163: Chapter 163 Shadowy Return, Counter-Attack on the Enemy's Ridge

Ling Ye slowly squeezed out from the rock crevice where he had been hiding, re-acclimating to the absolute darkness and chill of the outside world.

He first carefully sensed his surroundings, confirming there were no other signs of life or abnormal movements.

Then, relying on his memory and the vague sense of direction from his "Spiritual Sense", he began to carefully grope his way towards the emergency airlock door he had escaped through earlier.

The underground karst cave terrain was complex, with rugged rocks and dense puddles.

He had no lighting, relying entirely on his "Spiritual Sense" to perceive the spatial structure and residual energy.

Like a blind man walking at night, he moved with exceptional steadiness.

He deliberately bypassed paths that might have water flow or obvious air currents, choosing relatively dry and hidden routes to avoid leaving obvious traces.

About half an hour later, he saw that heavy airlock door, marked with yellow warning paint, once again.

It was embedded silently in the rock wall like a scar in the darkness.

Ling Ye did not approach immediately.

He lurked behind a cluster of stalactites about fifty meters away from the door, concentrating his "Spiritual Sense" to its limit, like an invisible net covering the door and its surrounding area.

The door was tightly shut, with no signs of opening.

But Ling Ye's "Spiritual Sense" captured extremely faint yet fresh energy fluctuations and information disturbances on the rock wall and ground near the door.

Had they been left by the pursuers earlier?

Or... were they newly installed monitoring sensors or alarm devices?

Very likely!

The enemy was not stupid; since the intruder escaped through this door, they would surely have strengthened monitoring here, perhaps even setting traps, waiting for the intruder to return or for accomplices to provide support.

He could not approach directly.

Ling Ye's gaze turned to a horizontal, narrow rock crevice about three meters above the door, where faint signs of air movement could be felt deep within.

Perhaps he could circle to the side or above the door from there, observe from another angle, or even discover other gaps leading into the base (such as damaged ventilation ducts).

He began to climb up the slippery rock wall like a gecko.

His fingertips gripped the rock crevices tightly, his toes searching for tiny protrusions; his movements were slow and steady, making almost no sound.

The climb consumed his newly recovered physical strength, and the wound on his back sent waves of stinging pain, but he gritted his teeth and persisted.

Finally, he reached the height of that horizontal crevice and squeezed in sideways.

The inside of the crevice was deeper than expected and extended diagonally upward.

He crawled inward for about ten meters using both hands and feet.

The crevice gradually widened, and faint, regular low-frequency humming sounds, as well as the clearer sound of filtered air movement, drifted from ahead.

It was the base's ventilation or circulation System!

Ling Ye felt a surge of joy and proceeded even more carefully.

Soon, at the end of the crevice, a ventilation opening about the size of a washbasin, sealed by a metal grille, appeared!

The grille was heavily rusted, seemingly unmaintained for a long time.

The humming and airflow were coming from behind the grille.

He moved close to the grille and looked inside through the rusted gaps.

Inside was a standard rectangular ventilation duct; the duct walls were covered with thick dust, but faint lights could be seen in the distance.

The direction of the duct was roughly towards the interior of the base.

This was it!

The best path to infiltrate the base and avoid the main entrance monitoring!

He took out his multi-function knife and carefully pried at the edge of the rusted grille.

The grille was not firmly fixed and was soon removed.

He placed the grille gently aside, then listened for movement inside the duct.

There was only the constant sound of airflow and the low hum of equipment in the distance; there were no footsteps or human voices.

He did not hesitate, took a deep breath, and squeezed into the ventilation duct sideways.

The duct was full of dust, and as soon as he entered, it stirred up a cloud, making him almost cough, but he forced himself to hold it back.

He tried to move as quietly as possible, crawling forward along the duct towards the direction where the light and humming sounds were coming from.

The duct was crisscrossed with many forks.

He relied on his intuition for direction and his weak perception of energy flow (the operation of equipment inside the base generated a stable energy field) to choose his path.

He tried to avoid ducts with strong airflow that might lead to main ventilation fans, choosing branch paths that were relatively quiet and had gentle airflow.

After crawling for about ten minutes, he came to a ventilation grille.

Below the grille, clear human voices and the sounds of equipment operation could be heard.

He carefully looked down through the grille.

Below was a medium-sized room, looking like an equipment monitoring room or a low-level staff lounge.

There were several consoles in the room, and the screens displayed simplified structural diagrams and status indicator lights (green) for various areas of the base.

Two personnel wearing base uniforms but not carrying weapons were sitting in front of the consoles, drinking synthetic beverages while talking in low voices.

"Did you hear? The Command Center just issued the 'Purification Net' directive, searching the whole city. It must be chaotic outside now."

"Tell me about it. It's quiet here, we just need to keep a close eye on these damn pipe monitors. The boss said that the kid who escaped might not have run far; he might sneak back through places like the ventilation ducts."

"Tsk, does he dare? Outside is an underground karst cave; who knows where it leads? He'd be lucky to survive. Besides, temporary sensors have been added to all exits and main ducts; he'll trigger an alarm as soon as he approaches."

"That's true. However, I heard that the Old Factory District is even weirder; the energy readings have exploded again. The higher-ups are anxious, and 'the key' is nowhere to be seen. If the second phase is Advanced, we might have to move here too..."

"Shh, keep it down, don't talk about things you shouldn't. Get to work, get to work."

The conversation between the two revealed valuable information: the inside of the base had strengthened monitoring (temporary sensors) on potential infiltration paths like ventilation ducts; the situation in the Old Factory District continued to deteriorate, and the search for 'the key' was fruitless; they had a certain understanding of the 'Purification Net', but were quite confident in the security of their own base.

Ling Ye silently noted it down.

He did not stay there and continued to crawl forward along the ventilation duct.

He wanted to find more critical places, such as communication nodes, areas near the command room, or equipment and material storage points.

After crawling through a few more forks, he came to another ventilation opening.

This opening was located above a relatively spacious and brightly lit corridor.

There were many cabin doors on both sides of the corridor, and the flow of personnel had obviously increased; most were walking in a hurry with serious expressions.

He saw more armed soldiers and technical personnel.

This must be near the core area of the base.

Ling Ye's gaze locked onto a cabin door in the middle of the corridor that looked particularly heavy, with a sign on the door reading 'Communication Center - Unauthorized Entry Prohibited'.

Two armed guards stood at the door.

That was it!

If he could infiltrate the Communication Center, maybe he could eavesdrop on Advanced directives, or even... send false information?

But the guards were strict, and it was impossible to go down directly from the ventilation opening.

He observed the direction of the ventilation duct.

There was a narrower branch that seemed to lead to the inside of the wall next to the Communication Center door.

It might be a line duct or auxiliary ventilation.

He carefully moved towards that branch.

The branch was very narrow, only barely allowing him to crawl.

After crawling about five meters, another grille appeared ahead, but this one was facing downward.

Below it seemed to be a... equipment cabinet or the internal space of a cable well?

He removed the grille (this grille was smaller and fixed more loosely) and looked down.

Below was indeed a narrow equipment well filled with various cables, interfaces, and glowing indicator lights, about two meters high.

There was a small door at the bottom of the well, leading to the next room.

This seemed to be a maintenance passage or cable access well for the equipment inside the Communication Center!

A god-sent opportunity!

Ling Ye felt a surge of joy, but he became even more vigilant.

He did not go down immediately, but extended his "Spiritual Sense" down to carefully perceive.

There were no signs of life in the well, only the low hum of equipment operation and energy flow.

The small door was closed, but it didn't seem to have an electronic lock, just a regular latch.

He did not hesitate, slipped silently into the equipment well, and landed on the soft cables.

Then, he held his breath, gently pulled the latch of the small door, and pushed the door open a crack.

Behind the door was a room filled with various communication servers, switches, and terminal equipment.

The space was not large; only one technician was facing away from the door, busy operating at a terminal, with encrypted data streams and communication status lists scrolling rapidly on the screen.

On the other side of the room, there was another door leading to a larger main communication room (faint human voices could be heard).

Ling Ye's target was the terminal in front of the technician, as well as any backup communication equipment or data storage devices that might be stored in the room.

He needed to create a brief opportunity for the technician to leave, or... make him temporarily lose consciousness.

His gaze fell on the technician's back.

Perhaps he could make use of it?