Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Li Rui pushed open the door, but did not turn on the lights.

In the darkness, he sat on the sofa like a stone statue, taking out the flaming brooch from his pocket.

Even in the dark room, the ruby ​​still gleamed with a faint, dark red glow, like an ember that would never be extinguished.

He felt the warmth of his palm, and the scenes from tonight flashed through his mind—

Downstairs at Duoduo's house, Zhou Xie was with three burly men, and the targets for capture were clearly marked on the tactical tablet.

They died without injustice.

But Li Rui knew very well that this move was completely different from the previous ones.

In his previous executions of Zhang Ziqian and Zhou Shouzhen, and even in his later casual dealings with Song Bo and Zhao Dexing, he tried his best to separate each ruling into an isolated event.

He created different disappearance scenes, erasing all related traces, attempting to create a fog of mystery in the eyes of the police.

But tonight, he burned Zhou Xie and his three henchmen to death downstairs at Duoduo's house.

This is an "overflow".

Zhou Xie is not an ordinary criminal; he is Zhang Zhaoqing's vicious dog and a core cog in the massive, sinister machine of Huiguang Pharmaceuticals.

His target was Duoduo—a key witness in the Su Xiao case.

Li Rui is Su Xiao's husband.

This logical chain is too short and too straight.

Zhang Zhaoqing, that old fox, isn't stupid.

When Zhou Xie vanished into thin air while carrying out his mission against Duo Duo, just like Zhang Ziqian and Zhou Shouzhen, all the blame would instantly point to the same name—Li Rui.

The carefully crafted facade of "diversity" and "unrelatedness" was shattered overnight by the inevitable fire, leaving an irreparable crack.

He was exposed.

Or rather, he had personally torn through that thin layer of paper in his rage.

Li Rui lowered his head, staring at the faint red light in his palm.

Regret?

The scene from a few hours ago flashed through my mind—

On the fourth-floor windowsill of that dilapidated apartment building, a small figure huddled in the shadows pressed against the glass for a fleeting moment, and a glimmer of light returned to those lifeless eyes.

"Grandma...flowers...so warm."

That faint, hoarse child's voice echoed in his ears once more, like a heavy hammer, shattering all the weighing and calculations in his heart.

That was Xiaoxiao's last act of kindness in this world.

If, in order to protect themselves and continue their covert operations, they were to stand by and watch those beasts kidnap Duoduo and send her to that hellhole called the "laboratory"...

Even if Li Rui were to live, he would be nothing more than a powerful coward.

That karmic fire will first burn his own conscience to ashes.

"It can't be hidden anymore..."

Li Rui murmured softly to the void, his voice devoid of fear, only a sense of calm that came after the dust had settled.

"Then it can't be hidden anymore."

Since this fire has already burned through the disguise beneath the water's surface, and since it is destined to face a raging storm, let it burn even brighter, faster, and more frenziedly.

Li Rui suddenly stood up. In that instant, his previous anxious and hesitant demeanor vanished, replaced by a sharpness like a blade being drawn from its sheath.

He walked to his desk and, with a clatter, unfurled a hand-drawn map of Dawn City.

The map is densely marked with various symbols. It is a distribution map of "Huiguang Pharmaceutical" and Zhang Zhaoqing's related industries that he has pieced together bit by bit over the past few days by taking advantage of his identity as a criminal police officer and combining it with the guidance of his Karmic Fire Perception.

His finger slid quickly across the map, finally stopping at a gray area on the edge of Dawn City's seventh district.

That was what Zhou Xie "told" him before he died.

The judgment of karmic fire not only burns the body, but also the sins etched into the soul.

When Zhou Xie and the other three vanished into nothingness in the shadow of the old locust tree, Li Rui, through the medium of karmic fire, forcibly read the fragments of sinful memories etched deep in their souls.

That was the backdrop for countless dirty missions.

He saw it—

A huge underground space, filled with the pungent smell of chemicals and a faint stench of blood.

Above us were dense industrial pipes, tangled together like intestines, emitting a low hum.

The walls were covered with monitoring screens, and countless eyes coldly watched the "experimental subjects" locked in transparent cages.

At the end of his memory, Zhou Xie respectfully pushed open a door and bowed to report to the figure inside wearing a white coat.

In Zhou Xie's mind, that place was called the "Main Laboratory".

Li Rui closed his eyes and mentally compared the fragmented path features with the real-world map.

The journey, the road conditions, the iconic abandoned chimneys in the surrounding area, the distinctive chemical odor...

The clues converged one by one, eventually transforming into a sharp sword that pierced the blank space on the map.

Chenxi City, District 7, Xingguang Waste Chemical Industrial Park.

According to official records, the area had ceased production for many years and was an unsupervised area awaiting demolition.

The map was a lifeless expanse of gray and white, with no companies listed.

But that place is Zhang Zhaoqing's heart.

It is the true source of all evil, the womb from which the perverted Zhang Ziqian was born, and the abyss that has devoured countless innocent people.

Li Rui pressed his fingers firmly against the blank space; he faced his final decision.

Reason told him that the safest path was to continue hunting.

Huiguang Pharmaceuticals also has many peripheral core members, including a financial director and a security chief...

He could find them one by one, just like he hunted down Zhou Xie, and execute them with karmic fire, piecing together detailed structural diagrams of the laboratory, security rotation times, and even Zhang Zhaoqing's exact entry and exit patterns from their shattered souls.

In that way, he can develop a flawless action plan and minimize the risks.

But the reality is cruel.

Zhou Xie's disappearance has already alerted the enemy.

Zhang Zhaoqing is now a frightened mad dog, and also a vicious wolf with vast resources.

Once they realize what's happening, they'll mobilize their true elite forces...

All that waiting will come to naught.

The window of opportunity is closing at a visible rate.

There's no time to slowly peel an onion.

Li Rui slowly raised his head and looked out the window.

The darkness before dawn is the deepest, swallowing even the starlight.

"Then let's go straight for the heart of the enemy."

"Since you've hidden that place in the blank space on the map, I'll use this fire to burn it back out."

He carefully and solemnly pinned the ruby ​​brooch back into the inner pocket of his heart, as if performing some kind of pre-battle ritual.

This departure may be the end.

Faced with that enormous monster, faced with that unknown underground fortress, his fire might burn everything to ashes, or it might extinguish himself along with it.

But so what?

We would not hesitate to perish together.

Li Rui turned around and pushed open the door.

This time, he didn't look back at the empty house.

Because his battlefield is already ahead.