78: The hub of the soul!

In Woma World, hundreds of kilometers from the Infinite City's canyon, a city of unique style stood upon the land.

This city had no towering walls; instead, it was protected by an energy shield that constantly flowed with a faint purple glow.

The city's buildings were mostly made of smooth alloy, with sleek lines, exuding a cold, technological feel.

From the tops of the buildings, faint blue beams of light occasionally swept across the sky, monitoring everything around them.

Inside a building shaped like an inverted pyramid at the city's center, a tall, slender Three-Eyed Race member, with a vertical pupil embedded in his forehead, floated in mid-air.

His eyes were closed, with only the vertical pupil on his forehead slightly opening and closing, emitting a faint, ethereal psionic glow.

He was Marco, the lord of this Level 5 territory, named Mind Nexus.

Suddenly, Marco opened his eyes, a flicker of fluctuation passing through them.

“Strange energy reactions…” he murmured, his voice carrying a unique, slightly ethereal frequency, “And not just one.”

As a Three-Eyed Race member, Marco possessed an innate sensitivity to energy.

Just now, several unfamiliar energy fluctuations, like stones thrown into a calm lake, rippled within his sensory range.

The closed vertical pupil on Marco’s forehead quivered slightly, and an invisible mental perception extended outwards, meticulously capturing the residual energy traces.

Most of the fluctuations occurred in distant areas, providing only vague signals.

But a few, with clear trajectories, ultimately disappeared in locations that were not too far from his Mind Nexus.

Uninvited “guests”...

A chill ran through Marco's consciousness.

Those insects from the Blue Star Alliance? Or the hyenas from the Dark Star Empire?

No matter who the intruders were, since they had stepped in here, they shouldn't expect to leave quietly.

With a slight shift in his thoughts, he issued an order to the guards standing below him: “Send out the ‘Ghost Eye’ squad to investigate the XXX coordinates area.”

“Confirm the nature of the energy source, and… the background of the intruders.”

He paused, a faint glow swirling in his vertical pupil.

“Remember, prioritize capturing live specimens.”

“I need their brains to tell me everything.”

“Yes, Lord!” Several Three-Eyed Race soldiers, also with vertical pupils on their foreheads and dressed in silver-gray tight-fitting combat suits, bowed in acknowledgment and swiftly left the hall.

Their footsteps were silent, with only faint psionic ripples lingering in the air.

...

On the wasteland outside the canyon, sand and wind swirled.

Several blurred dark figures moved through the rugged rock piles.

They were the [Shadow] squad dispatched by Infinite City, led personally by Shadow One, the captain.

Their movements were swift and concealed, almost blending into the environment.

The sand and wind of Woma World blew across their specially made cloaks, yet not a single extra sound was made.

Suddenly, Shadow One stopped, tilting his head slightly as if listening to something.

The other Shadows instantly froze, merging into the shadows of the nearby rubble, their presence completely withdrawn.

“Northwest direction, seven units, energy reaction… very strange…” Shadow One’s message was transmitted to his team members through a special method.

Almost simultaneously, a “Ghost Eye” squad consisting of seven Three-Eyed Race soldiers also detected an anomaly.

“Captain, highly cloaked units are approaching ahead! Cannot precisely lock on, bio-energy level assessment… cannot be determined!”

A Three-Eyed Race soldier's vertical pupil on his forehead flashed with data streams.

“Their scouts?” The Three-Eyed Race captain at the head of the squad showed a hint of caution in his eyes, “Be careful, prepare the psionic restraint net, try to capture them alive…”

Before he could finish speaking, a sudden change occurred!

From the originally empty shadowy corner, several fatal cold gleams burst forth!

“Pfft!” “Pfft!”…

The sound of blades cutting through flesh rang out one after another, so quickly that people barely had time to react.

The members of the Shadow squad emerged from the void like reapers, their daggers precisely slicing across the most vulnerable necks or energy cores of the Three-Eyed Race soldiers.

Although these Three-Eyed Race soldiers possessed a certain level of psionic sensing ability,

Their reactions were still a step too slow in the face of the [Shadow]'s enhanced [Shadow Walk] and [Fatal Strike].

The battle began suddenly and ended even faster.

In just a few breaths,

All seven members of the Three-Eyed Race “Ghost Eye” squad lay on the ground, the vertical pupils on their foreheads devoid of light, their eyes still holding a trace of disbelief.

Shadow One walked over to the captain's corpse, squatted down, and lightly brushed his fingers over the insignia on the combat suit and some miniature instruments.

“Three-Eyed Race… a civilization combining technology and psionics.”

“This city is not far.”

Shadow One stood up, his gaze fixed on the distance.

At the edge of his vision, the indistinct outline of the city was blurred by the swirling sand.

He could feel an invisible perception spreading outwards, though very faint, it had precisely locked onto this area.

They had been discovered, or rather, their actions had left traces that could be tracked.

Although the Shadow's ability was extreme stealth,

The fact that the enemy could dispatch such a reconnaissance squad indicated that their reconnaissance capabilities were not to be underestimated.

Continuing to act with the team was too risky; once locked on, the entire squad could be in danger.

Information was paramount, and he was the most suitable person in the team to carry out this mission.

Only he could minimize the risks.

“It seems we’ve been discovered.”

“For safety, I will go to investigate.”

His voice was very soft, almost swallowed by the wind and sand.

But the other Shadows heard him clearly.

“You clean up the traces, then leave here and report to the Lord first.”

“Yes.” The other Shadows silently began to clear the battlefield, covering up the bodies and battle traces, then swiftly retreated.

...

Shadow One’s figure once again merged into the shadows, stealthily heading towards the Three-Eyed Race’s “Mind Nexus.”

Shadow Jump!

His figure teleported short distances between different shadows, perfectly avoiding both visible and invisible detection methods.

The Three-Eyed Race's city defense system was indeed tight, with psionic sensing networks covering almost every corner. But the [Shadow] themselves were experts in manipulating shadows and perception, and Shadow One was one of the best among them.

He moved like a true ghost around the city's outer perimeter, listening to scattered psionic communication fragments, observing patrol patterns, occasionally daring to approach relatively weakly guarded areas, and capturing information from building crevices and pipelines.

Time passed bit by bit, Shadow One, like the most efficient hunter, patiently gathered everything about this city.

The Lord's rank, the general composition of the troops, the characteristics of the defense system, and even snippets of high-level personnel's conversations…

Finally, in a hidden corner, he intercepted a crucial psionic communication, which mentioned “Lord Maergan” and the situation of a “Tenth Order Mind Weaver,” as well as discussing a plan to clear the surrounding areas.

“Tenth Order…” Shadow One's heart tightened slightly; he knew the weight of this information.

The risk of continuing to lurk and investigate other information far outweighed the potential gain.

Without further delay, Shadow One immediately returned along the shadows, his speed faster than when he came, like a true black lightning bolt.