Late at night, a bright moon hung in the sky.
Even in the upper district's residential complexes, all the lights inside the homes had gone dark — only the street lamps still glowed. It was clear that every resident had already fallen asleep.
Not far from the main gate outside the complex, Yi Kui walked up to Wang Xuanming, who was dressed entirely in black, and reported carefully, "Mr. Wang, all the lights inside the residential complex have gone out. Right now, only some security surveillance systems are still running. Additionally, we've detected thirty-two autonomous combat robots on patrol. Their patrol routes through the residences are completely randomized."
The reason the upper district was so extraordinarily safe was that it belonged entirely to the Green God Corporation. Even the least capable person who had lived in the upper district for any length of time possessed physical conditioning comparable to a Body Tempering Grandmaster on the outside.
Moreover, despite the upper district placing extreme emphasis on mental acuity, everyone's combat level was remarkably high. Taking any of them down quickly was an extremely difficult task.
To make matters worse, the upper district was crawling with autonomous combat robots. These machines boasted extraordinarily advanced artificial intelligence, and their entire bodies were forged from titanium alloy and special composites. Even a direct hit from a cannon would at most leave a minor scratch — and more likely, the shot would miss entirely.
That was because these autonomous combat robots possessed reaction speeds and physical capabilities that defied human imagination, their combat prowess comparable to a Hua Jin Grandmaster.
In the face of such machines, whether one was a Hua Jin Grandmaster or a Body Tempering Grandmaster, it made no difference — they were utterly outmatched. This terrifying technology had always been exclusive to the Green God Corporation, used for all manner of defensive operations, and was regarded as the most formidable security system in the world. It was one of the reasons every major conglomerate on Earth held the Green God Corporation in such wariness.
It was precisely because of these autonomous combat robots that even a Body Tempering Grandmaster wouldn't dare pull any secret stunts. The most anyone could do was engage in a sparring match out in the open.
"Thirty-two of them?" Wang Xuanming nodded. "Good. Send me their general distribution map."
He wasn't the least bit surprised that a residential complex would have this many autonomous combat robots. The number was actually far fewer than what guarded the villa district. A standard villa complex had over two hundred autonomous combat robots on patrol, sealed tight as an iron drum. Only a regular residential complex offered any opening at all.
And even that opening was limited to delivering a brief lesson — enough to leave the target seriously injured at best. Because these autonomous combat robots moved at terrifying speeds. From the moment someone broke into a residence, the robots would arrive in no more than eight seconds — that was the baseline setting for ordinary residential complexes.
Within that sliver of time, even a Body Tempering Grandmaster wouldn't have enough time to flee. Once detected by the autonomous combat robots, escape was impossible. As for fighting them head-on — that was simply suicide.
The actual time one had to fight was far shorter than even that.
"Here are the positions of the thirty-two autonomous combat robots ten seconds ago." Yi Kui transmitted the data to Wang Xuanming's wrist computer, and thirty-two light-point coordinates immediately materialized on the holographic map.
Wang Xuanming glanced at the map and smiled faintly. "It seems that Xia Qingying on the Foundation Layer is quite considerate toward him. With this patrol distribution, the most time I'll have is seven seconds."
"Seven seconds?" Yi Kui couldn't help but frown. He suggested, "Would you like me to draw the autonomous robots' attention for a moment?"
The difference between eight seconds and seven seconds might seem like just one second, but for a Body Tempering Grandmaster, that single second could mean a gap of dozens of meters — a difference that was far from insignificant.
"Don't worry," Wang Xuanming said with a light smile. "I've infiltrated places far more dangerous than this ordinary residential complex. Seven seconds is more than enough for me."
Dealing with a Hua Jin Grandmaster would be difficult enough for an ordinary Body Tempering Grandmaster, let alone one whose mental level had reached such a high degree. A Hua Jin Grandmaster with exceptional mental fortitude had command over his body that ordinary Hua Jin Grandmasters simply couldn't match, making him far harder to deal with.
But none of that was a problem for Wang Xuanming. His mental level was only a single step away from reaching the Grandmaster realm. His mastery over his own body was something ordinary Body Tempering Grandmasters couldn't hope to match — and certainly something Yi Kui and the others couldn't even imagine.
At the peak of his mental exertion, he could completely take down a Body Tempering Grandmaster in as little as three seconds. Injuring one was even easier, to say nothing of dealing with a Hua Jin Grandmaster whose physical attributes were comparatively lacking.
Yi Kui had absolutely no doubt about this. Wang Xuanming was an enormously famous figure in the upper district of Haitian City. Yi Kui had even sparred with him once — it had been a form of guidance from Wang Xuanming.
They had exchanged a single punch, and Yi Kui had been defeated. After that exchange, his entire arm had gone numb and completely immobile for a considerable time. And that hadn't even been Wang Xuanming at full strength.
Before that encounter, Yi Kui had never even imagined that a single person could be so powerful — practically superhuman. Taking Shi Feng down a notch would be as easy as reaching out and plucking something.
After Wang Xuanming completed a few basic preparations, he infiltrated the residential complex alone.
Silently, soundlessly — even though Yi Kui watched the whole thing, in less than two or three seconds, Wang Xuanming had vanished completely along the exposed pathways of the complex, as if carried away by a gentle breeze, utterly undetectable.
"His mastery over his body has improved yet again?"
Yi Kui stared at the spot where Wang Xuanming had disappeared, a chill running through his entire body.
To have achieved such terrifying control over both his surroundings and his own body was something Yi Kui had never even heard of.
If Wang Xuanming ever turned on him, the consequences would be unthinkable…
At this moment, Yi Kui felt profoundly grateful that Lu Tiandi had such a good relationship with Wang Xuanming. If Lu Tiandi and Wang Xuanming had been enemies, he — as both butler and bodyguard — would have died a most wretched death.
While Yi Kui was still marveling at Wang Xuanming's astonishing abilities, Wang Xuanming had already dodged one autonomous combat robot after another, silently arriving at the room where Shi Feng was staying.
The moment he reached the door, Wang Xuanming didn't rush in. Instead, he hid in a corner, quietly observing and sensing his surroundings while cross-referencing the positions of the thirty-two autonomous combat robots on his wrist computer.
Because the moment he made his move, he would have to smash through the door by force. Picking the lock was a fantasy. And the moment he forcibly broke down the door, the nearest autonomous combat robots would respond immediately. He had to nail the timing perfectly — and he had to have his escape routes already mapped out in his mind, or the robots would catch him for certain.
"Good. Three escape routes in total."
"As long as I can teach that Shi Feng a lesson within five seconds, I can get out of this complex easily."
Wang Xuanming ran the calculations through his computer and his own mind, then turned his gaze toward the door not far away. He pulled on a helmet, completely concealing his identity, and took a single explosive step forward. Soundless and invisible, in the blink of an eye he was standing before the door.
A spinning kick shattered the door open, sending it flying inward.
The moment the door burst open, an alarm blared inside the residence. Six autonomous combat robots patrolling the immediate vicinity received the signal at once, and each one charged straight toward Shi Feng's room.
The alarm also instantly reached Shi Feng, who was lying inside his virtual reality capsule. He severed the connection immediately, his speed so great that the entire process took less than a single second.
But one second was a lifetime for a Body Tempering Grandmaster. Even in a spacious two-hundred-square-meter apartment, it was more than enough for Wang Xuanming to cover the long hallway and arrive at the center of the living room.
When Wang Xuanming reached the sixty-plus-square-meter living room and was about to charge toward the bedroom where Shi Feng was, he froze.
Because at some point, a figure had appeared sitting on the living room sofa — a person wearing a snow-white nightgown, three thousand strands of dark hair cascading to the waist. Her gaze held neither joy nor sorrow, and bathed in the moonlight, she looked like a fairy descended from the heavens, devoid of any mortal taint. She simply sat there, watching Wang Xuanming in silence.