Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

His speed, enhanced by the drugs, was astonishing; each step he took left a trail of afterimages. But in the face of that raging inferno, these struggles seemed utterly futile.

Zhang Zhaoqing did not completely lose his mind while on the run.

His drug-induced frenzy was racing—fire doesn't appear out of thin air; someone must be controlling it.

The heightened sensitivity brought on by the stimulants allowed him to catch that momentary anomaly—as the young researcher burned to death, a slight tremor came from the grille of the ventilation duct above his head.

That was when Li Rui, enduring the excruciating backlash, involuntarily slammed into the metal wall.

Zhang Zhaoqing suddenly turned around and stared intently at that spot.

There are people hiding there!

That is the source of this demonic fire!

Upon confirming that the other party was not some inexplicable miracle, but a "person" hiding in the shadows, the fear in Zhang Zhaoqing's eyes instantly transformed into a frenzy mixed with cruelty and ecstasy.

"Haha... As long as they're human! Humans can be killed!"

As Zhang Zhaoqing sprinted away, dodging the approaching gunfire, he roared at the arriving guards, "Intruder! He's in the pipes! Grab him! Tear him to pieces!"

"Ugh—!"

A piercing alarm instantly blared through the underground space.

Within seconds, eight elite guards armed with guns filed in from the entrance on the second basement level.

They spread out skillfully, forming a crossfire against the pillars, with eight dark gun barrels simultaneously pointing towards the pipe area.

Li Rui's heart sank.

He knew the place was cramped and rudimentary, and if the enemy concentrated their fire on the pipes, he wouldn't even have room to hide.

Damn it.

Despite the excruciating burning pain in his right arm, Li Rui pushed the grid with his left hand and leaped down from the pipe opening, which was several meters high.

"Da da da da da!"

The moment he landed, a hail of bullets rained down, riddling the metal pipe behind him with holes.

Li Rui performed a nimble somersault in mid-air and landed steadily behind several large centrifuges.

Using experimental equipment, heavy pillars, and metal shielding cabinets as cover, he moved like lightning, constantly traversing the shadows.

Because he had to devote a lot of energy to physical evasion, the karmic fire that was chasing Zhang Zhaoqing lost its mental support and began to flicker in mid-air, and its pursuit speed obviously slowed down.

Zhang Zhaoqing hid behind a concrete pillar, panting heavily.

He stared intently at the guards who were flanking the cover, his gaze anxiously searching for the person in charge.

Just as Li Rui leaped from one centrifuge to another support column, due to the angle deviation of the emergency lights, Li Rui's ferocious, ghost-like face flashed by in the light and shadow.

At that moment, Zhang Zhaoqing's pupils suddenly dilated to their limit.

"Li—Rui—!"

He let out a piercing scream, a scream filled with a morbid ecstasy of discovering the ultimate treasure: "It's you! It really was you! I wasn't wrong! You killed Ziqian, and you killed Zhou Xie too!"

He laughed loudly, tears even streaming from the corners of his eyes.

"Great! That's wonderful! You actually delivered yourself right to my doorstep!"

In his eyes, Li Rui was no longer an enemy.

Deep within the soul of that mad scientist, Li Rui was an unprecedented "extraordinary sample".

That bizarre ability to manipulate flames, that attack method that can ignore existing physical rules—isn't this the perfect ladder for Zhang Zhaoqing to reach a new world?

"Grab him! I want him alive!" Zhang Zhaoqing roared at the guards. "He can have his arms and legs broken, as long as his head is still beating! I want to personally put him on the experimental table, I want to cut him open inch by inch, and see what kind of fire is hidden in your bones! Hahahaha!"

The guards, who had initially been hesitant due to their fear of the eerie fireballs, were overcome by greed upon hearing their boss's promises and orders.

They exchanged a glance, gripped their weapons, and began to tighten the encirclement.

Li Rui breathed heavily behind the cover, the burns on his right arm bleeding profusely from the strenuous activity.

But he didn't look at his own wound; his dark red pupils were fixed on Zhang Zhaoqing, who was giving orders.

"Zhang Zhaoqing, even if I die, I'll drag you down with me!"

Li Rui endured the excruciating pain and suddenly clenched his left hand.

The karmic fire, which had slowed down, sensed the host's obsession and suddenly surged up from the void again, transforming into a mad, dark red serpent that lunged straight at Zhang Zhaoqing's face!

"Grass!"

Zhang Zhaoqing let out a scream.

Under the extreme pressure exerted on his nerves by the "Tranquilizing V-Shaped" technique, his senses were stretched to a near-stagnant level.

In his field of vision, the fire serpent slowed down, and he could even see the intense heat at the tip of the flame.

Just as the fire snake was about to bite his nose, Zhang Zhaoqing's body suddenly leaned backward.

The fire snake grazed his scalp, and the terrifying heat instantly scorched a large patch of his hair, turning the strands into grayish-white powder.

"boom!"

The fire serpent crashed heavily against the wall behind him.

The raging fire did not extinguish upon impact; instead, like a mass of magma with its own consciousness, it stubbornly slid downwards, attempting to once again capture that tumbling, fleeing figure.

"Damn it! Shoot!!" Zhang Zhaoqing rolled behind a cover in a disheveled state, roaring hoarsely, his voice filled with the madness of escaping death.

"Da da da da da—!"

His response was a devastating volley of eight guns.

Bullets rained down like a dense curtain, instantly covering the area where Li Rui was located.

Li Rui was forced to curl up behind an experimental table, his chest heaving violently.

The raging fire clinging to the wall eventually lost its strength and, under Zhang Zhaoqing's horrified gaze, gradually turned from red to gray, finally disappearing as a wisp of unwilling blue smoke.

Zhang Zhaoqing touched his bald and charred scalp. His palm touched the burned skin, and the pain made his eyes twitch.

He stared at the vanishing flame, then glanced in the direction where Li Rui had hidden, his fear gradually replaced by a morbid excitement—

That fire is really getting weaker.

He really had no strength left.

Zhang Zhaoqing then let out a maniacal laugh: "Haha... your fire's gone! Li Rui, your energy has its limits! Here, I am the master! Push forward!"

……

During a lull in the hail of bullets, Li Rui hid behind cover, panting heavily.

No, these guards have blocked all angles.

He couldn't concentrate on casting [Judgment of Karmic Fire] unless he got rid of these damned flies first.

His eyes sharpened, and he turned his gaze to the guard closest to him.

The guard was holding a gun and stepping forward, his expression stern and his movements practiced.

"Since you're going to take the blows for him, then we'll use you to fuel the fire first!"

Li Rui let out a low growl and suddenly pointed his left index finger at the man's chest.