A plume of dust rose silently in a direction unseen by everyone on the balcony.

"Xiao Jiu! 'Light Mirror Spell'!"

Chen Fei pointed at the little bird hopping back and forth on the balcony railing.

"Chirp!~"

Xiao Jiu tilted its head, as countless glowing particles quickly gathered in front of it, forming a thin light screen.

But just as the 'Light Mirror Spell' was about to form, it trembled without warning and instantly collapsed into countless light dots.

This First Rank light-based spell had surprisingly failed.

"Chirp?"

The little bird seemed somewhat puzzled, attempting once more to gather light elemental energy to construct the spell model for the 'Light Mirror Spell.'

But no one anticipated that the low-rank spell would fail again.

Originally, Xiao Jiu wasn't very proficient with the 'Light Mirror Spell,' but now, being a Ninth Rank Magical Beast, its mastery over light elemental energy had improved significantly. Yet, two consecutive failures were indeed baffling.

"No need to look, someone is interfering with specific spells."

Though Miyoshi Xuesen was a supernatural power user, his extensive experience quickly allowed him to ascertain the cause of the situation.

In fact, it's not hard to understand. The factory compound had been set with restrictions aimed not specifically at Pure Light Sparrow Xiao Jiu but to obscure outside line of sight. Spells like the recon-friendly 'Light Mirror Spell' would obviously be disrupted.

"Let's head to the rooftop!"

Chen Fei was the first to leave the guest room.

They were residing in a tall building, one of the few in the compound, situated in the core area with the highest defense measures. The rooftop height was sufficient to view the entire compound.

With authorized permission, Chen Fei and the others smoothly made it to the rooftop. The complexity was due to the rooftop's installation of one of several key protection force field devices within the compound. Six ten-meter-tall Target Cold Fusion Energy Towers surrounded the protection device, continuously feeding crystal energy converted from electric energy directly usable by the device.

The electrical circuits inside the Energy Towers were entirely made of room-temperature superconducting wires. Although the tower bodies were not large in size, their power generation was quite high, easily supporting energy-intensive units like the protection force field device.

To provide ample redundancy for emergencies and unexpected situations, each protection force field device was paired with six Target Cold Fusion Energy Towers, expanded from a one-to-one ratio.

As they reached the rooftop, guided by areasecurity personnel, Chen Fei could see the site of the previous loud noise—a plume of white smoke still hovered over the local residents' settlement area in Meilan County.

There, several rows of multi-tier integrated houses were arranged, reminiscent of the dormitories at the 911 Aircrew Base when Chen Fei first arrived, hence the familiar look. Each individual dormitory was equipped with a bedroom and bathroom, ensuring water and electricity, sufficient for a basic three-person family. Each unit could be freely combined and moved like building blocks, suitable for various temporary living environments.

At that moment, the residential area was heavily surrounded by compound security, conducting stringent inspection during resident evacuation, leaving no possible escape routes unchecked. Armed combat personnel and combat mechs had besieged the top of a row of houses, indicating that suspects might be trapped inside. Several nearby houses had been blasted open, exposing the living facilities inside, where some body and mechanical fragments could be seen, along with large bloodstains. The sudden explosion had clearly caused casualties.

On the rooftop where Chen Fei was, several groups of snipers had set up railguns, ready and aiming.

Life assistant Erin had promptly acted on the reminder from Chen Fei. The earlier explosion evidently yielded results, potentially revealing identities despite the best disguises. Returning to original forms would only be a matter of time, and the current scenario was a desperate struggle with no room for cover.

It's just whether the encircled one is really the main target they intended to capture, which might require further confirmation.

"Someone is holding hostages!"

Through the Psi Skill 'Basic Optical Observer,' Chen Fei clearly saw the encirclement scene hundreds of meters away, with silhouette movements within windows and bodies overlapping, likely indicating that a suspect had taken hostages.

Whether the trapped suspect is the supernatural power user with the self-destruction ability may not be easily confirmed for the moment.

Miyoshi Xuesen eagerly volunteered: "Need my help?"

Knockout, shooting from the dark, surprise attacks, and assassinations were specialties of the ninja squad. Such counter-hostage situations fit exceptionally well.

The shadows behind the monk slightly swayed. The ninjas' one-meter tachis were already itching for action, having limited opportunities to showcase their talents while following Chen Fei.

"Not for now. Mr. Randon's people are ready. Don't create chaos, as accidental injuries would be problematic."

Chen Fei had previously witnessed the formidable security around the big boss, able to outmatch a mere B-level power user like him instantly.

Adam: Acquire communication permissions, feed in live footage.

Without anyone knowing, the Artificial Intelligence AI 'Adam' successfully infiltrated the Louis Industrial Company's compound data network, gaining some permissions, though it might have been allowed deliberately. After all, 'Adam' is an antique, and this unnoticed entry would need quotation marks.

Chen Fei's AR visual assistance was directly connected to the site, displaying from one combat mech's perspective, with images and information becoming more detailed.