Ch 61: Find Song Huai

Hard work pays off; Ji Chuan, after searching for a long time, finally found the Special Ability he wanted among the walnuts.

【Breath Holding and Aura Concealment allows one to hide their presence while holding their breath, preventing detection.】

He doesn’t need to breathe, he can keep it up indefinitely. Then, he can use the Dark Mysteries to hide in the base’s shadows and infiltrate, avoiding Ability User detection by holding his breath, and slowly search for Song Huai inside.

To prevent any accidents during his infiltration of the base, Ji Chuan informed the stronghold personnel to maintain a strong defense during his absence.

But basically, no accidents should occur. This time, his goal is only to initially explore the strength of the Esper Base and locate Song Huai, but he has no means of bringing Song Huai out.

“Master, take me!”

Xiao Hui waved his paws vigorously from below; Xiao Xuan and An’an were still pulling on his two tufts of fur. He didn’t want to stay at the stronghold and watch the children; he felt he’d lost a lot of wolf fur in the past two days.

Ji Chuan nodded. As his Heroic Spirit, Xiao Hui could be retracted into his body, and as long as Ji Chuan himself didn’t die, Xiao Hui could be reborn infinitely. This made him the most suitable companion for outings, and his abilities were quite good.

Xiao Hui was especially happy; he did a somersault and entered Ji Chuan’s body.

“Master, I like staying inside you the most.”

“Is that so? Then don’t come out anymore.”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. As long as I don’t have to watch the children, I’m still willing to come out.”

“What use are you without watching the children? You eat so much. I should try to see if your fur disappears after skinning you; it looks pretty warm.”

“Master, no! I’ll eat less! A Spirit Body’s fur disappears upon death, and it also causes a loss of energy to you, Master. Don’t try it!”

Xiao Hui had to admit that there was a lot of delicious food in this world. He had never tasted such a wide variety of food before. Although he, as a Heroic Spirit, didn’t need to eat, he still couldn’t resist the scent of various foods from the restaurant.

“That little bit of energy has no effect on me. Just take good care of Xiao Xuan and An’an.”

“Yes, sir!”

Ji Chuan flew towards the Esper Base. Using his Energy Perception, he discovered that the base had moved Old Wang’s room to the negative first floor, likely to prevent zombie infiltration disguised as humans.

So, Ji Chuan activated Breath Holding at a relatively far distance, blending his entire body into the shadows and gradually moving towards the interior of the base.

This time, he entered the Esper Base in his true form.

While possessing someone presented no risk, it wouldn’t allow him to obtain useful information without the help of his own Special Abilities. Entering himself was entirely different.

“Approximately 5000 lifeforms, a significant increase recently… 12 Red Crystal Cores, quite a lot.”

Ji Chuan sensed the Special Ability of the Red Crystal Cores. Although he had previously come into contact with Song Huai’s Red Crystal Core at Lanshan Villa, he didn’t have Energy Perception at the time and didn’t know Song Huai’s specific Special Ability.

The simplest method is to locate all 12 cores and see if they belong to Song Huai.

And based on deduction, Song Huai’s Special Ability isn’t for combat, so a portion of these 12 cores can be eliminated.

“Then the remaining… 【Forest Spirit Source】, 【Starry Vision】, 【God of Space】, 【Ant Queen】.”

Ji Chuan felt that these seemed unrelated to combat. He prioritized the first three; the Ant Queen sounded like a female’s Special Ability.

This was the first time Ji Chuan had sensed such a dense concentration of cores; he even felt a surge of murderous intent, though he managed to suppress it.

He didn’t have the energy to sense each core individually and was moving towards the first red target.

The Forest Spirit Source’s possessor was a woman, currently confirming work details with her subordinates.

“The helipad has been cleared. The Jinglian City team is expected to arrive in one hour.”

The woman nodded.

“Welcome them with the highest honors. Reserve four of the most luxurious rooms; after all, they face life-threatening danger coming to Jianghua City.”

“Yes.”

Ji Chuan realized he’d overheard something significant: people from other cities were coming to provide support. Besides himself, what other threats did Jianghua City have that required external assistance?

Ji Chuan shook his head; it was highly likely that those people were coming for him.

“An hour, huh? Then I’ll spend more time exploring.”

Ji Chuan made his decision. Seeing the woman only check the information in her hands, he then looked for his next target.

The second target was actually residing on the negative sixth floor. Ji Chuan remembered that the negative fourth floor was mostly the living quarters; the person in question clearly had something special.

He was a seemingly ordinary man, exuding the same otaku vibe as Ji Chuan in his past life.

Ji Chuan couldn’t understand what 【Starry Vision】 was from its classification and name; the man was simply playing games in his room.

There were even many snacks on his desk; his treatment was far better than most in the base.

After observing for 20 minutes without discovering anything special, Ji Chuan lost his patience.

He started searching for the third target, which was located on the very deep negative tenth floor.

Ji Chuan observed the base’s structure along the way. His previous infiltration had given him a general understanding of the base’s layout, but being here in his true form still made him feel the vastness of the Esper Base.

There were many guards on the negative tenth floor, and teams constantly brought supplies.

“Captain, the Points for supply gathering are getting harder and harder to earn. Going further to explore is too dangerous. Can we request a few new combat-type Ability Users to join?”

“More people mean fewer Points to be divided. While the area near the base is clear of zombies, we should focus on earning Points nearby; only apply to explore further away if there are no more supplies nearby.”

“You’re right, Captain.”

“Besides, we can choose carefully then. Our City has a No. 1. New combat-type Ability Users like to go to supply gathering and logistics. Even two Special Ability Captains can’t beat them; new recruits don’t want to go to their deaths.”

“Exactly! Maybe we’ll be able to pick up Advanced Ability recruits then. You’re the best, Captain.”

“Look at this! Old Zhang, count it. This is the result of the Supply Gathering Team 11.”

It seemed that this floor was the base’s supply warehouse. Ji Chuan stopped observing the people at the entrance and continued to infiltrate deeper.

The members of the transport team were constantly sorting the supplies collected by their teams and moving them to their respective rooms.

Supplies that were prone to damage or spoilage were constantly being moved deeper, coincidentally following the same path as Ji Chuan.

Ji Chuan blended into the shadows of the transporters as they moved towards the holder of the third Red Crystal Core, 【God of Space】.

This distance had three security gates, all made of extremely strong materials.

Fortunately, since they were all metal, Ji Chuan didn’t care.

The last room was guarded by two Ability Users.

Two Golden Crystal Cores: one was 【Fainting Shout】 and the other was 【Muddy Swamp】, both seemingly belonging to restraint-type Ability Users.

After the transporters’ iris scans, the last gate finally opened.

He used his Special Ability to place the supplies in the room, and the person inside the room caused Ji Chuan’s chest to heave violently.

He even wanted to reveal himself and embrace the other person right now. The person before him was none other than Song Huai!