The red ripple was a mysterious sound wave, a powerful ability unique to the Lingying family.
If the Palatinates could only get their special ability from the Sea of Equality after achieving a breakthrough, then what this ancient family possessed was the special ability passed down from generations through a special method. Their ancestors used to be the Palatinates, and the ability was now in their blood.
It did not require one to be a Palatinate to use this ability. Rather, the ability was in the blood. All it took was an activation, and the ability was good to go. But such special ability got through such a method was a lot weaker than that of the Palatinates.
The red ripple was a powerful sound wave that Lingying commonly used to detect traps and look for special dangers. Right now, this badass sound wave that used to give him the edge had lost its effect.
As soon as the red ripple entered the laboratory area, it slowed down almost to a halt. It was as if someone had pressed the slow-motion button on a movie, the red ripple came to a crawl on the floor, walls, ceiling and surfaces of various instruments.
“Something is in the way,” Ringer said.
“Forget it, just barge in. I don’t think this freaking Sanctum can do anything about us!”
Obviously, the man on the right side was impatient. He took a step forward, his body glowing with a bright green halo, in which a tiny dark-energy bee appeared and circled around him.
He stomped his feet on the floor of the lab, and his expression changed. Something was not right.
“Something is suppressing my power!” He was as shocked as he was angry.
“Let’s do it! We only have ten minutes.” Without hesitation, Ringer lunged into the research center like a bolt of lightning.
The three men ransacked the place, rummaging through documents, drawers and everything they found.
Every security and surveillance array and electronic equipment went out of order. The entire underground research center became undefended as if an undressed woman.
Experimental data, research reports, and even the holy water tank Lin Sheng had just made—they found and tossed them to the doorway.
Soon, Ringer found a very special black safe hidden under the floor right in the center of the laboratory. It was unmoveable, permanently built into the ground.
“There must be something valuable in here!” The safe had aroused Ringer’s interest.
“Open!” A light pink halo glowed on his arm. He placed his hand on the safe with his palm pressed on the surface. Sonic waves penetrated the safe and reverberated in the safe interior. The reverberation enabled Ringer to get a ton of information about the safe, including the password.
He retracted his hand and keyed in a string of numbers on the keypad on the safe. The safe opened and revealed its dark interior.
“This thing…?” Ringer’s eyes brightened up. He took out the thing. It was a black notebook—a seemingly ordinary notebook you could buy on the street.
There were two words on the cover. Ringer turned to page one. Something was special about this book. Otherwise the owner would not have kept it so secure in the safe, he figured.
As Ringer flipped open the notebook, he saw rows of text and symbols that he could not understand on white background.
“This is ….. Ancient Rehn text? There are some symbolic texts I can’t recognize!” Ringer’s heart skipped a beat. He knew he had struck gold. It did not matter if he could not read the text. He could bring it back and get the linguists to crack it. The text must be some valuable records.
He closed back the notebook and tucked it in his clothes.
Suddenly, plumes of black smoke appeared and formed into shapes in the basement. It was three red armored soldiers.
The research area stored tons of valuable date. It was only natural that Lin Sheng placed the most powerful guards in here. Every once in a while, the red armored soldiers would come to check out the lab.
As a summoner, Lin Sheng trusted no one except his summoned creatures. They were his greatest support. That was the reason the red armor soldiers would come every five minutes.
But the appearance of the three red armored soldiers did not cause Ringer and his partners in crime to go panic. Their eyes stayed still, as if they were not worried of getting caught.
When they ransacked the place, they had put everything they touched back to its original position, as if it had never been moved. Their special stealth ability allowed them to stand in front of people and not being seen.
But to their surprise, the red armor soldiers’ eyes swept over the laboratory and smashed the alarm button on the wall.
“Intruders!”
The alarm siren blared in the air as the soft ambient light in the laboratory turned into dazzling red.
Ringer and co stayed calm. They carried the bags loaded with loots and hurried towards the door.
“Get the hell out of here! The concentration of the strange energy is too high here. We can’t use a teleporting array in here!”
“Got it!”
The men were like locusts. They had looted everything in the research center: precious materials for building the Darkspirit Gate, the hard disks that Lin Sheng used to record experimental data and non-networked data disk that held confidential contents. And most importantly, the notebook. They had stuffed them into a large bag.
They had also taken those small items and test samples that Lin Sheng made. Not forgetting the holy soil in the glass.
“Bolt!”
The three of them rushed towards the exit and quickly left the field of influence of the holy power.
…..
…..
Inside the conference room, Nikos and co confronted Lin Sheng as Seagal and Tenko Kasumi as the representative.
Their attitude was anything but sincere. In Lin Sheng’s eyes, they were forcing their demands down his throat.
How many Palatinates were there in the three mysteries realms? With the entire government machinery thrown in, it was a behemoth. For them to take the trouble to give this small sanctum a heads-up was the most civilized attitude they could afford.
Lin Sheng knew this. But he also knew that he must not divulge the Ashen Seal technique of the Holy Power to outsiders. No matter how hard Nikos and co tried to persuade him, he would not budge.
“Only those truly believe in the Holy Light could master the Holy Power-Ashen Seal cultivation technique. Whether we give it to people outside the Sanctum or not is irrelevant. Those with a heart not in the right place would never learn it even if they get the cultivation technique,” Lin Sheng said.
“It doesn’t matter. You just need to give us the cultivation technique. We will figure it out later. Please don’t worry about it.” Nikos smiled, not minding to glib-talk with Lin Sheng.
It puzzled Lin Sheng. In fact, with their power and influence, Nikos and co could have forced their way through. But they did not. Instead, their attitude seemed to have done a one-twenty. They sounded as if everything was negotiable. It was as aggressive as before.
“Something is going on in here,” Lin Sheng figured quietly. These people would not mess around. They would not waste time like that. One was a Palatinate, and two apex Six Wingers from the highest echelon of Carte Blanche. Why would they muck around with the keeper of a small sanctum like this? This was ridiculous.
So… what was their purpose?
Lin Sheng’s mind was racing. He had raised the alert of his patrols to the highest level in the city.
The security was watertight—so much so that even a mouse that wandered into the guarded zone would be shot at sight.
