I, the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, am being kept by the state.

At the same time.

Inside the necklace space.

Li Chen looked at the white light spots surging like a waterfall in front of him, and a satisfied smile appeared on his lips.

"This incense...is of extremely high purity."

If the mental energy generated by fear before was like iron ore riddled with impurities, then what this veteran and the millions of people moved by him contributed at this moment was refined gold forged through countless trials.

The phantom of the dragon soul visibly solidified.

The previously blurry dragon scales now gleamed with a faint metallic sheen.

"good."

Li Chen closed his eyes, enjoying the thrill of his power returning. "At this rate, it might not even take three months."

……

Across the ocean.

CIA Headquarters, Director's Office.

Burns stared intently at the scene on the screen where the veteran stood up, his coffee cup crumpled in his hand, scalding coffee spilling onto his hand, but he was completely unaware.

"This is impossible..."

He muttered to himself, "According to intelligence, Liu Weiguo's spinal nerves are completely necrotic; this is irreversible damage!"

"Even if God himself performed the surgery, he couldn't cure it!"

"Director, the technical department has analyzed the video and there are no signs of editing."

The assistant's voice trembled, "And... our agents on site reported that the magnetic field strength around that stone tablet peaked instantly at a level exceeding that of the Chernobyl core area."

"But strangely, there was no radiation, only... only an unknown energy fluctuation."

Burns took a deep breath, his face so dark it could drip water.

If the previous tsunami could be forcibly explained as a weather weapon.

So now, the "miracle" has completely exceeded their comprehension.

An unprecedented sense of panic washed over me.

What exactly has emerged from China?

If this power could be mass-produced... if they could restore all the wounded soldiers...

Burns dared not think any further.

He grabbed the red secure phone on the table and dialed a number that had been dormant for a long time.

The phone rang three times.

connected.

There was no speech from the other end, only the sound of soft breathing.

""deep sea"."

Burns' voice was icy and chilling, carrying a desperate madness.

"Mission activated."

"Destination: Beijing, Dragon Culture Museum."

"We must obtain that Mount Tai stone at all costs. If we cannot..."

A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

"Then destroy it, blow it to bits, and blast it into the sky, rock and all!"

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Then, a completely emotionless voice came through, speaking fluent Beijing dialect.

"Understood, Chief."

......

The night in Beijing is as deep as ink.

At 2 a.m., the museum construction site, which had been noisy all day, finally quieted down.

The beams of searchlight crisscrossed the night sky, enveloping the Taishan stone tablet in a pale halo.

With guards every three steps and sentries every five steps, armed police officers are stationed like nails at every key point.

With this level of security, not even a fly could get in.

But the "deep sea" is not a fly.

He is Zhou Wei, the chief designer of this national-level museum security system.

In the monitoring room, the staff on duty were staring at the screen, completely unaware that just three seconds ago, all the images had experienced a momentary frame jump.

Zhou Wei sat in his private office, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

A pre-recorded "normal video" seamlessly transitioned in, replacing the live surveillance footage along the route to the main exhibition hall.

He closed his laptop, took a deep breath, and took out a seemingly ordinary eye drop bottle from a hidden compartment in the drawer.

It doesn't contain eye drops, but rather the CIA's latest high-explosive corrosive agent.

Just a few drops are enough to dissolve granite like foam, and the process is completely silent.

"Don't blame me..."

Zhou Wei looked at the family photo on the table; his wife and daughter were smiling brightly in the picture.

Those were his wife and daughters who studied in the U.S., and now they were Burns' bargaining chips.

He stood up, straightened his employee ID, and went out the door.

Chief Engineer Zhou.

"Hello, Chief Engineer Zhou."

The patrolling guards along the way saluted him when they saw him.

Zhou Wei nodded in greeting with a calm expression, his steps steady, but his heart was pounding like a drum.

This is what is meant by "the darkest place is under the lamp".

The strongest fortresses are often breached from within.

Card swipe, iris verification, fingerprint recognition.

Three heavy gates slowly opened in front of him.

Inside the main exhibition hall, the air was refreshingly cool.

The enormous Mount Tai stele stood quietly in the center, with a bronze dragon-shaped necklace enshrined in front of it.

During the day, this place is the focus of everyone's attention, but at this moment it appears exceptionally deep and solemn.

Zhou Wei walked to the stone tablet, less than two meters away.

By the dim light of the emergency lights, those sixteen characters...

"By the mandate of Heaven, may our reign be long and prosperous; wherever the sun and moon shine, all is Han territory."

It seemed to possess some kind of magic, piercing straight into his eyes.

He felt a sudden, inexplicable palpitation.

Those are words etched into our bones, the imprint of civilization flowing in our blood.

"I had no choice..."

Zhou Wei muttered to himself, as if trying to bolster his courage, or perhaps as if confessing to the stone, "If a man doesn't look out for himself, he'll be doomed."

With trembling hands, he unscrewed the cap of the "eye drops".

If you just splash it on, this stone, which symbolizes the fate of the nation, will turn into a pile of mud.

The backbone that China has just straightened will be broken again by this quagmire.

I'm sorry.

Zhou Wei gritted his teeth and raised his arm.

In that very instant.

"Buzz—"

The air freezes.

To Zhou Wei's horror, he discovered that his raised arm seemed to be encased in cement, completely immobile.

The corrosive agent was right on my fingertips, but I just couldn't get it out.

The surrounding darkness seemed to come alive, surging like a tide.

Above the stone tablet, two pale golden "lanterns" lit up without warning.

That's not a lantern.

Those are vertical pupils.

Cold, aloof, and viewing all things as worthless.

An indescribable, terrifying pressure instantly shattered Zhou Wei's psychological defenses.

It was an absolute crushing on a life level, like an ant suddenly being suspended above its head by a giant foot.

"Eating the food of the Dragon Kingdom while smashing the pot of the Dragon Kingdom."

A voice exploded directly in the depths of his mind, like a thunderclap, causing him to bleed from all seven orifices.

"You deserve to die."

No explanation is needed, no trial is needed.

The decree of the gods is the ending.

"No--!"

Zhou Wei tried to scream, but no sound came out of his throat.

"Snapped!"

The specially made plastic bottle in his hand could not withstand the terrifying pressure and exploded.

The highly corrosive liquid splashed out and landed entirely on his right hand.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

White smoke billowed up, and the smell of charred flesh instantly filled the air.

The excruciating pain made Zhou Wei want to roll on the ground, but an invisible force held him down, forcing him to stay in one position.

He knelt on both knees with his head bowed.

His forehead slammed heavily against the cold cement floor, directly in front of the Mount Tai stone tablet.

Five-body cast.

Just like those public intellectuals yesterday, but even more miserable and desperate than them.

"Tap, tap, tap."

The sound of military boots hitting the floor rang out.

The exhibition hall lights suddenly blazed on.

Wang Yijun led a team of fully armed special forces soldiers out of the shadows.

His face showed no surprise, only coldness.

"Chief Engineer Zhou, why are you kowtowing to our ancestors in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"

Wang Yijun walked up to Zhou Wei and looked down at this former pillar of the nation, now a spineless dog.

Zhou Wei was in so much pain that his whole body was convulsing, and his face was covered in tears and snot, but he couldn't move, he couldn't even lift his head.

"Stop looking."

Wang Yijun lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and said, "We knew the moment you modified the monitoring code."

"You think you're so clever?"

Wang Yijun exhaled a smoke ring, his eyes mocking.

"Actually, the Dragon Lord warned us last night that a rat would sneak in tonight."

"The reason we didn't stop you is because we wanted to see which rat had such a black heart."

Zhou Wei's pupils contracted violently.

Dragon Lord...is issuing a warning?

It turns out that I was just a clown from the very beginning.

"Take him away."

Wang Yijun waved his hand, "Don't kill him, he still has a lot of Burns' secrets in his head."

Two special forces soldiers stepped forward and dragged Zhou Wei out like a dead dog.

However, during the dragging process, Zhou Wei remained in a kneeling position, unable to straighten his knees even when they were bleeding from the ground.

This is the dragon's curse.

It is also the mark of a traitor.