Chapter 67: Deep in the Wildfire Part 2

Who could dismantle two welded iron doors barehanded without raising an alarm?

Someone with the same power as the Silver-Masked Man.

If tonight’s hail of bullets was the Big Boss’s gift to the Silver-Masked Man, then Ye Jingqiu and Shi Zui were the surprise bonuses he intended to throw in.

Unfortunately, the Big Boss didn’t realize he had unleashed not defenders against mysterious forces, but battlefield sweepers who could just as easily take their heads.

All three were ready. Shi Zui shielded Jiang Zhinan as they ducked into a corner. Ye Jingqiu, her Rampage Value at maximum, rolled into the fray. The Copy Command activated, unleashing an identical high-temperature Blue Sea that engulfed the entire room in the blink of an eye.

Shi Zui’s blade flashed without mercy—a pure killing technique. She didn’t call on her Instinct or her left arm, but her right hand struck with pinpoint precision at the thugs’ neck bones. A series of sharp cracks echoed as bones shattered, and nearly a third of the bullet storm vanished.

The cold storage descended into utter chaos: the hissing of Blue Sea devouring bullets, the crunch of fracturing bones and searing flesh, the relentless clatter of triggers—all blending into a symphony of death. Every soul in the room was a performer, but the conductor might have been the countless lives frozen in the ice lockers.

The scorching heat robbed everyone of clear thought, the bizarre stench of bursting fat and charred protein stinging their eyes.

From the moment the shooting started, the thugs could no longer tell friend from foe. Solid steel rounds intertwined with ricocheting lead shot, turning into indiscriminate slaughter.

The Big Boss grunted as a bullet tore through his left leg, the steel round punching clean through the muscle. That leg was ruined now, with no chance of recovery.

Second Brother supported him as they retreated toward the door, his face splattered with blood. He shook the Big Boss’s shoulder. “Big Brother, no more hesitation at a time like this!”

The Big Boss gritted his teeth. His gaze swept past Shi Zui, who moved like a harvester in the distance. Unwilling to let a lifetime’s gains fall to some stranger he’d never met, he spat out a blood-flecked remnant of a tooth. Finally, urged on by those behind him, he made his decision.

“The code is 158729! Hurry!”

But the words had barely left his mouth when a sharp blade pierced silently through his heart.

Big Boss’s eyes widened in utter disbelief, but Scarface Second Brother only grinned ferociously as he drove the blade even deeper. He paid no mind to the hot blood gushing from the artery, which had already soaked his entire chest.

Second Brother yanked out the blade and punched in the code. The device beeped in confirmation as it activated. With a smile, he sliced off the priceless jadeite necklace from Big Boss’s neck and leaned in close to whisper in his ear, “Big Bro, I earned this jadeite with blood on my hands. How about in the next life, I let you wear it again?”

Big Boss, unable to respond, died with his eyes still wide open. His lips trembled as his body crumpled to the ground like a lifeless lump of clay. Second Brother casually snatched up a submachine gun, slapped in a fresh magazine with one hand, and fixed his gaze on the final door of the cold storage as it began to activate. He was ready to charge out at any moment.

Time was up, but the door remained sealed tight as unyielding ice. Second Brother frowned and kicked it hard. Amid the clamor, he heard a series of beeps growing more urgent by the second.

That sound…

Big Boss had one last trick up his sleeve!

Second Brother’s face twisted in an instant. Without hesitation, he dove under Big Boss’s corpse. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Shi Zui, and her pupils contracted sharply. She shielded Jiang Zhinan as she dropped to her knees, bellowing at the top of her lungs without a second’s delay, “Xiao Qiu, get down!”

But at that moment, Ye Jingqiu’s duel with the Silver-Masked Man was reaching its climax. Blue Sea Instinct was on the verge of vanishing, and her long blade was poised to pin the man through the chest. Shi Zui’s shout rang out from behind her.

A smug smile of narrow escape spread across the Silver-Masked Man’s face. Ye Jingqiu’s movements froze for a split second, her mind racing.

Should she leave him half-dead to strip away the Instinct, or drop to the ground to dodge the bomb?

In less than a millisecond, Ye Jingqiu made her choice.

“Boom—”

The explosion was earth-shattering. A chain of long-buried TNT bombs detonated like falling dominoes. The three-story concrete building’s load-bearing walls were obliterated, sending chunks of debris and shattered glass flying. Sinuous cracks spiderwebbed outward amid the thugs’ stunned roars, and the entire structure looming over the site suddenly collapsed into rubble.

Massive slabs of concrete and twisted rebar rained down like a storm. Flying shrapnel and stray bullets carried out their final duty, claiming the lives of several thugs who hadn’t run fast enough. Wu Man and Miao Lun watched in horror as the building that had shaped their past and future cracked open, exposing half of the blood-soaked cold storage filled with corpses.

Wu Man was still processing it all when Miao Lun bolted toward the garage in the first instant. As Big Boss’s trusted man, he knew the garage—the long structure beside the building—was the only part without bombs, and it remained miraculously intact.

The gunfire finally died out, replaced by wails of agony and the roar of encroaching flames. The meticulously manicured shrubs and flowers beside the villa became fuel for the inferno. Beneath the pitch-black sky like eternal night, the ruins blazed as bright as day.

Fire—unstoppable fire everywhere the eye could see. The villa sat at the foot of the mountain, and the blaze latched onto every blade of grass and twig, racing up the valley with thunderous speed. Flames crackled as they devoured vegetation and flesh alike, billowing smoke rising to blanket the world.

There were scarcely any survivors left in the cold storage. Shi Zui watched Ye Jingqiu’s figure swallowed by the surging tongues of fire. In that instant, her mind went completely blank, a ringing buzz filling her ears. Shivering, she shoved a submachine gun into Jiang Zhinan’s hands and plunged into the inferno without a moment’s hesitation!

Thank heavens, her first glance fell on Ye Jingqiu, who was dragging the barely breathing Silver-Masked Man.

A Wind Shield woven from Wind Element had saved their lives—but barely. Ye Jingqiu’s face was smeared head to toe in soot, a deep gash three inches from her temple exposing bone. Yet she strained to haul the Silver-Masked Man along. “Captain, head to the garage now—we’ll—”

“I told you to get down! Did you hear me?”

Shi Zui cut her off sharply. Captain Shi yanked the Silver-Masked Man from her grasp and knocked him out cold with a single blow. Then she fixed Ye Jingqiu with a icy stare, her usually calm eyes brimming with lingering fear and barely contained fury.

Ye Jingqiu’s Rampage Value was at most C-rank right now—the rocket launcher’s lesson from before was crystal clear—yet she’d dared to tank the explosion head-on. The moment Ye Jingqiu vanished into the sea of flames, Shi Zui’s heart had nearly stopped.

Caught off guard by Captain Shi’s intense reaction, Ye Jingqiu was utterly dumbfounded. She raised her hands in surrender, mustering an apologetic expression as she tried to explain herself. “Captain, hear me out? I just wanted to keep him alive, y’know? He’s gotta know a ton of important intel, and besides, besides…”

“Important intel? No matter how crucial, is it more important than you? Than your life? Even if he knows where Pandora’s Key is, would it be worth dying for? Have you thought about me—about us?”

Shi Zui unleashed a barrage of words like cannon fire. She finally realized it: Ye Jingqiu didn’t undervalue her own life—she simply didn’t count it as one worth caring about!

Ye Jingqiu was stunned speechless by the onslaught. Captain Shi’s tone was harsh, but her concern bled through every word. It was the first time she’d ever expressed her true feelings so bluntly. Ye Jingqiu stammered for a moment. “O-okay… Got it, Captain! I won’t do it again.”

Shi Zui snorted coldly. Calming from her rage, she seemed to sense something off. She released Ye Jingqiu and added curtly, “There better not be a next time. Now, what was that ‘besides’? What other intel?”

Ye Jingqiu glanced at Shi Zui’s somewhat normalized expression and carefully modulated her volume. “Besides… the Silver-Masked Man was the only enemy here with an Instinct active. Your shoulder isn’t fully healed yet… I didn’t want you using yours, so I figured I’d subdue him first…”

Her voice trailed off to a near whisper.

Shi Zui’s face, which had just evened out, twisted noticeably again.

Ye Jingqiu fell silent, feeling Shi Zui suddenly let go of her. After an agonizing stretch of quiet, she heard Shi Zui murmur just as softly, “Under the Regeneration effect… it’s basically healed.”

The air plunged into an eerie silence once more.

Shi Zui fell silent again. In the darkness and firelight, Ye Jingqiu couldn’t make out her expression and could only drum her fingers nervously in her mind, vowing to be extra careful next time she pulled a stunt like this—not wary of the danger itself, but of letting the captain catch her at it. She lifted her gaze to Shi Zui’s face, illuminated by the flames, and wondered if this counted as surviving a close call.

But before the captain could respond, Jiang Zhinan shouted a warning from afar. Ye Jingqiu whipped around to see Second Brother charging through the sea of fire, a sharp blade in hand, like a one-man army.

He had been at the farthest point from the explosion, the only one in the area to emerge unscathed.

His blade gleamed with murderous intent, but Shi Zui showed not the slightest fear. She met his eyes with a cold stare, and in that instant, Second Brother felt a chill run through him, as if his knife wasn’t aimed at a person but at a beast that had just awakened.

His movement faltered, and in that moment of hesitation, Shi Zui struck.

Her figure blurred like a ghost as she closed the distance at a speed beyond human limits. Her assailant had no chance to defend himself. With a sharp crack, the deadliest killer in the drug lord’s gang cried out in agony.

Shi Zui’s knee slammed into him, nearly shattering his ribs. Her right hand shot out like lightning toward his scarred wrist, followed by another teeth-grinding snap. With a flick of her wrist, his right arm went limp as wet noodles.

In a single clash, she had crippled half of him.

But it wasn’t over. Shi Zui’s fighting style was brutally savage. She seized the long knife dropping from Second Brother’s grasp. Yet the man had earned his reputation through years of brutal survival. Even on the brink of death, with his limbs all but useless, he managed a desperate headbutt, trying to buy a second or two by smashing into her.