Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

However, Li Rui tore the script to shreds.

Without any buffer, without any hesitation, and without even completely taking off his police uniform, he transformed into a raging inferno that consumed everything.

"This doesn't make sense," Wang Shijun muttered to himself.

To make matters worse, the commotion was too loud.

If it were just Zhang Zhaoqing's mysterious disappearance, given his influence in Chenxi City and the province, he could easily suppress the matter as a missing persons case.

But now, the entire Starlight Laboratory has been burned to a crisp by a dark red flame, and the towering flames are clearly visible.

The Special Investigation Bureau moved in overnight, and Zheng Guofeng and Zhao Jianguo, those two old hounds, had already smelled something extraordinary.

This means that all his previous secret plans—pushing for suspension, exerting public pressure, and stripping him of his police uniform—have now completely failed.

What was originally planned as a "private hunting ground" has now become a public arena for various forces to compete.

"Since we can't cover it up anymore, let's race against time." Wang Shijun's eyes regained their original depth and coldness.

He quickly pieced together the fragmented information he had obtained from the Special Investigations Bureau in his mind.

Dark red flames, undisturbed by water, precisely directional combustion at extremely high temperatures.

Combined with Zhang Zhaoqing's dying cry on the phone—"The fire...I'm almost out of strength"—this further reinforces the point.

"Is this your trump card, Li Rui?"

Wang Shijun stood up and paced back and forth in the dark study.

As a member of the Five Mountains Society, he had access to the most crucial analytical reports on "abnormal individuals".

He concluded that Li Rui's ability was "fire," manifested as extreme high temperatures and targeted output.

Although this fire looks strange, it follows a certain underlying law of energy consumption.

"Zhang Zhaoqing said he was 'out of energy,' which means that releasing this kind of flame requires a huge amount of mental energy and there is a clear period of fatigue. Li Rui is not a god; his energy has an upper limit."

"Moreover, the fire's coverage seems to be limited by some kind of perception; it can only be activated when the target is close."

Based on this understanding of "ordinary flames being extraordinary", Wang Shijun quickly picked up his phone and dialed the number of the Black Stone Squad leader.

"Where are your people located now?"

"They have all entered Dawn City and are scattered in two safe houses, ready to be deployed at any time."

"Alright. Mission objective changed." Wang Shijun spoke rapidly. "Capture Li Rui alive before the police do. If you can't take him alive, at least get a sample of his core tissue."

He paused, his tone turning icy: "Make specific preparations against 'fire-wielding individuals.' Equip them with the latest Type III high-temperature resistant combat suits, flame-retardant masks, and special fire-resistant gloves. Carry high-concentration flame retardant injectors and liquid nitrogen freezing guns—if the target attempts to ignite, immediately apply physical cover."

"Tactically, close-quarters combat is strictly prohibited. We should employ a strategy of flanking maneuvers, long-range tranquilizer suppression, and attrition warfare. He has a mental limit, so we'll force him to ignite his own fire multiple times until he burns himself out."

"Understood," came the brief reply from the other end of the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Wang Shijun breathed a sigh of relief.

In his view, although Li Rui had awakened powerful attack capabilities, he was still a "fragile mage" with a fatal flaw.

As long as we target and deplete his mental energy and use modern high-tech flame-retardant equipment to counteract his firepower advantage, capturing him is only a matter of time.

This is a tactical deployment based on science, logic, and common sense.

But what he didn't know was that his understanding was beginning to crumble from the very bottom.

He had no idea that it was not an ordinary fire of high temperature, but the "karmic fire" that judges sins.

Anyone who is guilty becomes firewood.

What he didn't know was that Li Rui's killing intent wasn't just directed at Zhang Zhaoqing, but had already used the memories read by the Karmic Fire to lock that deadly red light firmly onto his "Young Master Wang's" throat.

Wang Shijun thought he was hunting down Li Rui from the shadows, but little did he know that from Li Rui's perspective, the Wang family's proud power and this heavily guarded apartment had become an execution ground piled with dry firewood.

------

The embers of the abandoned Starlight Chemical Industrial Park have been extinguished for several days, and the charred ruins are now surrounded by yellow police tape, forming a silent tombstone.

Occasionally, figures in protective suits could be seen moving in the distance, crawling like ants on the massive wound.

Li Rui stood on the roof of a building five kilometers away from the park.

It's far enough away that the warning line becomes a blurry thin line in the field of vision;

It's high enough here that the night wind blows freely into your collar, and you can almost feel the scorched earth smell emanating from the park.

He looked down at his right hand.

The karmic fire was transforming into a deep, dark current, sending immense life force to every part of the body with each heartbeat.

The burn on his right arm was itching—that was the rapid growth of granulation tissue, a cruel gift bestowed upon the host by the karmic fire after it had devoured Zhang Zhaoqing's vile sins.

He savored this gift, a cold smile curving his lips.

After evacuating from the ruins, he did not go home, did not return to the police station, and did not even appear in any of the places he had been accustomed to visiting over the past decade.

He disappeared from official view—like a fire extinguished beneath ashes.

He was all too familiar with the shadows of this city: abandoned areas awaiting demolition, crisscrossing underground pipe networks, and the mezzanine levels deep within unfinished buildings…

These were hiding places he had studied when he was hunting criminals, and now they had become his hideouts to evade capture.

He knew he had been exposed.

The fire was too bright to be hidden.

Police stations, special agencies, or even forces he couldn't name, would swarm like hounds following the scent.

His trust in the judicial system was completely destroyed in the Zhang Ziqian case, and he could no longer entrust himself to that "procedure".

That procedure once promised him justice, but it turned Xiaoxiao's death into a medical report.

He became a lone flame.

A lone fire that can only burn through the darkness on its own.

But even clearer than the hunter's face was another person's face.

In the final moments as the flames of karma consumed Zhang Zhaoqing, his vile soul crumbled in excruciating pain, and the deepest, most sinful memories he had desperately clung to surged forth like a flood breaking through a dam—

In the scene, a chair slowly rotates, revealing Wang Shijun's cold, stern face in the firelight. His gaze sweeps over the lab reports, and he says softly, "Capture that detective alive. I want to study him."

Deep within Li Rui's pupils, two dark red dots twitched slightly.

Reason told him that the best thing to do now was to temporarily avoid confrontation.

Although the wounds were healing, the hunting dogs that had caught the scent were spreading their nets, fleeing, lying in wait, and waiting for their chance—

This is the path any experienced criminal would choose.

But beyond reason, something else is burning.