At this moment, Old Bai snatched up the smoking shell of the smoke grenade from the ground and threw it back out the door, temporarily blocking the line of sight from outside.
The few of them could no longer go out.
"Everyone get down! Find cover!"
Liu Zheng's commanding voice rang out in the chaos. He pressed the struggling Lin Huaimin down under a lab bench in the corner, while roaring at a pale, terrified student, "If you don't want to die, hide under the desk and cover your head!"
Hearing the gunshots, the ordinary people couldn't care less about any ancient texts. They could only scurry like rats with their heads in their hands, frantically looking for any place to hide their bodies.
Amidst the chaos, only Xia Zhi remained completely calm.
As the strongest fighter in the team, she didn't rush up immediately like Old Bai. Instead, she leaned behind a row of heavy bookshelves, calmly observing the movement at the door, her ears twitching slightly to catch every subtle sound.
"It's a cloning technique, which means the enemy can bring a lot of people in at once, and all of them are fearless cannon fodder."
Her voice clearly reached the ears of Liu Zheng and Old Bai. "We have to use the Five Thunders Talisman sparingly. We don't have many of these things left."
"Got it," Liu Zheng responded in a deep voice. He had already drawn his gun, aiming vigilantly toward the door.
Dead silence.
The three of them tacitly hid behind cover, not acting rashly.
They were all waiting, waiting for Lin Mo, waiting for backup.
Stall. As long as they dragged it out, the scales of victory would tip in their favor.
Obviously, the people from Secret Intelligence Division Ten were already getting anxious.
The enemy seemed to know this as well. In the smoke-filled corridor, two blurry figures, one in front and one behind, launched a simultaneous surprise attack from two doors.
"Here they come!" Old Bai growled.
However, the moment the one in front rushed in, Old Bai relied on his cover and fired three shots.
Three bursts, every shot hitting flesh. That clone didn't even utter a groan. Three clouds of dust exploded from its chest, and it dissipated on the spot.
The one at the back door fared even worse.
Liu Zheng didn't even bat an eyelid, as if the heavy smoke and thick door panels were non-existent to him.
He simply aimed carefully in one direction and pulled the trigger.
Pfft.
With a soft sound, the bullet accurately pierced through the smoke, hitting a figure hidden within.
Although his ability was reconnaissance-based, cloning techniques had absolutely no effect on him.
He could clearly distinguish the enemy's position, even in the smoke.
"Fuck, I don't believe he can keep cloning forever!" Old Bai cursed through gritted teeth as he checked the remaining bullets in his magazine.
"He probably doesn't believe our bullets are infinite either."
Liu Zheng patted his last remaining magazine. His tone was flat, but it instantly made the atmosphere heavy. Their real firepower and spare ammo were all locked in the car downstairs.
As soon as he finished speaking, a sudden change occurred!
A sharp piercing sound suddenly rang out. It was no longer a probing clone, but a fatal killing move!
Several invisible wind blades tore through the smoke, slicing even the concrete walls like tofu. Amidst flying rubble, they slashed straight towards Old Bai's face!
"Holy shit! Why the fuck is it me again?"
Old Bai's scalp instantly went numb. Without time to think, he did an extremely ungraceful donkey roll, barely dodging the vital areas, but he was still hit by the wind blade.
If it weren't for the protection of his jade pendant, he would probably be dead already.
It wasn't over yet!
More wind blades followed one after another, completely ignoring the fact that they might hurt Lin Huaimin. It was clear they wanted to shred both the people and the cover together.
"The books! The books!" Lin Huaimin shouted wildly, only to be kicked straight back by Liu Zheng.
Xia Zhi looked at the jade pendant on Old Bai's chest, which had noticeably dimmed, and her eyes narrowed.
She took a deep breath, her gaze sweeping between Liu Zheng and Old Bai.
"My jade pendant is basically unconsumed. I'll go take care of that guy named Su Liu!"
Her voice was not loud, but it revealed an unquestionable resolve.
"Don't be reckless!"
Liu Zheng's face changed drastically. Just as he reached out to pull her back, Xia Zhi lunged out from behind the cover like a cheetah, instantly disappearing into the smoke.
Rushing out of the smoke, the field of vision suddenly opened up.
The moment she came out, Xia Zhi saw a yellow-skinned man leaning against the stair railing, watching her leisurely with a cat-and-mouse teasing look in his eyes.
Su Liu.
Seeing Xia Zhi, he didn't even change his posture, merely raising his hand disdainfully.
In an instant, Xia Zhi felt the skin all over her body prickling. The surrounding air seemed to turn into countless invisible knives, scraping towards her from all directions.
She couldn't dodge!
Xia Zhi made an instant judgment in her heart. She simply abandoned all thoughts of dodging, planted her legs firmly on the spot, and raised the gun in her hand.
There was no scope, only a pair of eyes as calm as still water.
She pulled the trigger.
There was no muzzle flash, no roar, not even a trace of sound.
An invisible bullet, formed purely from condensed spiritual energy, roared toward Su Liu's head at a speed far exceeding the speed of sound.
The caliber of this bullet was comparable to a .50.
Almost at the same time, countless wind blades slashed fiercely onto Xia Zhi's body.
Hum!
The jade pendant on her chest erupted with an unprecedentedly brilliant light, blocking all the fatal cuts.
However, the terrifying kinetic energy attached to the wind blades could not be completely negated.
Boom!
With a loud bang, Xia Zhi was slammed fiercely against the wall behind her by a massive force. The sturdy wall cracked inch by inch like a spider web.
Her internal organs felt as if they were dislocated. A sweet taste rose in her throat, and she almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
The severe pain made Xia Zhi's vision go dark in waves. She could clearly feel that the jade pendant on her body seemed to let out a wail of being overwhelmed.
It seemed the power inside was exhausted.
Otherwise, the remaining impacts should have been offset as well.
But her eyes stared fixedly, intensely at the direction of the staircase.
That shot should have hit, but was the enemy... dead?
Her blurry vision focused.
Xia Zhi clearly saw a gaping hole in the chest of the banana man standing by the stairs.
Blood poured out from the large hole.
"It worked! I have a jade pendant, what do you have!"
Xia Zhi breathed a sigh of relief and slumped onto the ground.
However, in the next second, a dark-skinned man walked down the stairs.
That was Cam, the one using the cloning technique.
But Xia Zhi couldn't lift her body. She wasn't exactly exhausted, but her injuries were quite severe.
Cam glanced at Su Liu and sneered, "Heh."
Then he raised his muzzle and aimed at Xia Zhi.
Just as he pulled the trigger, a flash of light flickered past.
Cam dissipated on the spot. Before dissipating, he couldn't even see who had made the move.
Of course, this was just a clone.
Hiding upstairs, Cam felt something was wrong. He didn't hesitate to shout into his earpiece to his remaining comrades, "Retreat! Retreat immediately!"
"Copy! Co..."
Before the sentence was finished, it stopped abruptly. Cam tore off his earpiece and rushed upstairs.
He had to run!
But before he could even take two steps.
A figure was already standing in front of him.
"Where do you think you're going?"

ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!

grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)

rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!

transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”