Chapter 8: Infiltration
After journeying for twelve days, the party finally arrived at Castle Garrison.
West Laina Castle was located there, which was where the name ‘Castle Garrison’ came from.
The castle itself was located atop a small mountain outside the city. Because it was the leader’s castle, outsiders were not allowed entrance easily. Every day, people from within the castle came out to buy things.
The entire Castle Garrison was built for the sake of serving those within the castle.
Even though this territory belonged to the Sand Race, many humans also lived here. Quite a few traveling merchants wandered back and forth, hawking their wares; as a result, Su Chen and the others didn’t seem out of place.
Su Chen had also left the wildebeest behind a long time ago, exchanging it for a Camel Wolf so that they didn’t run into any needless trouble the rest of the way there.
After arriving, everyone spent their day resting in the garrison.
When nightfall drew close, they sprang into action.
They dodged the patrolling Sand Race members and quickly arrived at the base of the mountain.
“The rest is up to you,” Shi Mingfeng said to He Xu.
“Don’t worry.” He Xu laughed delightedly and began to slink up the mountain. At the same time, a mirror appeared in Shi Mingfeng’s hand, and reflected on that mirror’s surface was He Xu’s face.
He Xu very quickly reached the outer walls of the castles. He tossed a few stones at the walls, and a few yellow ripples appeared across the surfaces of the walls.
Those were the castle’s defensive barriers.
But He Xu didn’t grow agitated. He pulled out a silver disk from his Origin Ring and placed it onto the barrier. Sharp spikes began to appear on the surface of the disk, penetrating the barrier. Next, the disk began to expand via the aid of a steel bar pushing it wider and wider, eventually creating a hole about the size of a washbasin in the barrier.
An instant later, He Xu’s figure elongated until he was about as skinny as the hole, allowing him to pass through it.
This was one of the Thousand Illusion Beasts’ abilities. Not only could he change his appearance, but he could also alter his body’s shape.
After passing through the protective barrier, He Xu began to scale the castle walls.
Once he reached the top of the walls, however, he didn’t come down. Instead, he pulled out a special crystal and aimed it at the ground.
Wherever the crystal was aimed, it was possible to see traces of blue light dancing across the ground.
Shi Mingfeng pointed at the blue light and said to Su Chen, “That is the Blue Sentinel Light. It can’t be seen by physical eyes, and anything touching it will trigger an alarm. If the magic barrier is the first hurdle, then these blue lights are the second. A lot of people will fail at this stage, but of course it’s useless to us.”
As he spoke, Shi Mingfeng seemed to grow a bit giddy.
Su Chen really wanted to tell him that he had seen the blue light since a long time ago; that hidden blue light couldn’t escape his microscopic eye. However, in the end all he said was, “So that’s how it is. My eyes have truly been broadened. I never expected that I could learn so much from a simple infiltration mission.”
“Of course. We’re professionals after all,” Night Demon said proudly from the side.
……
Su Chen was speechless.
At this moment, He Xu began to descend. He aimed the crystal right in front of him, carefully avoiding the Blue Sentinel Light.
After avoiding the Blue Sentinel Light, He Xu didn’t continue to advance as before. Instead, he lay on the ground and turned into a lizard, slowly crawling across the ground.
Shi Mingfeng explained, “The castle has detection-type Origin Formations beneath that can detect footsteps from people walking over them. This kind of formation is hard to deal with because it’s below ground, which is why He Xu turned into a lizard. The Sand Race likes lizards a lot, and there are quite a few being bred within the castle. They’re also used as sentinels, so even if the Sand Race discovers a lizard passing through the Origin Formation, they won’t pay it any attention.”
As he spoke, He Xu had just finished passing through the spacious courtyard. Indeed, a few lizards waggled their heads and walked over. Even though they weren’t familiar with the lizard that He Xu had transformed into, they didn’t cry out in alarm. They just took a mental picture of him and licked him a few times before leaving.
After walking past the open courtyard, He Xu finally reached a building.
He turned into a human and wiped the saliva off of his face. “Damn, these guys have so much saliva and it smells so bad.”
“They’ve taken a liking to you,” one of the Immortal Temple’s underlings laughed.
Each of them had brought a special transmission Origin Tool. As long as they didn’t exceed a certain range, they could converse with one another. It was incredibly useful.
“That was a male one,” He Xu replied unhappily.
“That makes sense, you only attract members of the same sex anyways,” someone else added.
Everyone burst into laughter.
He Xu helplessly shook his head. Upon seeing that no one was to his left or right, he used a lock picking technique to open the door in front of him. It had to be said that the Immortal Temple was very proficient in performing this kind of criminal activity.
As he opened the door and walked in, He Xu transformed into the image of a Sand Race servant.
He glanced around and saw no one, then walked in.
Shi Mingfeng said, “You’re in a hallway right now. Open the door to your left, go through that long hallway, and you’ll have reached the main hall. You need to find the servant responsible for giving Culler his food. Any longer and Culler will start eating.”
“I’m looking for him right now,” He Xu replied.
He opened the door, walked through the long hallway, and arrived at the main hall.
As soon as he opened the door to the main hall, he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.
Sand Race individuals were gathered everywhere there, talking and laughing with one another.
He Xu hurriedly returned to the hallway. “Dammit, they’re holding a banquet in there.”
“Leave, now!” Shi Mingfeng barked.
If they were holding a banquet, the previous rhythm they had settled upon was no longer reliable. A lot of people who weren’t originally part of the plan had suddenly appeared.
Making a move now would be too risky, so Shi Mingfeng immediately ordered him to retreat.
Unfortunately, he was still too late.
He Xu was just about to leave when a Sand Race official approached him.
He saw He Xu and barked, “Hey, you, come over here!”
He Xu glanced around. There was no one else there besides him.
The Sand Race official yelled, “I’m talking to you! Don’t slack off! Go and carry this food over there.
As he spoke, he picked up a large platter of food and handed it over to He Xu, then gestured at He Xu to follow him.
He Xu could only steel himself and follow closely behind.
When Shi Mingfeng saw this, he smacked his thigh and yelled, “Damn! We’re in trouble.”
A spanner had been thrown into the works. It wouldn’t be easy for He Xu to get back out.
But since this was the case, they could only adapt to the situation.
At this moment, He Xu had entered the main hall with the other Sand Race official.
The castle’s main hall was very luxurious. Sounds of elegant music hung in the air while brilliant light reflected off of the dangling crystal chandeliers. Under this festive atmosphere, some of the Sand Race guests danced while others chatted pleasantly.
He Xu followed the Sand Race official all the way up the stairs. After reaching the top, they entered a small room. A few Sand Race individuals were sitting there, conversing with one another.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Pall’s here!” Shi Mingfeng suddenly yelled.
A massive Sand Race individual was sitting within the small room.
It was hard to imagine how a Sand Race individual could be that fat. He looked like a massive whale, and he alone sat on a bench that could easily sit three people.
In front of him were two Sand Race dancers putting on a show for him.
A few people were sitting beside him. One of them was a Sand Race individual, while the other two were humans.
When he saw one of the two humans, Su Chen’s heart suddenly jumped.
That was because he recognized that person.