Chapter 437: Infiltration

“The Secret Technique I obtained was actually invented by a human genius who swore revenge on my Divine Race,” the fake Ding Luo explained. “He faced a situation similar to yours. The difference was, he didn’t have me to help him, so he could only watch helplessly as his family was executed. In the end, he nearly went insane. Years later, he became one of the Mixed Race and invented this powerful Secret Technique that unearths strength at any cost.”

“…So you’re saying situations like ours… there are many of them among the Endless Divine Race?” Ding Yiran read between the lines.

“Yes. A great many,” the fake Ding Luo sighed. “Alright, enough chatter. Let’s continue. I need to warn you first: even if you make such a huge sacrifice—giving up your potential and burning through your lifespan to cultivate this technique to Great Success—at best, you’ll only be about as strong as the lowest-ranking soldiers in the Divine Army. Are you… still willing to practice it?”

“…Is this the only way?” Ding Yiran asked after a moment of silence.

“It is. A Cultivation Technique that doesn’t require aptitude or age, one that makes you stronger just by practicing it… as far as I know, this Cloud-Water Mountain-Settling Fist is the only one,” the fake Ding Luo said with a sigh.

“Cloud-Water Mountain-Settling Fist…” Ding Yiran repeated the name. “I’d like to ask, how strong is the weakest Divine Army soldier, typically?”

“They can punch at the speed of sound, catch artillery shells with their bare hands, and bullets won’t penetrate their bodies head-on. Conventional firearms are basically useless against them,” the fake Ding Luo replied.

“…Th-They’re that strong?!” Ding Yiran trembled upon hearing this.

And that was just the level of the lowest-ranking soldier of the Endless Divine Race?

At this very moment, he finally understood what it truly meant to be part of the Divine Race…

“This is the basic potential and power my people possess from birth. Without any training, we naturally reach this level when we come of age,” the fake Ding Luo continued to explain.

Her words caused even Lin Hui, who was secretly observing, to feel a slight stir.

‘The Endless Divine Race is truly uniquely blessed…’

He could now somewhat understand why these members of the Endless Divine Race genuinely saw themselves as gods.

“I understand…” It was a long while before the stunned Ding Yiran came back to his senses.

Standing on the grassy floor of the empty factory, he asked another question.

“So what about our target? To rescue my big sister, what kind of opponent will we be facing? Can you tell me?”

“…The Seventy-Ninth Law Division. That is the temporary adversary we need to confront.” Just then, another pure, clear male voice answered Ding Yiran’s question from a distance.

“Musha, you’re finally here.” The fake Ding Luo breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes, I’m a little late, but I’ve brought the latest news from the Law Division.”

A flash of blue light, and a young, white-haired man in a blue suit abruptly appeared at the edge of the clearing.

He glanced at Ding Yiran, gave him a nod, and then looked back at the fake Ding Luo.

“Qinqin, how are things?”

“His foundation is decent, very solid. I used the standardized Mixed Race super-human training drug you gave me. It has a gene-modifying effect. It seems to be working quite well,” the fake Ding Luo nodded.

“That’s good. It’s my first time using this drug too. When we were co-developing it with the Mixed Race, I never had a chance to test it. You know, because it requires the user’s subjective mental state to cooperate. Test subjects are hard to find…” the man said softly.

“Wait, you used me as a test subject!?” Ding Yiran, who had been listening from the side, felt his skin crawl and couldn’t help but ask.

“You were going to exhaust all your potential anyway, and you even wanted to burn through your lifespan. We just gave you some medicine to offset some of the costs. Don’t worry about it,” Qinqin, the fake Ding Luo, waved her hand dismissively.

“…” Seeing her so nonchalant and acting as if it were completely normal, all the worries welling up inside Ding Yiran were forcibly suppressed.

It was true; he had already declared he would do it at any cost…

“Let me explain the situation with the Seventy-Ninth Law Division in detail.” At this point, the man named Musha began to explain the reality of what they had to face.

“First, you need to understand that the Seventy-Ninth Law Division is an enormous judicial body. It’s responsible for adjudicating all Divine Race affairs throughout the entire Red Simurgh Star System, which includes over ten planets, including Red Pattern Star.”

“This means that to the Seventy-Ninth Law Division, Red Pattern Star is just a tiny part of its jurisdiction. And cases like Ding Luo’s… there have been five of them on Red Pattern Star this month alone. She’s not the only one.”

“That many?!” The fake Ding Luo was taken aback. Unlike the bewildered Ding Yiran, she knew exactly what that number meant.

“Yes, a lot. In fact, many on the front lines have run into trouble. Some managed to hide it, and some were protected. The higher-ups only make an example of the most serious cases. Unfortunately, Sis Luo is the example they caught,” Musha sighed.

“…Alright, go on.” The fake Ding Luo paused and let out a breath.

“Okay. So, based on my careful inquiries, I’ve confirmed that Sis Luo’s case is primarily being handled by Kalin, one of the Three Great Adjudicators. But because Kalin is responsible for many cases, and these types of cases are relatively time-consuming, she currently has at least a dozen similar ones piled up. For it to be Sis Luo’s turn, we’re looking at a wait of one to two years, at minimum. This is consistent with our previous estimates,” Musha said.

“And what about the forces we’ll have to face?” Ding Yiran asked, a bit impatiently.

“First, when we enter the Divine Domain, we must choose a relatively remote peripheral area to minimize spatial vibrations and avoid attracting attention. So for the first round, we’ll need to face the patrolling inspectors from the Space Administration Bureau. I’ve already looked into this; we can enter through a blind spot in the inspectors’ patrol routes. There’s an eighty percent chance we won’t encounter anyone. But if we do, it’ll be a two-man team of Divine Army soldiers.”

“That part should be easy to handle. The trouble is that they carry alert devices from the Space Administration Bureau. We’ll need to be extra careful,” said the fake Ding Luo.

“Right. After dealing with the inspectors, we’ll disguise our identities and head to Saltfrost Town, where the Seventy-Ninth Law Division is located. The journey there shouldn’t be much of a problem. The only real hurdle is getting past the bailiffs at the courthouse. There are twelve bailiffs, and their strength is at least at the Second Ring. The minimum requirement to become a bailiff is Second Ring strength, so we absolutely cannot get into a conflict with them.”

“Second Ring… May I ask what level that is?” Ding Yiran asked timidly.

“The level where one could easily destroy the human city you live in within a few minutes,” Musha said succinctly.

“…” Ding Yiran tried to imagine how long it would take him to tear down his city if he mastered his Cultivation, and the result…

“As for the bailiffs, they’re just doing a job. No one is willing to die for it. So if we offer them a little something, and if we’re forced to make a move at a critical moment, we just need to make a big scene, and they’ll naturally back off. I’ve already figured it all out,” Musha continued.

“…That’s good to hear.” The fake Ding Luo nodded.

“After the bailiffs, there are the adjudicator’s assistants, about six of them. They’re all administrative staff. Their strength is at the Third Ring at most, and they have virtually no will to fight. A good scare and they’ll scatter. The one we really need to deal with is Adjudicator Kalin.” Musha paused there.

“Kalin… I’ve heard of her. She’s an old woman who doesn’t tolerate any nonsense,” Qinqin, the fake Ding Luo, said with a frown.

“Yes, and one thing in particular is very troublesome,” Musha said. “Kalin has never been to the Human Realm, but her son was once killed in battle during a clash with a powerful expert while suppressing the Mixed Race. Because of this, she has an extremely poor impression of humans. This means we can only fight a hard battle against her. Pulling strings or offering bribes will be useless.”

“An adjudicator… a monster at the Fourth Ring, at least, right…?” The fake Ding Luo’s voice was strained.

“Yes, and a monster born of superior divine blood. So we can only outsmart her, not overpower her,” Musha sighed.

Hearing this, Lin Hui didn’t continue listening. It seemed Musha and the fake Ding Luo had switched to an internal Divine Race communication method, making it impossible to eavesdrop.

But he had already learned most of the key intelligence. It was similar to what he had obtained through other channels, but the information Musha provided was more detailed.

“A Fourth Ring adjudicator…” Lin Hui had fought a Fourth Ring expert in space before, but it wasn’t an administrative adjudicator. It was a bona fide Divine Army general, and they were indeed tough to deal with.

Experts at this level almost all possessed the power to destroy planets. If they went all out, the shockwaves alone could easily obliterate a planet’s surface. With focused power, they could easily smash right through an entire planet.

Their speed was extreme, their power immense, and on top of that, the Endless Divine Race also had strange and unique abilities. They had independently developed a special system for wielding Endless Divine Power, and by cultivating this system, they could unlock all sorts of unique abilities exclusive to themselves.

These abilities were somewhat similar to those of the Fog People, but they didn’t rely on the Evil Soldier Insect Scripture. Instead, they were entirely their own.

This added many variables to any confrontation.

‘A Fourth Ring… I can deal with it, but it will cause a huge commotion. However, I can solve that by preparing a thorough ambush.’

If he put on the full set of the Heart Source Demon Emperor’s equipment and maxed out his stealth, taking out a single adjudicator with a surprise attack—a case of the strong killing the weak—wouldn’t be a big problem.

But Lin Hui’s goal wasn’t just to save someone. If it were merely a rescue, he wouldn’t need to make such grand preparations.

Finding the source of that golden aura was what he was truly after.

‘If possible, it would be best to send a true projection of my consciousness in first to test the waters. Only by making contact in person can I determine where that golden aura might be…’

With this in mind, Lin Hui already had a plan.

Putting thought into action, he disconnected from Ding Yiran’s situation and contacted Yan Qiushi directly.

After her difficult journey back to Red Pattern Star by hitching a ride on a passing merchant ship, she had obediently stayed home and rested for a week just to recover.

She had just returned home from a patrol, the bruises from her recent beating not even faded to scars, when Lin Hui’s demonic voice once again echoed in her mind.

“You’re coming with me… to the Divine Domain!?” Yan Qiushi was so shocked by Lin Hui’s words that the hair on her body stood on end.

‘That man is a true villain! Judging by his way of speaking and acting, he’s either a terrorist or a violent lunatic who’s utterly indifferent to human life.’

‘Based on my later analysis, a person like that would most likely clash head-on with the Divine Army.’

‘He might even already be on the Divine Army’s most-wanted list.’

‘If I go into the Divine Domain with him and leave a trail showing I accompanied him… if it’s discovered later on…’

‘It’s over, it’s all over!’

Yan Qiushi felt a wave of dizziness, and the world began to spin.

“Don’t worry, I’m just going to take a look. I’m not planning to do anything,” Lin Hui explained in a soft voice. “A friend of mine got into trouble and was captured. I just want to see her off one last time, that’s all. I won’t get you involved.”

“…Are you serious?” Yan Qiushi tried to convince herself to believe him.

“I’m serious. The Endless Divine Race is so powerful. Even if I’m stronger than you, I’m no match for the Divine Race’s many top experts, right? Surely you don’t think I’m looking for a death wish, foolish enough to go to your headquarters and stir up trouble?” Lin Hui coaxed.

“…That’s true,” Yan Qiushi said with a dry laugh.

“Exactly. In fact, I should be the one worrying that you’ll intentionally expose or betray me after we get inside,” Lin Hui said with a sigh.

“I definitely won’t! I promise!” Yan Qiushi replied hastily.

After the last incident, she had come to the clear realization that she was a grassroots member of the Divine Race with no money or power. If she really got into trouble, no one would help her. Therefore, as long as Lin Hui didn’t actually cause a major incident, her best option was to cooperate with him, play along, and ensure nothing happened to either of them.

She had also thought about reporting him to the Divine Army, but what if they failed to catch Lin Hui? She didn’t believe the Divine Army would go to great lengths to hunt him down just for a nobody like her.

And if the manhunt failed…