Chapter 79: Master of Disguise

“If we acquire the spirit mutant, it naturally belongs to Sister Ren.”

Ji Xinghuo and his two companions had no objections; Ren Mian has helped them a lot. Now that she needs something, they are fully committed.

Yet, Ji Xinghuo had a question, “Sister Ren, how did you find out about the Toad Spirit in the Deep Rock Rift?”

“I got the news from Dragon Lookout Pavilion,” replied Ren Mian.

“Is it reliable?”

“Most likely it is,” Ren Mian said with a hint of iciness in her eyes. “Dragon Lookout Pavilion wouldn’t dare deceive me. Their reputation has always been solid.”

“My worry is that they might have sold the news to others,” Ji Xinghuo was skeptical.

This kind of information trading is highly profitable. Beyond the initial cost of acquiring the information, selling it once or a hundred times bears the same effort. Naturally, they’d sell it to several clients to maximize profits.

“That’s indeed possible,” Ren Mian mused quietly. “We’ll enter the Deep Rock Rift at dawn to scout the Gekko People’s city. First, we need to confirm if the Toad Spirit is still there.” She looked at Ji Xinghuo, “Xinghuo, we rely on you.”

Ji Xinghuo nodded gravely.

A few hours later, as dawn broke, it quickly got hotter.

The Gekko People dislike heat but not the cold; they fear light but not darkness. These factors usually keep them active only during starry nights and dark nights; they rarely leave the rift during daylight.

The four approached the rift to scout the terrain.

This gigantic rift, over a hundred kilometers long, was unlike others, with its bare rocky surroundings and scant vegetation making it unsuitable for hiding.

At its widest, the rift spanned over ten kilometers. Inside, bizarre rocks and numerous cliffs formed an intricate terrain like a vast maze that was seemingly bottomless with tunnels and secret chambers from which cold, foggy air flowed, creating a daunting atmosphere.

“Let’s go in.”

Led by Ren Mian, the team entered the rift, and Ji Xinghuo quickly spotted traces of passage.

He recognized these as the footprints of the Gekko People leading deeper into the rift. “If we follow these traces, they should lead to the Gekko People’s city.”

“Xinghuo, you lead the way.”

“Okay.”

Ji Xinghuo had his magnetic field sensor activated. In truth, he could find the right path without needing to track footprints.

After walking for over an hour, the team had delved deep into the midsection of the rift, thousands of meters below the surface. They could only see dim light overhead, the sky blocked by massive cliffs and boulders, causing the temperature to drop. Walking among them felt like moving through a series of caves.

Suddenly, Ji Xinghuo gestured to his teammates to stop.

Ren Mian activated her thought necklace, and her voice echoed in their minds, “What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s here.”

Ji Xinghuo looked peculiar, “They’re Earthers, a hunting team, all five are supers.”

His three teammates looked intrigued.

Ren Mian hummed internally, “Just as you predicted, Dragon Lookout Pavilion sold the Toad Spirit’s intel to others too.”

Then she asked, “They haven’t spotted us, have they?”

“No.”

Ji Xinghuo shook his head. The other team was about seven hundred meters away. His own group was silent, their bodies covered with “Sweat Absorbing Orchid Leaves” and sprayed with deodorants, making them invisible, inaudible, and odorless to the advancing party, who were unaware of being discovered.

“Sister Ren, what do we do?” he asked. “They seem familiar with the rift, probably got here before us.”

Ren Mian thought for a few seconds, “Follow them. Play it by ear.”

“Okay.”

Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensor locked onto these five individuals, maintaining a distance of six to seven hundred meters.

This team advanced quickly through the rift, making no sound.

“Sound illusionist?”

Ji Xinghuo quickly noted the clue.

One of the five was a sound illusionist, capable of constantly covering the team’s tracks and absorbing sounds, much more discreet than a single illusion orb.

Before long, the team ahead slowed down and became cautious, hiding in a corner and staying put.

Ji Xinghuo moved forward a bit to see what was happening.

Several hundred meters away was a large artificial entrance, hard to notice due to large boulders around it. The entrance was deep and guarded by a team of Gekko People, clearly leading to the Gekko People’s city.

Ji Xinghuo relayed this information to his teammates.

“They’re going in.”

In the magnetic field sensor, Ji Xinghuo saw one of the supers undergo drastic changes, his height increasing from about 1.85 meters to two meters, with a large tail growing from his back and his hands turning into claws, his body becoming hunched, perfectly mimicking the appearance of a Gekko Person.

“Master of Disguise!”

Ji Xinghuo was startled. There was a Master of Disguise among this team.

This was an extremely rare professional profile, with three core abilities.

“Inorganic Alteration,” “Organic Restoration,” and “Mimicry,” with the first two being beyond the limit abilities and the last an excellent ability.

The Master of Disguise could morph his body in myriad ways, not only into other humans and species but also into lifeless objects like rocks, flowing water, tables, and chairs, making him an unpredictable and formidable fighter.

The Master of Disguise strutted toward the entrance. The Gekko People guards saw him but were unalert, simply starting to speak.

Without responding, the Master of Disguise approached the guards, his hands suddenly transforming into blades, simultaneously slashing off the heads of two guards.

At the same time, his body turned into a large cloud of smoke, enveloping the remaining Gekko People.

They started to choke immediately, unable to make a sound.

The smoke was clearly toxic, entering through the Gekko People’s nostrils, speeding up poisoning. The smoke, like invisible hands, strangled them, wrapping around their bodies silently killing them.

In just a few seconds, an entire team of Gekko People guards was wiped out.

Ji Xinghuo was in awe.

Such a method of killing, even if one knew he was a Master of Disguise, was hard to guard against.

After the Master of Disguise killed the guards, his teammates came out from hiding and entered the entrance.

“Let’s go in too.”

Ji Xinghuo and his team approached the entrance; Ren Mian, seeing the bodies of the Gekko People on the ground, also changed her expression slightly. She had already heard from Ji Xinghuo that it was the work of the Master of Disguise.

“This team is not simple,” Chi Zhonglin thought to himself.

“Just one Master of Disguise is not to be underestimated,” Ren Mian remained calm. “However, the news about the Toad Spirit has been out for over a year. Dragon Lookout Pavilion probably sold it to us and the team ahead, not enough preparation even to find the Toad Spirit, it should still be there.”

She paused, “This is actually a good thing.”

Ji Xinghuo guessed her thoughts, “Sister Ren, you want to use them as bait?”

“Exactly,” Ren Mian smiled. “The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. This time, let’s be the oriole.”

As they spoke, the four walked into the tunnel behind the entrance.

This tunnel meandered downwards with many forks and guards along the way, but all had been cleared by the team ahead.

Ji Xinghuo and his team followed behind, gradually going deeper.

Moments later, they entered a massive cavern nearly two hundred meters high with huge pillars or rocks supporting the dome above. The dim light from the entrance made the opposite side, three to four kilometers away, barely visible.

Ji Xinghuo looked far into the distance; the tunnel they were in was just one of the entries to the cavern.

There were over a dozen similar tunnels.

Inside the cavern, numerous nests had been carved out of the huge rocks at various heights, orderly like a man-made beehive, but inhabited by Gekko People, essentially a massive under-city.

The dim lighting barely affected the Wanxiang Star Pupils; Ji Xinghuo looked toward the opposite side of the cavern where a hundred-meter-tall giant archway stood.

Behind the archway, another cavern was visible.

Such interconnected caverns made up the under-city of the Gekko People.

On their home planet, the Night Star, they also lived underground. Their technology was not advanced, even primitive, which was why they were defeated by the Da Guan expeditionary forces and subjugated under Da Guan’s rule.

By this time, the team ahead had moved far away.

They let the sound illusionist cover their forms, cautiously avoiding the Gekko People in the cavern as they moved toward the archway.

Ji Xinghuo saw through their silent illusion in a glance.

This was his first direct observation of this hunting team, all five were males with their equipment hinting at their professional abilities.

Sound illusionist and Master of Disguise were already identified.

Of the remaining three, a tall man carrying a long gun was likely a martial artist.

Another clad in thick full body armor, like a mobile human fortress, wielding a giant axe weighing at least two to three hundred kilograms, yet moved lightly and swiftly as if the heavy armor and axe were made of plastic foam.

“Gravity Warrior!”

Ji Xinghuo’s mind brightened, attributing the light-handed ability solely to a Gravity Warrior.

The last of the supers, dressed in streamlined soft leather armor with elasticity to fit the body, wielded two short swords, and his specially made battle boots were a piece of super equipment, all designed to reduce air resistance at high speeds.

“He’s a Fly Step.”

Master of Disguise, Martial Artist, Sound Illusionist, Gravity Warrior, Fly Step.

The professional configuration of this team was indeed unusual, evidently formed on short notice, disregarding configuration but focusing on individual strength.

As long as the strength was sufficient, many issues could be resolved.

From their skin tones, it was evident: besides the Gravity Warrior fully clad in heavy armor, two were Asian, one Caucasian, and one Black.

Such an international combination rarely lasted long, especially since all five were supers.

They had formed this temporary team for the Toad Spirit.

“Where is the Toad Spirit?”

Ji Xinghuo looked in the direction they were heading, asking Ren Mian mentally.

“Over there,” Ren Mian pointed toward the archway on the opposite side of the cavern. “The Toad Spirit is in the deepest part of the Gekko People’s city, we’ll follow them, letting them scout ahead for us.”