Night had fully fallen, and it was just past midnight.
On the highway, Jiang Tian and his wife were now less than thirty kilometers from downtown Jinling.
Jiang Tian’s phone suddenly rang. Seeing it was Shen Mange calling, his heart tightened, and he quickly answered.
“Master, it’s bad. Someone sniped at Ms. Zhang Wanqing from a distance!” Shen Mange said in a fluster.
“What?”
Jiang Tian’s heart sank heavily. “How’s my mother?”
“She’s fine, thankfully. Ms. Zhang has been wearing your protective jade talisman, so she only sustained minor injuries,” Shen Mange reported.
“What about the others?” Jiang Tian asked in a low voice.
“Jiang Lin was in a car accident in the downtown area last night. Likewise, thanks to the protective jade talisman, she only got minor injuries.”
“Currently, Li Zhenwei and Qiu Gong have rushed to the Yaowang Group to protect its senior executives.”
Shen Mange quickly added, “Ghost Kick and I are at your villa, protecting Old Master Jiang, Ms. Zhang, and other core members of the Jiang family. For now, there have been no casualties, but… at the Yaowang Group’s production base in Qixia County, there was a man-made explosion that killed over twenty employees. That’s the situation so far.”
“Alright, I understand. Hold on a little longer—I’ll be there soon!”
Jiang Tian hung up, a sharp glint of killing intent flashing in his eyes. “A five-hundred-million-dollar bounty? International assassins? You dare lay a hand on the Jiang family? I’ll make you pay in blood!”
“They went after Mom?” Qing’er asked, worried.
“Yeah, but she’s fine. Hurry—we need to get to Jinling as fast as possible!” Jiang Tian said with a deep frown.
“Okay!”
Zhao Xueqing’s pretty face turned cold, a fierce killing intent surging in her eyes, her phoenix aura coiled and ready to strike.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom suddenly accelerated, streaking across the highway like a dazzling silver arrow, racing toward Jinling like a bolt from a bowstring.
…
Late at night, at the Jiang family villa, the living room was brightly lit.
The whole family had gathered in the living room, but no one could sleep. Anxiety, fear, and restlessness gnawed at everyone’s nerves.
Aside from Old Master Jiang and Jiang Zhixing and his wife, who remained composed, most of the Jiang family members were restless and uneasy.
Yu Qiang, Tie Minghuang, Bai Choufei, Tang Shaoze, and others had all brought their elite forces to stand guard here, providing tight security. Among them were both police officers and organization members.
“Sigh, why isn’t Jiang Tian back yet? At a critical time like this, where on earth did he go?”
Jiang Chao was both anxious and scared, fidgeting on his seat like he had ants in his pants.
In fact, not only had Zhang Wanqing been shot at, but Uncle Jiang’s and Second Uncle Jiang’s families had also been hit to varying degrees, and Jiang Chao himself had even faced an attempted kidnapping.
Fortunately, Jiang Tian had made preparations in advance, so no casualties occurred, and none of the assassins succeeded.
At this critical juncture, Jiang Tian had become the pillar and backbone of the Jiang family. Without him, no one felt safe.
“Did you get a needle stuck in your rear? Stop squirming! Even if Jiang Tian isn’t here, aren’t all these friends still around?” Jiang Changgeng scolded with a frown.
“Auntie Zhang, don’t worry. You’re one of Jinling’s most protected female entrepreneurs. The Jinling Public Security Bureau will definitely catch those criminals!”
Yu Qiang put on a flattering smile, trying to comfort Zhang Wanqing. “Besides, the bureau has deployed a large number of elite officers around the Yaowang Group and all the Jiang family’s properties. Everything will be fine!”
Boom!
Suddenly, a deafening explosion rang out. Flames shot up in the courtyard, and the entire villa trembled from the blast.
Immediately after, a dense volley of gunfire erupted like a string of firecrackers—harrowing to the ear, sounding like assault rifles. Sharp screams of agony sent chills down everyone’s spine, and after seven or eight seconds, silence fell once more.
“Grenades? Heavy machine guns? Hello? Hello? Captain Li, what’s your situation?”
Yu Qiang shouted into his walkie-talkie in panic, but the only response was a terrifying dead silence.
…
In the villa’s courtyard, perched high in the canopy of a tall tree, a burly figure suddenly appeared.
This man had shoulder-length hair parted at 70/30, wearing a fitted leather jacket over baggy khaki pants tucked into high-top hiking boots. Every move he made was crisp and exuded a ruthless efficiency.
It was Ruan Kun—the same assassin who had sniped at Zhang Wanqing in the downtown area.
He blew the wisps of smoke from the muzzle of his Browning pistol, scanned the villa, and his expression turned slightly serious. “Ape, looks like there’s quite a bit of security here. Tonight’s going to be a tough fight.”
At his feet, bodies lay piled up—a gruesome sight.
More than half of the twenty-some criminal investigators stationed here had already been taken down, including several elite SWAT officers equipped with heavy weapons.
It wasn’t that these counter-terrorism specialists, trained for the Olympics, were cowards or incompetents. Rather, the intruders were no ordinary robbers or thugs—they were far from useless. They were among the most renowned elites on the global assassin rankings.
In the next moment, Ruan Kun shifted his feet and landed soundlessly—despite being over two meters tall, he made not a single noise.
From diagonally across, a SWAT officer darted out from behind cover, kneeling on one knee and raising his submachine gun—but before he could fire, a figure hidden behind a large tree raised a pistol and fired decisively.
Bang!
A 9mm Parabellum round pierced through his skull, and the massive inertia sent the heavily built SWAT officer toppling backward.
“Numbers mean nothing? In New York, we tore the FBI apart. In China, it’ll be the same!”
Beside him, Ape poked his head out from behind a massive tree, his hoarse voice brimming with confidence.
He was tall—easily over two meters—with the build of an ape, his face hideous and fierce. Thick veins bulged across his large hands, packed with explosive power.
“Yeah, who’d have thought that in this little place called Jinling, there’d be a guy worth so much? Five hundred million dollars!”
Ruan Kun bared his teeth in a sinister grin, then suddenly broke into a sprint, crouching low as he charged toward the villa’s main gate.
Hundreds of meters behind the villa, on the rooftop of a high-rise building, a police sniper thought he saw an opportunity. He switched on the infrared night-vision scope mounted on his sniper rifle, and several beams of light instantly cut through the night sky.
The infrared searchlight first illuminated the target, and the reflected light formed an image in the scope. Under normal circumstances, this principle worked fine against ordinary targets. But against a master like Ruan Kun, the searchlight on the scope became its biggest, deadliest flaw. While the infrared beams emitted by the spotlight were invisible, the ordinary light source generating them was visible.
The moment the sniper turned on his scope, he exposed himself. The light source shone into the dark courtyard, and Ruan Kun reacted instantly.
Ruan Kun was sharp—he rolled into a dead angle in a low spot, raising his Browning pistol to suppress the police in the courtyard with one hand while steadying his sniper rifle with the other. As the officers in the yard were forced to duck and cover, he split his focus, aimed, and fired—bang, bang, bang—three shots in rapid succession.
The muffled gunshots, filtered through silencers, weren’t particularly piercing. On the opposite building, the sniper in the dark corner watched helplessly as his scope shattered and the bullet drilled into his skull—dead in an instant.
The other two police snipers, still half-crouched, were struck as if by a heavy blow, toppling backward and collapsing to the ground, lifeless.
“Forget the cops—let’s just charge in! The client behind the Dark Flower bounty only wants to force the target out to international waters. We can just grab any one of his family members and use them as leverage!” Ape said with a cold laugh, hoisting his imposing heavy machine gun and unleashing a wild barrage toward the villa.
Then, seven or eight assassins rose from behind cover, training their guns on the police and the villa as they fired relentlessly.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The bulletproof glass windows first cracked, then shattered with a resounding crash.
Shards of glass scattered everywhere, and bullets poured in like rain, leaving a trail of scars on the walls. Tables and chairs splintered, and the stuffing from the sofas flew into the air—the scene was absolutely terrifying.
Jiang Changgeng and Jiang Zhixing and his wife had only been training for less than a month—their cultivation was still far too low to withstand gunfire. At this moment, all they could do was grit their teeth in humiliation and lie flat on the ground.
“Oh my god, this is insane! Where are the police! Police!”
As for Yu Qiang and the others, they were pale as sheets, crawling on the floor and scrambling under tables.
“Yu Qiang, have the police fall back into the villa. We’ll take them out!” Suddenly, Shen Mange’s voice crackled through the walkie-talkie.
“Officers, pull back into the villa—Master Jiang’s people have the situation handled!”
Yu Qiang, at his wit’s end, had no choice but to follow Shen Mange’s instructions and shout into the walkie-talkie.
The officers, already fighting hard, retreated into the villa upon hearing the command, taking cover behind walls and sofas.
“Hah, the cops are chickening out!”
As the police shrank back into the villa, Ape grinned smugly and was about to charge inside.
“Hold on—there are still two people!”
Suddenly, Ruan Kun looked up at the two figures on the villa’s rooftop. A jolt of shock ran through him, and a sharp glint of killing intent flashed in his eyes.
“Experts!”
His pupils contracted, and his expression turned more serious than ever before.
Ruan Kun had once been an ace soldier in the Vietnam People’s Army Special Forces. After retiring, he entered the assassin world, once sniping a Japanese financial tycoon from several hundred meters away.
With his extensive combat experience and keen sense of energy, he could feel a terrifying murderous aura emanating from those two figures—far, far more powerful than the insignificant officers below.
“Shen Mange and Ghost Kick, acting on the orders of the Jiang family head, are here to defend the Jiang family. Retreat now. Anyone who dares take another step forward—dies!” they declared.
The two of them leaped down from the villa rooftop, landing gracefully, and stared coldly at the intruders.
“They’re… martial artists!” One of the assassins gasped and instinctively stepped back.
“Heh, so what? Don’t anyone shoot—I want to fight them myself!”
Ape, a physical awakener himself, charged at Shen Mange with a savage roar.
Boom! His fist shot out like a cannonball, and Shen Mange raised her jade-like arm to block.
“Kill!”
At the same time, Ghost Kick unwound the white-ape bone whip coiled around his waist and let out a thunderous battle cry, pouncing forward like a tiger to engage Ruan Kun and the other assassins.
Thump!
Ape’s massive fist collided heavily with Shen Mange’s slender arm—and she was actually pushed back a step.
“Incredible physical strength—he’s got the punch force of an external martial arts grandmaster!” Shen Mange’s expression tightened.
In fact, she wasn’t wrong. Ape was famous precisely for his raw physical power.
He had once been a special forces soldier from a European country and had volunteered as a test subject for genetic modification as part of a high-tech experiment.
But the serum wasn’t fully developed, and it drastically altered his psyche—turning him into a cruel, bloodthirsty beast. In the lab, he had bitten three scientists to death with his bare teeth.
At the same time, Ape’s body had indeed awakened, granting him monstrous strength. Back when the FBI had him cornered, he shattered a riot shield made of special materials with a single punch, flipped several armored police vehicles, and escaped without a scratch.
“Yeah! Ape’s physique is insanely strong!” Ape sneered wickedly. “Chinese women are gorgeous—today I’m going to take you alive and have my way with you a hundred times!”
“Is that so? I think you ugly freak are nothing but a weakling!”
Shen Mange’s pretty face turned icy cold. She leaped into the air and brought her delicate fist smashing down from above.
