Chapter 241: Is This Qinfu or Ghost Mansion?

The "Wonderful Island" incident was like a bucket of ice water, dousing some factions lost in old dreams, yet it also drew new, more hidden surveillance. Qin Feng's displayed ability—nearly that of "holding authority"—left all who knew of it unable to ignore him any longer.

On the Dragon Country side, Academician Chen, carrying the highest leadership's "goodwill and reverence," used Su Wenqian's channel to engage in deeper contacts with the New Era. Several previously stalled cooperation projects, blocked by technological barriers or resource bottlenecks, were rapidly advanced; Dragon Country even proactively opened several previously strictly confidential rare mineral supply channels, adopting an extremely humble posture.

Meanwhile, Pandora and Lilith, after a brief moment of fear, retracted like wounded venomous snakes into the shadows, licking their wounds and brewing more sinister plans. Overt provocations nearly vanished, yet the New Era's intelligence department detected increased, more refined and covert attempts at infiltration and sabotage targeting the New Era's peripheral information networks and certain overseas partners.

Qin Feng paid little attention to these undercurrents. Before absolute power, the tricks of minor demons and goblins were merely laughable. His focus shifted more toward the new possibilities brought by the system upgrade and the deeper research of the Crowbar project.

On this day, Qin Feng decided to comprehensively upgrade the core defense system of the New Era's headquarters. Though existing security measures were already world-class, facing future unknown threats from the Star Sea or other dimensions, and extreme attacks that Lilith might launch in desperation, he needed a barrier even more impregnable—one capable of actively repelling enemies from without.

He did not summon an engineering team; instead, he went alone to the deep underground where the New Era's energy core hub lay. This was also the central control node of the entire city-state's defense system.

Inside the vast circular space, the center held a fusion reactor core emitting a faint blue glow, pulsing slowly like a living thing (publicly disguised as the energy core), while the surrounding walls were densely covered with pipelines and controllers flashing with colored indicator lights.

Qin Feng stood at the center of the space and closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank into the profound three-dimensional star-vortex system interface.

Unlike previous calls for specific tech blueprints, this time he was mobilizing the system's own rule-level power, combining the New Era's existing energy and material foundations to perform a "conceptual" reconstruction and "enchanting" of the entire city-state's defense system.

His spirit force spread like invisible tentacles throughout the underground hub, seeping into every energy conduit, every control chip, even into the molecular structure of the special alloys forming the walls and floor.

【Identifying Host Command: Regional Defense System Upgrade…】【Analyzing Existing Structural Foundation…Optimizing Energy Pathways…Fine-Tuning Material Properties…】【Importing Rule Modules: Spatial Deflection, Energy Absorption, Information Disruption, Low-Dimensional Projection…】【Beginning Construction of 'Absolute Domain' Prototype…】

There was no thunderous roar of engineering machinery, no dazzling sparks from welding.

But in Qin Feng's perception, the entire underground hub—and the invisible field radiating from it across the entire New Era city-state—was undergoing a fundamental transformation.

The microscopic particle arrangement of matter was subtly adjusted, energy flow paths were reconfigured, and even the structure of space itself was coated with an extremely thin yet unbreakable "membrane."

This process lasted several hours.

When Qin Feng opened his eyes again, the underground hub looked exactly as before. But he knew everything had changed.

He subtly shifted his intent.

A faint, invisible ripple—detectable only by specialized instruments—swept across the entire New Era from him as its center. All members within the city-state felt, for an instant, an extremely subtle sensation, as if their spirits had been brushed by a gentle breeze, but it vanished instantly, unnoticed by all.

Defense system upgrade, complete.

Several days later, an elite infiltration team belonging to an international intelligence broker organization, hired by an anonymous employer (slightly pointing toward Pandora's residual forces), used advanced camouflage techniques and equipment capable of briefly shielding against conventional detection to silently approach the New Era's outer perimeter.

Their mission was to infiltrate internally and install several high-sensitivity information sniffers and environmental monitors.

The team leader was a seasoned veteran, codenamed "Night Owl." He led his men through the night like shadows, successfully evading multiple visible and hidden sentries, even fooling several motion sensors.

"Looks like the New Era isn't so impressive after all—security gaps are more numerous than expected," one team member whispered through encrypted comms with a scoff.

Night Owl remained vigilant; the closer they got to the core zone, the stronger his inexplicable unease grew.

Finally, they reached a relatively quiet corridor entrance at the boundary between the residential and research zones. According to plan, they would infiltrate from here.

Yet, the instant Night Owl prepared to issue the infiltration command, an anomaly occurred!

The team member at the front, as his foot crossed an invisible boundary, suddenly struck a transparent, highly elastic wall and was violently thrown backward, stumbling to the ground!

"What the hell?!" Night Owl hissed.

The team member scrambled up, touching the empty air in disbelief: "Boss! There's something here! An invisible wall!"

Night Owl frowned deeply and stepped forward himself to test it. Indeed, about three meters from the entrance, there existed an invisible barrier—cold and resilient to the touch; no matter how hard he pushed, he could not breach it by even a fraction.

"A force field shield? Impossible! Our equipment detected zero energy fluctuations!" The Technician stared at his inert detector, face pale with shock.

Even more horrifying events followed.

When they attempted to move laterally along the invisible barrier, seeking possible gaps, the surroundings began to warp strangely.

The once-clear corridor entrance twisted and blurred, as if viewed through rippling water. The corridor lights flickered erratically; shadows on the walls writhed and stretched like living things.

A faint, whispering voice—seemingly rising from the deepest abyss—began echoing around their ears, indistinct in content yet unsettling, sending chills down their spines.

"Boss! Navigation's down! Compass is spinning wildly!" "Thermal imaging… there are lots of human shadows moving ahead, but we see nothing with our eyes!" "Communication is heavily jammed! Static is overwhelming!"

The team members panicked. They had faced countless dangers, but never anything so supernatural!

Night Owl forced calm, ordering retreat. But when they turned to retrace their steps, they discovered in horror that the way back had vanished—replaced by thick, churning gray mist that seemed impossible to penetrate.

They were trapped in a narrow, distorted region filled with ghostly apparitions!

"Ghost wall?! What the hell kind of place is this?!" one team member with weaker nerves nearly broke down screaming.

Night Owl stared at the bizarre, ever-shifting surroundings, listened to the maddening whispers in his ears, felt the omnipresent invisible barrier—and an absurd, terrifying thought surfaced uncontrollably.

This wasn't a high-tech city-state at all.

This was clearly…

His face turned deathly pale, his teeth chattering, he forced out a low, desperate, terrified roar:

"This… this damn place—is it Qinfu or Ghost Mansion?!"

Ultimately, after hours of psychological torment and futile struggle, the elite infiltration team was effortlessly captured by New Era Security Personnel who arrived upon alert. Each member was mentally drained, eyes vacant, as if they had endured something profoundly horrifying.

Rumors of the New Era's incomprehensible, eerie defense phenomena began quietly circulating among a tiny circle of top-tier intelligence circles, adding further mystery and terror to its reputation.

All who sought to probe the New Era's core secrets now had to weigh whether they had the courage to enter the place known as Qinfu… the Ghost Mansion.