Peak Immortal Palace

The creaking sound of the door hinges turning was particularly jarring in the deathly silent room. Zhang Dianfeng pressed himself against the cold earthen wall, the sharp edge of the military dagger digging painfully into his palm, but it only made his mind clearer.

Three dark figures filed in. The one in the lead was wearing a black combat suit and his figure was very similar to the thugs on the helicopter earlier, except that he had a pair of night vision goggles on his face.

He raised his hand and made a gesture, and the other two immediately dispersed, moving as swiftly as cats. Their tactical flashlights swept around the room, and when the beams of light passed over Old Wang's corpse, none of them even lifted their eyelids.

"Boss, that old man's dead, could he have hidden the stuff?" the man on the right asked in a low voice, his flashlight beam flailing wildly through the mess. "We missed him at the rented room earlier, could that kid have come here?"

The shadowy figure known as "Boss" snorted coldly, his gaze sweeping over the wooden crate in the corner behind his night-vision goggles:

"That programmer is just a lamb to the slaughter, he doesn't have the guts to chase after us. Since the old man dared to hide the fragments of the star map, he must have a backup plan. Search carefully, especially those junk pieces—"

He stopped abruptly before he could finish speaking. The flashlight beam focused on the spot where Zhang Dianfeng had just squatted, where a clear shoe print remained, and next to it was half a copper coin that had been kicked away, clearly indicating that someone had just moved it.

"Someone's been here!" The man on the left instantly became alert, raising his gun sharply towards the door. "Boss, should we call for backup?"

"Useless!" the leader cursed under his breath, gripping the pistol at his waist. "Didn't hear a sound, and you dare call for backup? Search! He's definitely still inside!"

Zhang Dianfeng's heart sank to the bottom. These people were far more vigilant than he had expected; they were clearly not ordinary desperados.

He quickly scanned his surroundings, his gaze landing on the roof beam—the only hiding place in this tiled house, but to climb up, he had to pass through the center of the living room, which was directly in the line of sight of the three of them.

"Let's give it our all."

He took a deep breath, and the energy from the ancient jade within his body quietly began to circulate. The pale blue data stream reappeared in his vision.

The three men's breathing rate, gun-holding angle, movement trajectory, and even the degree of muscle tension were all broken down into sets of numbers.

"Optimal action plan: dash out of the shadows within 0.3 seconds, use the overturned wooden table to block your view, and leap to the beam at a 45-degree angle. Success rate: 78%." The voice in my mind calculated precisely.

Just as the flashlight beam from the person on the left was about to sweep across behind the door, Zhang Dianfeng moved.

He darted out of the shadows like an arrow released from a bow, his right foot striking the overturned wooden table with pinpoint accuracy.

With a loud crash, the wooden table was kicked and spun around, blocking the three people's view.

Taking advantage of that moment of cover, he used his waist to generate force, his body drawing a smooth arc in the air. He grabbed the edge of the crossbeam with his right hand, pulled sharply, and silently flipped himself up.

"It's up there!" The leader reacted quickly, raising his hand and firing at the crossbeam.

"Bang!"

The bullet grazed Zhang Dianfeng's scalp and struck the roof beam, sending splinters flying. He curled up, pressing himself tightly against the beam, his heart pounding—his calculations had been correct after all; a 78% success rate meant a 22% chance of being hit.

"Boss, he can't get away!" The man on the right grinned maliciously, pulling a flashbang from his backpack. "Come out here!"

Zhang Dianfeng's pupils constricted sharply. If he were hit by the flashbang, there would be nowhere to hide on the beam.

He instinctively reached into his pocket, his fingertips touching the cold metal disc—a fragment of a star map.

Just then, the metal plate suddenly became slightly hot, and the patterns on its surface began to emit a faint glow.

The light flowed from his fingertips into his mind, and an unfamiliar message appeared out of nowhere: "Star chart resonance can draw upon the surrounding spiritual energy to form a temporary barrier."

"Spiritual energy?"

Zhang Dianfeng was taken aback, then recalled the energy flow when the ancient jade shattered.

He didn't have time to think about it carefully; he focused his mind on sensing that so-called "spiritual energy."

Sure enough, countless tiny specks of light seemed to float in the air, like dust, gently trembling with the light of the metal disc.

"Three, two, one!"

The flashbang was released and thrown up towards the crossbeam.

In the nick of time, Zhang Dianfeng focused all his attention on the metal disc and shouted in his mind, "Barrier!"

hum-

The metal disc suddenly burst out with a blinding blue light, and the surrounding light spots instantly converged into a semi-transparent wall of light.

The flashbang exploded outside the light wall, blocking out the dazzling white light, leaving only a faint glow on the crossbeam.

"What?!"

The three below were stunned, and the leader exclaimed, "That's... a spiritual energy barrier? How could this kid use a fragment of a star map?!"

Zhang Dianfeng was also stunned.

He hadn't expected this thing to actually work! But he didn't have time to be surprised. Taking advantage of the moment when the three were distracted, he grabbed a wooden splinter from the crossbeam, put all his strength into it, and hurled it hard at the shoulder of the man on the right.

"Pfft!"

The wooden spike pierced the man's shoulder with pinpoint accuracy, and the man screamed as his gun fell to the ground.

"Damn it!"

The leader roared and raised his gun to fire, but the bullet was deflected by the wall of light, making a crisp "clanging" sound.

Zhang Dianfeng seized the opportunity, flipped over and leaped off the crossbeam, rolled upon landing, picked up the gun from the ground, and pointed it at his boss: "Don't move!"

The leader's face was ashen. He looked at the gun in Zhang Dianfeng's hand, then at the corner of the metal disc sticking out of his pocket, and suddenly sneered:

"You think capturing me will do you any good? Let me tell you, 'Black Skull' never fails to get what he wants. The star map fragment you have is only one-ninth of the whole picture. Without our coordinates, you'll never find the rest—"

His words suddenly stopped, his eyes turned to terror, he made a "hoarse" sound in his throat, and slowly collapsed.

Zhang Dianfeng looked down and saw a dagger stuck in the back of the boss, and the one holding the dagger was the man who had been injured in the shoulder by the wooden splinter earlier.

The man was panting heavily, his face expressionless, staring intently at Zhang Dianfeng: "He knows too much; he can't be allowed to live."

Zhang Dianfeng frowned, about to speak, when the man suddenly pulled out a miniature remote control from his pocket and pressed a button.

"What are you doing?!"

"Black Skull's rule: mission failure means total annihilation." The man revealed a crazed smile. "You'll die with us!"

boom--!

With a loud bang, the entire tile-roofed house began to shake violently, and huge cracks appeared in the walls.

Zhang Dianfeng then discovered that a bomb had been planted in the house!

"Damn it!" he cursed, turning and rushing out. The firelight behind him grew closer, and he vaguely heard the man's final roar: "The star map... in Kunlun..."

"Kunlun?"

The moment Zhang Dianfeng rushed out of the tile-roofed house, a deafening explosion came from behind him.

He was thrown away by the blast wave and crashed heavily at the entrance of the alley. His vision went black, and he passed out.

He didn't know how much time had passed when he woke up to the sound of sirens and found himself lying on a stretcher in an ambulance.

A police officer nearby was recording the scene, muttering, "It's Black Skull again... This is the third bombing this month..."

Zhang Dianfeng felt his pocket; the metal disc was still there.

He gazed at the tiled houses engulfed in flames in the distance, two words echoing repeatedly in his mind:

"Black Skull, Kunlun."

He knew this was far from the end. The organization called Black Skull, the remaining fragments of the star map, and the so-called spiritual energy and cultivation... a completely new and dangerous world was slowly unfolding before him.

The fragment of the star map in his pocket was radiating an increasingly intense heat, as if guiding him toward that unknown land called Kunlun.