145: Chapter 145 Walking Alone in the Dark Alley, Spying on Ghostly Shadows

Over the next two nights, Ling Ye took the Incarnation of a ghost in the shadows of Rust Town.

He chose to act between 1 and 3 AM, the time when this area was most silent.

Changing into the darkest clothing and smearing coal ash on his face, he maintained his "Spiritual Sense" at a medium alert level, allowing him to perceive life signs and energy anomalies within a radius of several dozen meters without excessive consumption.

Like the most cautious cartographer, he radiated his exploration outward from his temporary base.

His footsteps were light as a mongoose, hugging the wall shadows, his gaze quickly sweeping over every alley entrance, every broken window, and every pile of trash.

He discovered that "Rust Town" had more layers than he had imagined.

To the east, near the main road, there were several cheap synthetic food shops open all night and sleazy bars with flashing neon lights; drunks and scantily clad men and women often lingered at the entrances, and hovering taxis frequently came and went.

This was the most "lively" area on the surface, and also the place with relatively more surveillance, so Ling Ye avoided it from a distance.

To the west, deep into the alleys, were stretches of old apartment buildings and abandoned factories; many windows were pitch black, the streets were piled with trash, and shanties built by homeless people out of cardboard and rags could be seen everywhere.

The air was foul, and occasionally black shadows could be seen rummaging through trash piles or watching the outside world vigilantly from doorways.

This place lacked management, but that also meant fewer official eyes.

His temporary base was on the edge of this area.

To the south, there was an almost dried-up sewage ditch, and beside the ditch were some illegally built shanties and small workshops, from which the faint smell of mechanical processing and chemical agents drifted.

Some places that looked like underground repair shops or contraband processing points were active here, with people coming and going in a hurry, rarely communicating with each other, carrying a tacit sense of exclusion and vigilance.

To the north was a relatively "tidy" neighborhood with several slightly better-maintained apartment buildings and even a small plaza where some old people and children were active during the day.

However, when Ling Ye explored late at night, he found young men in uniform black jackets with capable manners occasionally talking in low voices in the shadows of the plaza corners, their sharp eyes scanning the surroundings.

They didn't look like ordinary thugs, but more like... some kind of private security or patrol personnel for underground forces.

The water here seemed deeper.

He also discovered several potentially useful locations:

An old public faucet in the basement of an abandoned factory with no one guarding it; although the water flow was small, it seemed not to have been cut off and could serve as a backup Water Source.

A small abandoned garden hidden behind a broken apartment building; it was overgrown with weeds, but Ling Ye, relying on the subtle perception of his "Spiritual Sense," discovered several clusters of plants that looked like edible wild amaranth, as well as some broad leaves that could collect dew.

Several complex, damaged entrances to underground drainage pipes that connected different areas and could even lead to outer neighborhoods.

Most of these entrances were half-covered by debris, but they were enough for a slim person to squeeze into; these were his reserved emergency escape routes.

A tin shack located deep in the southern shantytown, from which faint light leaked out only in the second half of the night; there were no signs at the entrance, but occasionally people in hoodies with obscured faces entered and exited quickly, exchanging small packages—a suspected small-scale black market trading point.

Ling Ye recorded all this information into an encrypted mapping software on his terminal using symbols and sketches that only he could understand.

He marked safe routes, dangerous areas, resource points, surveillance blind spots, and those areas with suspected organized activity that needed to be avoided.

Two nights of exploration gave him a three-dimensional understanding of this "Rust Town."

It was chaotic and dangerous, but because of its chaos, there existed a large number of management gaps and survival niches.

As long as one was careful enough and understood the rules well enough, a solitary lurker could indeed survive here.

On the third night, when he finished exploring the last area in the northwest corner and was preparing to return to his base, his "Spiritual Sense" suddenly sent a warning—in the alley on the other side of the corner ahead, there were three life signs, and they were quietly approaching him in a semi-encirclement formation!

Moreover, the way they moved carried obvious purpose and coordination; they were definitely not ordinary homeless people or drunks!

Had he been discovered? Or was it just a coincidence?

Ling Ye was shocked, but not panicked.

He immediately stopped, pressed his body against the recess in the wall, instantly lowered his breathing and heartbeat to the minimum, and simultaneously focused the perception of his "Spiritual Sense" on those three people.

The distance was about twenty meters.

All three were adult males, their life energy slightly stronger than ordinary people, and their footsteps steady.

They also seemed to be using shadows and obstacles to approach stealthily, not talking, but exchanging subtle hand signals.

Were they coming for him? Or were they local forces conducting some kind of "patrol" or "clearing" in this area?

Ling Ye's brain worked at high speed.

He had been extremely careful during his actions over the past two nights and should not have left obvious traces.

Could it be that he had accidentally entered the "forbidden zone" of some force? Or was he noticed by some night observer?

Regardless of the reason, he could not be a passive target.

He quickly observed the surrounding environment.

Behind him was a dead end, and to the side was a high wall.

The only direction was the corner ahead, but that was exactly where the three were closing in.

His gaze swept to the wall of an old three-story building nearby.

The outer wall was covered with rusted pipes, air conditioning racks, and protruding bricks.

Above, about five meters high, there was a broken window, and inside it was pitch black.

There was no time to hesitate!

Just as the three were about to turn the corner and enter the alley where he was, Ling Ye moved!

His legs bent slightly, and the faint but well-integrated "Qi" in his body erupted instantly, combined with powerful leg strength and precise coordination, he leaped upward like an agile ape!

His hands accurately grabbed a thick, rusted water pipe, his waist and abdomen exerted force, his body swung upward, and his toes tapped several times on the protrusions of the wall to borrow force and go higher!

The whole process took no more than two or three seconds, silent and fast as a ghost!

When the three men in black jackets, holding short sticks and high-intensity flashlights, turned the corner, the alley was empty.

Only the night wind rustled the trash on the ground, making a rustling sound.

"Hm? I clearly felt movement here just now." A low voice sounded, and the flashlight beam swept every corner of the alley.

"Saw wrong? Or a rat?" another person said.

"Be careful, things haven't been peaceful lately. The boss ordered us to keep a close watch on this area at night, especially for unfamiliar faces," the third person said, his tone carrying vigilance.

The flashlight beam lingered for a few seconds on the spot where Ling Ye had just stood and on the wall, but did not find anything unusual.

The three talked in low voices for a few sentences, checked the surroundings vigilantly, and then slowly retreated, disappearing to the other end of the alley.

Ling Ye, like a gecko, clung tightly to the wall inside the broken window of the third floor of the old building, holding his breath until his "Spiritual Sense" confirmed that the three had completely left and there were no other anomalies nearby; only then did he slowly heave a sigh of relief and land gently on the ground.

The eruption just now, although short, had almost exhausted his stored "Qi," and his arm and leg muscles also felt sore.

But a glimmer of joy flashed in his heart—after this period of tempering and realization, the combination of physical fitness and the use of power seemed to be smoother and more efficient than before.

More importantly, he confirmed that in the relatively "tidy" area on the north side of "Rust Town," there indeed existed an organized force that conducted covert patrols at night.

Those three people just now were very likely its members.

The "boss" and "not peaceful" they mentioned also seemed to imply that there were turbulent undercurrents in this area, perhaps related to the tension across the city brought about by the Old Factory District incident.

This place was not suitable for a long stay, but the exploration results were fruitful.

Ling Ye did not return the same way, but used the drainage pipe paths he had explored earlier that connected different alleys, taking a wide detour before quietly returning to his temporary base.

After closing the doors and windows, he leaned against the wall and slowly calmed his heartbeat.

The environment had been preliminarily familiarized, and the danger had been preliminarily perceived.

Next, it was time to consider how to use this environment to obtain what he needed and continue to pay attention to that storm that was still ongoing.

Perhaps he could start from the "not peaceful" situation and "unfamiliar faces" inadvertently revealed by those night patrollers, and try to obtain some more "localized" intelligence about the impact of the Old Factory District incident?