Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

"Of course it's not ordinary fire! How could ordinary fire extinguish six well-trained soldiers in an instant?" Wang Shijun slammed his glass on the bar. "This means that the release of this power is likely accompanied by an extremely high-intensity energy pulse, or a destructive mechanism that directly acts on the fundamental layers of matter! It's perfect... This is simply the perfect key to breaking through the physical barriers!"

Looking at his employer, who was now in a state of frenzy, Shen Jian felt a chill run down his spine. "Young Master Wang, the complete annihilation of the Sixth Squad indicates that the target is extremely dangerous. He is likely currently roaming the edge of the Fourth District. Should we withdraw?"

"Contract? No, why contract?" Wang Shijun sneered, his eyes revealing extreme coldness. "Shen Jian, you've fought tough battles before. You should understand that this kind of explosive attack, instantly killing six enhanced elites, can never be without a price!"

He turned to look at the night outside the window, arrogantly analyzing, "He used his trump card in the skirmish. What does that mean? It means he's like a frightened wild beast, ready to bite at the slightest disturbance!"

"He's lost his edge. Every outburst he has now is a drain on his resources!"

Wang Shijun's judgment is based on his limited scientific understanding of "extraordinary".

He never imagined that Li Rui's appearance in the Fourth District was not a "wandering" or "fleeing" trip, but rather a direct route to Yunxiao Mansion.

"Pass on my orders." Wang Shijun's eyes turned as cold as a venomous snake. "Dispatch out the rest of the Black Stone Squad! Like a pack of wolves, tear him to pieces! Don't be afraid of deaths; we have plenty of manpower. Since targeted physical cooling equipment is ineffective, then use human lives to pay the price! Wear him down! Force him to expose that bizarre fire mechanism time and time again!"

"I want to watch him drain every last drop of his mental energy, then be dragged before me like a dead dog!"

"Yes!" Shen Jian accepted the order, turned around, and strode out of the study.

Wang Shijun picked up his wine glass again and faced the floor-to-ceiling window.

He thought he was the high and mighty player, but little did he know that the karmic fire of judgment was less than three hundred meters from his throat.

------

At the same moment, in the Dawn City Police Department, Special Investigation Bureau Command Center.

Chen Jingrun's "abnormal heat source feature identification model" is a crude product built on the spot - it has already given seventeen false alarms, sweeping night market barbecue stalls and factory exhaust pipes into the warning list, which made the technical team so angry that they almost jointly demanded that the thing be shut down.

But at that moment, the signal that popped up on the screen made Chen Jingrun's pupils suddenly contract.

"Alert! An abnormal heat source peak has been detected!"

Chen Jingrun suddenly shouted, his hands moving like blurs across the keyboard as he frantically typed.

"What's going on?" Gu Heng, the frontline commander, immediately walked up behind him.

"My model... just now, captured a momentary surge of energy!" Chen Jingrun exclaimed excitedly. "The duration was extremely short, less than two seconds, but the energy level was terrifying. The thermodynamic characteristics matched the dark red flames of the Starlight Laboratory by a staggering 87%!"

Gu Heng frowned: "Are you sure it's not a barbecue stand?"

"No! A barbecue stall can't burn at 2000 degrees Celsius, and it wouldn't even last two seconds before going out!" Chen Jingrun pulled up a waveform comparison chart. "It's definitely Li Rui's flame!"

Gu Heng's eyes instantly sharpened like knives: "Where is it located?"

"In District Four!" Chen Jingrun pulled up a 3D map, where a red dot was flashing wildly. "Specific coordinates... in a narrow alley behind Yunxiao Mansion!"

"The Fourth District? Cloud Sky Prefecture?"

Upon hearing the name of the place, most people in the command center looked puzzled.

Li Rui's home is in District 7, and Starlight Lab is also in District 7. Why would he travel across half the city to District 4?

But Gu Heng's heart skipped a beat when he heard the place name.

Yunxiao Mansion.

Others might not know who lived there, but Gu Heng, as a special advisor recommended by the province's third-ranking committee member, knew all too well—it was Wang Shijun's permanent residence in Chenxi City.

"Retrieve the surveillance footage from the scene and surrounding area!" Gu Heng immediately ordered.

"Report! There are no surveillance cameras in the narrow alley where the incident occurred."

Gu Heng paused for three seconds: "Drone take off, conduct low-altitude reconnaissance of the target area."

The drone swarm took off urgently and arrived at the target area three minutes later.

The footage shows an empty, narrow alleyway, the ground charred black, six pools of solidified molten metal slag, and six empty sets of casual clothes.

After magnification and analysis, the technical team was able to see fragments of a communication headset, miniature camera components, and tactical belt buckles among the metal debris.

Forensic expert Fang Weiguo leaned closer to the screen: "Someone set up an ambush here, but Li Rui turned the tables and killed them. This equipment isn't ordinary stuff; it's all top-of-the-line military-grade gear. The model of the communication headset, the standard of the tactical belt... there are very few forces in the country that can mobilize this kind of equipment."

Gu Heng stared at the wreckage on the screen, his pupils contracting slightly.

Others might not know who that armed squad was, but how could Gu Heng not guess?

At this critical juncture, who else but the Black Stone mercenaries under the command of that self-important "Young Master Wang" would dare to deploy such elite private soldiers in Dawn City and be able to mobilize such top-notch military equipment?

"It seems that Young Master Wang's reach was too far, and it got bitten off by that wild beast," Gu Heng thought to himself.

What shocked him even more was Li Rui's movements.

Li Rui did not flee, but instead went straight to Yunxiao Mansion!

He not only awakened extraordinary abilities, but also discovered that the ultimate mastermind behind Zhang Zhaoqing was Wang Shijun!

But Gu Heng would never share this information with anyone else present.

If Li Rui killed Wang Shijun, it was the Wang family playing with fire and getting burned, and it had nothing to do with Gu Heng.

But if Gu Heng can, amidst this chaos, seize the opportunity before Wang Shijun's private soldiers can react, and use the Special Investigation Bureau's resources to "capture" Li Rui alive...

That extraordinary achievement of exclusively possessing the extraordinary sample was the ladder that allowed Gu Heng to climb to the pinnacle of power!

"Never mind who those unknown armed men are; they're most likely already ashes." Gu Heng turned around, his expression turning extremely serious, displaying the decisive demeanor of a frontline commander. "Target confirmed! Li Rui is in the Fourth District!"

He looked at the fully armed Wang Gang and ordered sternly, "Captain Wang, the mobile assault team must immediately assemble towards Yunxiao Mansion in the Fourth District! Seal off all entrances and exits in the surrounding five blocks, don't let even a fly out!"

"Yes, sir!" Wang Gang stood at attention and saluted, then shouted into the walkie-talkie, "All personnel, target: District Four, depart immediately!"