Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

In 1983, the rainforest in northern Thailand was so humid that it looked like you could wring water out of it.

The smell of rotting leaves mixed with the lingering odor of gunpowder created a sticky and nauseating sensation in the air.

Guan Caiba, aboard General Luo Lie's helicopter, gradually disappeared into the distance amidst the deafening roar of the rotors, becoming a tiny black dot on the horizon. Meanwhile, on the ground, Chen Jiaju wiped the cold sweat from his brow and got into the swaying military jeep.

He glanced back at the bamboo house, littered with corpses and covered in blood, and felt a chill run down his spine.

"These guys are inhuman," Chen Jiaju muttered under his breath. He had seen countless vicious criminals, but the ruthlessness of Guan Caiba, who could kill three drug lords with ease and even slit their throats on the dinner table, still sent chills down the spine of this "super cop."

Yang Jianhua, standing to the side, looked grave. She touched the "fake explosive" inside the bulletproof vest, a hint of worry flashing in her eyes.

Before they could even reap the rewards, they were forced into the bloodiest power struggle within the Golden Triangle.

However, whether it was the smug Guan Cai Ba, the miraculously alive Chen Jiaju, or the furious General Luo Lie, they all overlooked one thing—in the depths of this jungle filled with violence and greed, there was an even colder and deeper pair of eyes watching all of this from the clouds.

……

The dense forest highlands are three kilometers away from the Luo Lie military camp.

This place is shrouded in dense fog year-round, overgrown with vines. But at this moment, hidden beneath the thick grass and foliage, a highly modern observation post, painted entirely in camouflage, is operating quietly.

Inside the observation post, a dozen high-sensitivity displays powered by small generators pulsed with green ripples. These devices, which in 1983 would have been considered "alien technology," were monitoring the movements of the military camp in real time through miniature sensors deployed around the perimeter.

Lu Chen stood with his hands behind his back in front of the monitor, the mirror reflecting his cold and handsome features.

"BOSS, Guan Caiba has left. Target number two, Chen Jiaju and his group, have withdrawn from the attack range."

A cold, emotionless voice came through the headset.

Lu Chen turned his head and looked at Ruan Wen beside him.

At this moment, Ruan Wen had taken off her elegant silk trench coat and put on a form-fitting black combat uniform, with a lightweight carbon fiber bulletproof vest over it. Two exquisitely crafted pistols hung at her waist, and the carving knife that once belonged to her father, representing the glory of the "painter," was tucked into her back.

Her eyes were slightly red, burning with the heat of hatred that had been ignited.

Ruan Wen took a deep breath, trying to calm the violent heaving in his chest.

"I want to kill him with my own hands."

"Of course, that's a gift for you," Lu Chen nodded slightly, indicating, "Go ahead, the winery and the cleaners will clear all obstacles for you."

Meanwhile, inside a chaotic military camp.

Luo Lie angrily smashed the crystal wine glass on the table to pieces.

"Damn it! That madman Guanchaiba! He actually dared to use a rocket launcher on my turf!"

Luo Lie took the wet towel handed to him by his subordinate and haphazardly wiped the bloodstains from his face. Shen Wei's blood had already congealed on his face, emitting a foul stench. He stared at the three drug lord corpses on the ground, his eyes filled with a sinister glint.

Although he agreed to Guanchai Ba's offer at the time, it was because a rocket launcher was pointed at his head. As a warlord who had been entrenched in the Golden Triangle for many years, this humiliation made him grit his teeth in despair.

"General, the losses have been tallied," an adjutant entered and reported in a low voice. "Three watchtowers were destroyed, and thirty-seven brothers died. The remaining two hundred and thirty soldiers have surrounded the camp and there will be no more mistakes."

Luo Lie frowned deeply: "...Damn it! Let them go this time, but you go drag these bastards out and feed them to the crocodiles! When they come back next time, I'll make them pay back with interest!"

Just as Luo Lie was making his threats, on an ancient, towering tree a kilometer away...

Xiao Zhuang lay quietly in the shade of the tree canopy. His body was almost one with the tree trunk, and the PSG-1 sniper rifle in his hand was fitted with a long suppressor, with the barrel slightly exposed.

Instead of visual observation, he used a special night vision scope provided by Lu Chen to lock onto the center of the camp.

"Wind speed 3, humidity 85%, target overlap."

Xiao Zhuang's breathing was extremely slow, each heartbeat seemingly calculated precisely. His finger was on the trigger, his eyes devoid of any human emotion, only a godlike indifference.

"Boss, shall we begin the hunt?" he asked softly into the communicator.

"Begin." Lu Chen's voice rang out simultaneously in everyone's earpieces.

"puff."

A very faint, muffled sound, almost drowned out by the chirping of jungle insects.

Outside the military camp, the machine gunner on a surviving watchtower didn't even have time to utter a muffled groan.

A 7.62mm bullet pierced his left eye with pinpoint accuracy, drawing out a cloud of blood mixed with red and white substances from the back of his head. His body suddenly leaned backward, slamming heavily against the sandbag behind him.

Then came the second sound, the third sound...

Xiao Zhuang's firing rhythm was extremely fast, yet remarkably stable. Each bullet represented the fall of a life. Those warlord soldiers, who were seen by outsiders as fearless and battle-hardened, were as vulnerable as lambs to the slaughter under the gun of the king of top assassins.

"Enemy attack!! Sniper!!"

Suddenly, someone let out a piercing scream.

Chaos erupted instantly within the camp. Soldiers frantically searched for cover, blindly pulling triggers into the dark forest. Gunfire flashed wildly in the darkness, but they couldn't find a trace of the enemy.

"What's the panic! Scatter, all of you! Turn on the searchlights!" Luo Lie rushed out of the wooden house, roaring angrily.

However, he was not greeted by the light of a searchlight.

Instead, it was a "nightmare" that fell from the sky.

"Whoosh—Boom!!!"

A specially designed thermobaric rocket pierced the night sky with a sharp whistling sound, striking precisely the top of the ammunition pile in the camp.

It's really unlucky. Originally, all of these munitions were stored in the underground bunker, but just now, in order to fight against Guanchai Ba's men, Luo Lie's soldiers painstakingly carried some of the munitions up, and now they've been used as fuses.

The fireball shot dozens of meters high in an instant, and the massive shockwave pulverized wooden buildings within a fifty-meter radius. The vacuum effect and instantaneous high temperature created by the explosion prevented dozens of soldiers nearby from even screaming before they were instantly reduced to charred, dead wood.

"The cleaners are entering the field."

Wang Jianjun's voice was as cold as iron.

In the shadows of the jungle, a hundred elite "Scavengers," dressed in all-black urban camouflage and wearing advanced thermal imaging masks, advanced towards the camp in a fan shape like a group of silent grim reapers.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized, and their HK-MP5 submachine guns were equipped with silencers and infrared laser pointers.

These warlord soldiers, still armed with AK-47s and relying on their naked eyes to search for targets, had no idea what "all-weather special operations" meant.

Invisible laser beams intertwine in the darkness, forming a web of death.

Even if you hide behind a wooden wall, you can still be killed by a precise wall-penetrating bullet.

"Da da, da da da".

Short, rhythmic bursts of fire echoed throughout the camp.

The Scavenger Squad had a clear division of labor: Wang Jianjun led a squad to break through from the front, using stun grenades and flashbangs to destroy the enemy's visual defenses; while Wang Jianguo led a second squad to cut off all escape routes from the camp, and even laid booby traps on the escape trails in the back mountains.

One of the henchmen, Luo Lie, was trembling as he clutched his gun. He saw two dark figures emerge from the bushes and was about to fire when he felt a chilling sensation in his throat.

Feng Yuxiu's distorted face flashed before his eyes.

"Hehe...the bones are too brittle."

The steel dagger in Feng Yuxiu's hand danced in the moonlight, leaving a bloody afterimage. His movements were bizarre and twisted, yet so fast that no one could react. He wasn't just killing; he was creating a bloody work of art.

Each cut precisely severs the major arteries, yet without immediately splattering blood on himself. That extreme fascination with death sent chills down the spines of the surrounding scavengers.

"Cohen, hurry up, the boss is watching."

As Little Fu drew two Browning pistols from his waist and fired six shots at the three guards who rushed out from around the corner, he calmly gave a warning.

The camp's resistance was completely crushed within the first five minutes.

Luo Lie watched in despair as his once-proud troops fell in rows like harvested wheat. Those ruthless mercenaries had no chance to fight back against these black-clad assassins.

"This...this is impossible...how could there be such a force in the Golden Triangle..."

Luo Lie huddled behind a pile of sandbags in the command post. His AK-47 magazine was empty, but he was trembling so much that he didn't even have the strength to reload.

He heard the rhythmic, heavy sound of boots hitting the wooden floor.

Every step felt like the death knell tolling in his heart.

"General Luo Lie, stop hiding."

Xiao Fu's voice rang out softly.

……

Three minutes later.

Inside the shattered command center, the once luxurious furnishings had long since turned into ruins.

Luo Lie was bound hand and foot and forced to kneel on the ground, which was covered in broken glass and bloodstains. His legs had been broken by Wang Jianguo, and he could only writhe like a maggot.

At the entrance to the command center, the light was blocked by several imposing figures.

Nguyen Van stood with her hands behind her back, looking down at the once arrogant general. Behind her, the distillery's core fighting force and the elite of the Cleaners stood solemnly, their terrifying aura making the air in the room almost freeze.

Ruan Wen looked at the man. At his father's funeral, this man had even sent a fake eulogy. But behind that eulogy lay a kill order he had personally signed.

"Luo Lie, do you still remember 'The Painter'?" Ruan Wen's voice was soft, but it carried a deep-seated hatred.

Luo Lie struggled to lift his head, a look of terror crossing his blood-stained face: "You...you're Ruan Wen? That little girl?"

"it's me."

Ruan Wen slowly squatted down and pulled the carving knife out from behind his back.

The blade gleamed coldly in the moonlight, reflecting Luo Lie's terrified face.

Wen stroked the blade. "You killed him, thinking you could rest easy? But you forgot, the painter's daughter can not only paint, but also carve bones."

"Please... let me go... I have money! I have gold! I'll take you to get the money! I also know the secret account of the Sands Casino, I can give you all of that!" Luo Lie begged frantically, his crotch already soaked.

Ruan Wen watched quietly from the side, his eyes indifferent.

Without any further ado, the carving knife in his hand transformed into a blinding flash of lightning.

"Aaaaaah—!!!"

A scream shattered the silence of the jungle.

Instead of killing him outright, Ruan Wen chose the more agonizing method of slow slicing. The carving knife was like a work of art, each cut avoiding vital organs yet precisely severing the nerves throughout Luo Lie's body.

She wanted him to feel the despair of watching himself being dismantled piece by piece, yet being unable to die.

Just like when she watched her father struggle in a pool of blood back then.

……

"Reporting to the BOSS, the camp has been cleared. A total of 327 enemy soldiers were killed, with none escaping."

Wang Jianjun walked to Lu Chen's side and gave a standard, solemn salute.

"Has the inventory of your family's assets been completed?"

"The inventory has been completed. Apart from the weapons, there are two tons of gold, various currencies valued at one hundred million US dollars, and a large number of top-grade No. 4... In addition, Miss Ruan Wen also obtained several Swiss bank accounts from him, which contain approximately one billion US dollars," Wang Jianjun reported in a low voice.

Lu Chen smiled, a smile that appeared somewhat sinister in the morning light.

"The US dollars and physical cash were channeled back to Hong Kong through the distillery, and Brother Hao was in charge of handling everything. Those accounts were also handed over to DOA for clearing out the debts, and a portion of it was used as the bounty for this operation. As for that batch of goods..."

Lu Chen paused, his eyes turning slightly cold.

"Burn it."

"yes!"

Without any hesitation, Wang Jianjun immediately turned around and gave the order.

"Boss, Miss Ruan has arrived."

Xiao Zhuang walked over and said softly.

Ruan Wen emerged from the command center. Her black combat uniform was stained with blood, but her eyes shone with an unprecedented clarity. The shackles she had carried for years had finally shattered completely at this moment.

She walked to Lu Chen's side, as if all her strength had been drained, and leaned against his chest.

"Did you get your revenge?" Lu Chen gently hugged her.

"Mmm." Ruan Wen closed her eyes, tears streaming down her bloodied face.

"Let's go then."

Lu Chen led everyone toward the helicopter that had been prepared.

"go home."