layer of frost.

He was getting closer and closer to Li Su.

Fifty meters.

Thirty meters.

ten meters.

Li Su did not move.

She didn't even hold her breath.

She simply buried herself even lower, letting the withered grass completely obscure her outline.

The patrolmen walked past her from about five or six meters away.

His boots crunched on the snow with a dull creak.

He didn't see her at all.

Li Su moved again after the patrolmen had walked about twenty meters.

She was moving incredibly fast, almost gliding across the snow.

She walked around the three tents from the east and stopped right next to the rear of a military jeep.

The jeep was parked facing the town, which conveniently blocked part of the soldiers' view from inside the tent.

Li Su squatted beside the wheel and probed the tent with her spiritual power.

There are five people in the tent.

The four men were lying on the cots at the back, breathing heavily; they were asleep.

A man sat on a folding chair by the door, a cigarette between his fingers, and a portable radio in front of him.

Li Su memorized the positions of these five people.

She bent down, picked up a small, frozen lump of mud from beside her feet, and flicked it gently with her finger.

The mud ball flew out silently and landed on the snow on the east side of the tent.

It made a very soft "thump".

The soldier at the door suddenly looked up.

He looked in the direction from which the sound came, hesitated for a moment, threw his cigarette butt on the ground, picked up his gun, stood up, and took a few steps to the east.

Li Su moved the moment he stood up.

She emerged from behind the jeep and flashed behind the soldier like a gust of wind.

The soldier had barely realized what was happening when a hand gripped his throat.

Li Su's fingers were harder than a knife.

She didn't give him a chance to speak.

"Click."

The neck bone is broken.

The soldier's body went limp, and she caught him, gently placing him on the ground.

She picked up the fallen spear and leaned it against the side.

Then I walked to the tent entrance and lifted the heavy canvas curtain.

The heat and the smell of coal smoke hit us.

The four soldiers were still asleep.

They were completely unaware that death was already standing by their bedside.

Li Su raised her hands, and four invisible lines pressed down on the throats of the four people respectively.

The four people were awakened from their sleep almost simultaneously.

Their eyes had barely opened when, before they could even see what was happening, their consciousness was completely extinguished.

Li Su did not leave a single trace of blood.

She couldn't let the smell of blood get out, or it would alert the dogs in town.

The four people lay back down on the bed, as if they were asleep.

But their chests no longer rose and fell.

Li Su turned around and walked to the communications radio station.

The screen was still lit.

The frequency was tuned to a broadcast channel of the Southern Military District of Kitahara.

She glanced at the call log above; the last message was sent two hours earlier and read, "Everything is normal, no abnormalities found."

These soldiers were following the rules.

Unfortunately, they guarded the wrong place.

Li Su squatted down and began searching through the soldiers' personal belongings.

Several tan-colored duffel bags were piled under the cot.

She pulled them open one by one.

The bag contained a change of clothes, dry food, a water bottle, spare ammunition, and several brown paper envelopes.

She opened an envelope.

Inside was a stack of Northern Plains Federation banknotes, with varying denominations, totaling approximately thirty to forty thousand Northern Plains rubles.

She stuffed all the money into her backpack.

She then pulled out several more documents from another bag.

Military license plates, ID cards, and passes—each item bears the soldier's photo.

Li Su took the document in her hand, looked at it for a moment, and then put it down.

These documents are for men; she cannot use them.

But she memorized the format of the numbers on the military license plates and passes.

It might come in handy later.

She continued searching and finally found a map of southern Kitahara in the inner pocket of a soldier's jacket.

The map is thicker than the one on the Black Falcon navigator, and it only marks the main roads, railways, and towns.

However, this map shows the "notices for assistance" received by this outpost.

The above briefly describes an Eastern woman suspected of crossing the border, and requests that all checkpoints along the route strengthen their checks.

Li Su folded the paper and put it in her bag.

She stood up and went outside.

It was completely dark.

The town lights were like scattered gold dust in the distance, faint yet warm.

There was no sound from the sentry post.

The only sound was the low rustling of the wind passing through the corners of the tent.

Li Su walked to the jeep.

This vehicle is quite old; most of the camouflage paint on the body has peeled off, but the tires are thick and the chassis is high, making it suitable for driving on snowy terrain.

She opened the car door and got into the driver's seat.

The key wasn't in the ignition.

She bent down and fumbled under the steering wheel for a few seconds.

She was not familiar with the structure of military vehicles.

But there were some things she had asked Black Falcon's captors back in the Star Federation.

She touched the ignition harness, pulled out two of them, cut the rubber with a dagger, and gently touched them together.

Two sparks flashed.

The engine hummed and started spinning.

The car lights came on.

Two beams of white light shot out, illuminating the vast, white wasteland ahead.

Li Su did not turn on her high beams.

She turned the lights down to their lowest setting, put the car in gear, and slowly drove it onto the highway.

The radio inside the tent was still lit.

If someone comes to check later, they will find that something happened here.

But that will take time.

All she needs is time.