The outline of the spaceship became clearer and clearer, and Li Xiao knew he had bet correctly.

Jiang Chi looked up and around, just in time to see a small missile tear through the sky, heading straight for District 3. He was shocked: “A frontal assault? Playing this big?!”

In the blink of an eye, District 3’s anti-missile system triggered automatically, launching interceptor missiles.
The two missiles collided, exploding high above the city like a giant firework, instantly turning night into day.
The deafening roar of the explosion arrived belatedly. The resulting shockwave kicked up sand and dust, comparable to a category 17 typhoon, almost blowing people away.

Screams and cries for help rang out all around.
“What happened?!”
“Help—!”
“Quick, get down!”

The explosion caused a signal failure in the projection system. More than half of the virtual screens flickered with static, and the AI broadcasters’ faces twisted even more bizarrely.
The hovering stealth surveillance drones appeared one by one, their warning beeps sounding incessantly.
Amidst the chaos, only those players waiting for the opening act seemed to have their fighting spirit ignited by the war drums, letting out even crazier cheers.

Li Xiao gripped the lion head tightly to block the wildly dancing sand and wind, quickly assessing the situation, and signaled Jiang Chi to give the operation cue amidst the chaos.

Jiang Chi didn’t entirely trust Li Xiao, but if he didn’t catch this wind, he would definitely regret it.
He braced himself and yelled into the crowd: “The enemy is here! Run to the exits, quickly!”

There were quite a few ordinary performers in the lion dance troupe who had already been terrified by the explosion. Hearing this roar, they rushed toward the exits regardless of anything else.
Jiang Chi’s subordinates, having received the cue, pretended to flee in panic, hiding inside the buildings by the road according to plan.

The golden lion had rolled into a dilapidated single-story house before the first explosion.
The shockwave made the doors and windows rattle loudly.

Once the first wave of explosions passed, Song Jin casually tossed the lion head aside. With a dark expression, he quickly walked to the door to check the situation outside.
Qian Can followed closely behind, gripping the doorframe to look out, speaking rapidly: “Boss, something’s wrong! This spaceship model doesn’t look like the Danse military’s. Judging from the specifications of the missiles used, it looks more like a civilian organization!”

“I know.”
Song Jin’s gaze locked onto the five small missiles fired in the spaceship’s second wave. He contacted the other team members through the earpiece monitor, his beautiful eyes flickering in the firelight. “How are you guys?”

The voices of the other team members came through the monitor.
“Squad Two is safe.”
“Squad Three is safe.”
“Squad Four is safe.”
…

While they were speaking, another series of continuous explosions occurred.
A massive amount of sand, gravel, wood splinters, and metal fragments shot inside like bullets. Song Jin raised his hand to shield his face and hid behind the door.
Qian Can was hit in the leg by a small stone, grimacing in pain: “I’m afraid Ghost Dragon’s enemies have come knocking for revenge! The enemy’s numbers are unknown, equipment level is unknown, and we can’t do a combat safety assessment. I suggest we evacuate!”

“Wrong, this is actually a perfect opportunity.” After confirming the status of all team members, Song Jin issued an order in the team channel, “Everyone split up and act according to plan. Grab the blood and retreat!”
From the other end of the monitor: “Copy that!”

Qian Can frowned and blocked Song Jin’s way: “Boss, it’s too dangerous! You find a safe place to hide, I’ll go.”
Song Jin waved him off and took large strides outside: “You are my team member now; you only need to follow my orders.”
Qian Can gritted his teeth, turned around, and followed.

After being hit by the second wave of attacks, Ghost Dragon urgently launched three standby spaceships in an attempt to drive away the enemy forces.
Explosions sounded continuously, and the patrolling guard squads quickly gathered at the various viewing towers.

As they passed the entrance of an abandoned store, the last member of a squad was suddenly yanked inside. He had no time to react and completely lost consciousness before he could even make a sound.
In the chaotic and noisy environment, surprisingly, no one noticed that a member was missing from the team.

Li Xiao let go of his hand, expressionlessly stripped off the man’s clothes, and put them on.

Watching Li Xiao, whose killing technique was unusually proficient, Jiang Chi and a group of underlings: “…?!!!”
Why is this noble young master different from the varieties seen on entertainment news?

Fastening the last metal clasp, Li Xiao pulled down the guard’s large cape to cover his face. Looking at the battle situation in the sky, he said, “The surveillance equipment outside the building at the three o’clock and seven o’clock directions is still operating normally. Ten o’clock and twelve o’clock are blind spots. Take your men and go through those two directions. Ghost Dragon’s anti-missile interception system can hold out for about half an hour. Complete the mission and evacuate before then.”

Jiang Chi: “What about you?”
Li Xiao: “I’m going for a decapitation strike.”
Jiang Chi: “Just you?”
Li Xiao: “Just me.”

Tonight’s carnival gathered all of Ghost Dragon’s top brass together, which was indeed a good opportunity to strike. However, the danger was extremely high; charging into the enemy camp single-handedly had too low a success rate.

Jiang Chi: “I’ll go with you.”
“No need.” Li Xiao bypassed him and walked out, “I’m afraid you’ll hold me back.”

Watching Li Xiao leave, Jiang Chi found it hard to believe: “Who’s holding who back?”
An understanding underling raised his hand: “Boss, he said you’d hold him back.”
Jiang Chi slapped him across the face: “I didn’t ask you to explain!”

Li Xiao quickly caught up with the guard squad and successfully infiltrated the viewing tower.
There were many people coming and going in the first-floor lobby. Except for reinforced guards at each exit, the number of guards in the other corridors hadn’t changed much from before.
Ghost Dragon didn’t seem worried that the enemy forces could breach District 3’s defense system.

The enemy’s bombardment attracted everyone’s attention. Li Xiao quietly slipped into the corridor behind the lobby and soon found the surveillance room for this building.
He knocked three times on the door, and a beta, also dressed in black and masked, opened it.
Li Xiao imitated their Danse language with a local accent, saying, “Higher-ups sent me to confirm the surveillance situation on each floor.”

The beta was slightly puzzled, but the urgent battle situation outside didn’t allow him to think too much, and he signaled Li Xiao to come inside.
This surveillance room wasn’t large; it only controlled the internal equipment of this building.
Li Xiao closed the door behind him. Confirming there was only one person on duty, he quietly crept close to the beta.
The beta realized what was happening belatedly and quickly reached for the holster on his lower back, but his neck was snapped from behind before he could even draw the gun.

Li Xiao tossed the man aside, walked to the control console, and rapidly swept his gaze across the surveillance feeds of each floor.
The VIPs were concentrated in Zone B on the seventh floor. In the luxurious hall, a group of gorgeously dressed people were still drinking and having a good time. Li Xiao couldn’t distinguish which among them were Ghost Dragon’s top executives, but he did spot two familiar-looking officials.

A thin middle-aged man in a black suit walked through the corridor of Zone A, followed by eight burly thugs. Having seen photos, Li Xiao confirmed this was Master Zhong, Ghost Dragon’s top leader.

Watching Master Zhong enter the sky garden, Li Xiao turned off all surveillance equipment in the building, opened the garage doors at the ten o’clock and twelve o’clock positions, set a five-minute countdown to shut off the power on all floors, turned around, and left.

On the seventh floor, the guards outside the corridor had noticeably increased. However, Li Xiao was tall and straight-backed, and with his face covered, disguising himself as a guard felt completely natural, easily fooling everyone.
Inside the sky garden, Master Zhong was on a call with someone.
As Li Xiao approached, he could faintly hear voices coming from inside.

“Just a little provocation and Raven lost their patience, heh… They only have a few people, not even enough to scratch an itch for Ghost Dragon. Tell the higher-ups to rest assured, I can handle it…”

The Raven he mentioned was the rebel organization currently attacking Ghost Dragon.
For years, this organization frequently attacked inhabited planets, burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of atrocities; its nature was no better than Ghost Dragon’s.
However, based solely on Raven’s strength, the probability of them taking down Ghost Dragon in a frontal assault was almost zero.

Li Xiao leaned his back against the wall, counting down the time in his mind. When he silently counted to zero, he darted inside.
The entire building suddenly plunged into pitch darkness. Master Zhong’s angry voice rang out from the garden: “What the hell are they doing, why is there a power outage?!”
Another, younger voice hurriedly said: “I’ll confirm the situation right away!”
Master Zhong: “Start the backup power immediately, don’t spoil the VIPs’ fun!”
Thug: “Yes!”

Master Zhong swiped open his terminal’s contact list, just about to order his subordinates in Zone B to pacify the VIPs, when suddenly a chill shot up from the soles of his feet.

“Ugh!”
“Protect Master Zhong… Ugh!”

The muffled sounds of heavy objects falling to the ground echoed in his ears. Master Zhong violently stood up and retreated: “Who is it?!”
His eyes hadn’t yet adapted to the darkness, so he couldn’t see anything. He only heard the gradually approaching sounds of fighting, screams blocked in throats, and the scalp-numbing crisp cracks of breaking bones.

With a cold face, Master Zhong drew his sidearm and aimed it fiercely in the direction of the noise, but his wrist was seized before he could pull the trigger.
Li Xiao originally intended to subdue him in one move, but he didn’t expect that while the little old man looked thin, his skills were quite good.
Master Zhong tried to shoot several times but was interrupted by Li Xiao. Anger surged within him: “No one has ever dared to crash my party!”

Using Danse language with a heavy dialect, Li Xiao replied indifferently, “Oh really, no one wanted to play with you?”
This enraged Master Zhong so much he almost choked. Finding a loophole in Li Xiao’s defense, he raised his gun again.
“You’re asking for death!”

Li Xiao twisted his body, kicked Master Zhong’s right hand, snatched the gun, and pressed it against the other man’s glabella: “Don’t move.”
Panting heavily, Master Zhong could only vaguely make out the silhouette of the person in front of him. His heart was filled with shock and uncertainty.
Very few people could suppress him within a few moves.
Master Zhong: “Who exactly are you, what do you want?!”
“The defeated have no right to ask questions.”

Li Xiao knocked him out with the butt of the gun. Watching him fall to the ground, he notified Jiang Chi through the team channel, “I’ve got the person. In five minutes, go to the small garden at the ten o’clock direction to pick him up.”
Jiang Chi’s astonished voice came through the monitor: “So fast?! You’re something else, kid!”
Li Xiao didn’t have time to chat with him and asked in return: “How are things on your end?”
Jiang Chi scoffed smugly: “Very smooth! Just waiting for the fish to take the bait.”

With the building’s power out, guard squads would definitely rush over to protect the top leader. Li Xiao had to leave before they arrived.
Dragging the man, he quickly walked to the emergency stairs on the northwest side. He yanked the emergency safety rope off the wall, tied up the old man, opened the window, and tossed him out from the seventh floor.

A few beams of light flashed in the corridor outside the emergency exit, quickly followed by the sound of rapid, chaotic footsteps.
“Not good! There’s a situation at the Boss’s location too! Quickly notify Squad One to lock down the exits!”
“Captain, we haven’t found the Boss yet!”
“Split up and search!”

Li Xiao hid behind the door listening to the commotion outside, silently returned to the corridor, and slipped back into the guard squad.

According to the original plan, his mission was already completed, but that so-called blood of the Bique tribe’s shaman made him care a bit.
The surveillance center for the grand ceremony venue was in Zone A on the fifth floor, and the broadcasting studio was also there.

Time was still relatively ample. After considering for a moment, Li Xiao ditched the main group and went to the fifth floor.

Outside the building, Jiang Chi snuck into the back garden at the agreed time. He originally thought Li Xiao was hiding in the bushes with the target, but unexpectedly, he looked up and saw an old man with a bruised and swollen face dangling in mid-air, swaying in the wind. He was so startled he almost let out a dolphin squeak.

“What kind of method is this? Scared the living daylights out of me.” Jiang Chi cursed as he got the man down, hoisted him onto his shoulder, and started walking. “So heavy! You old bastard, you finally got what was coming to you.”

An underling’s voice suddenly came through the monitor.
“Boss, they’re coming down!”
Jiang Chi’s spirits lifted: “Act according to the original plan, let them also taste what this massacre carnival is like!”
The underling responded excitedly: “Copy that!”

Jiang Chi dialed a communication number, and it was quickly connected.
“Notify everyone, move out!”

Li Xiao rushed to the fifth floor, not expecting it to be chaotic here as well.
A man in black wearing a cape and mask came toward him. The other party’s height was about the same as his, and those straight, long legs surprisingly made him feel a bit familiar.
As they brushed past each other, the scent on the other party made it easy for Li Xiao to determine that this was an alpha. Besides that, there was also a faint smell of blood.

Reaching Zone A, the smell of blood became even stronger.
There were bloodstains everywhere in the huge surveillance room, leaving almost no place to step.
Unsurprisingly, the broadcasting studio had also suffered a bloodbath, and the box that originally held the reagent vial was already empty.

The black-clad alpha from just now suddenly flashed before Li Xiao’s eyes, and he belatedly realized why those legs felt familiar to him.
Wasn’t that the same leg that had chased after him and stepped on his foot the whole way?
Did that golden lion steal the blood?
Why steal the blood?

Unable to figure it out, Li Xiao simply gave up thinking, turned around, and chased after him.
In any case, he would snatch it first and talk later.

Having achieved his goal, Song Jin walked to a deserted place and notified his team members to evacuate.
The bombardment was still ongoing, and the first-floor lobby had heightened its defense level. He spent quite some effort to successfully slip away.
Circling into a deserted alley, after the searching guard squad left, Song Jin prepared to head to the agreed-upon gathering spot. Unexpectedly, as he turned around, he saw a tall, black-clad alpha standing not far away, staring straight at him.

The firelight exploding in the sky shot into the alley. Caught off guard, Li Xiao met a pair of amber eyes.
That momentary exchange of glances surprisingly made him think of an old friend.