Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

"I was born to stand at the top. I am Wang Shijun, and the blood of rule-makers flows in my veins! What are they? They are nothing but consumables and numbers!"

"Disposing of their fate is my birthright. Just as my father had the right to decide the promotions of officials, just as the Five Mountains Alliance could crush those ants who coveted the darkness—the strong deciding the life and death of the weak is not a sin, it is the law of nature!"

"Li Rui! You think you're judging me? I thought you had a strong will, but now it seems you're nothing more than a lowly peasant who got lucky and stumbled upon a spark from who-knows-where! As for me, I was born to sit in the judgment seat!"

This thought, devoid of any remorse, is nothing but the extreme arrogance brought about by class barriers.

It roared deep within Wang Shijun's soul, attempting to resist the burning of karmic fire.

But this intention was crystal clear within the perception dimension of Karmic Fire.

Li Rui keenly sensed the arrogance emanating from the center of the pillar of fire.

The ruby ​​brooch that was pinned to the inside of his chest suddenly emitted a burst of extremely dazzling red light.

That was anger.

It is the purest rage after suffering extreme injustice and having all dignity trampled on!

Li Rui slowly raised his eyelids, and his eyes, which had originally been flickering with two dark red flames, now burned into a blood-gold color that was impossible to look at directly!

He stared intently at the soul within the pillar of fire, a soul that, even in its utter destruction, still considered itself superior.

Then, he extended his right hand, which had been held out straight.

His five fingers suddenly clenched together!

"boom--!!!"

As Li Rui moved, the temperature inside the pillar of fire surged exponentially in an instant.

That was no longer heat; it was the embodiment of "pain" itself.

Wang Shijun's arrogant thoughts hadn't even had a chance to fully spread in his mind before they were smashed into the finest dust by this raging karmic fire!

The ultimate physical punishment has officially arrived.

First, there is the peeling of the skin.

Starting from Wang Shijun's fingertips, his skin was like a layer of brittle, baked plaster, peeling outwards inch by inch.

Not a single drop of blood flowed out—because the blood was vaporized into red mist the instant it emerged from the capillaries by the terrifying temperature.

Every nerve ending in his body, which was originally protected by his skin, was now exposed to the air.

The karmic fire, like the most ruthless surgeon, meticulously burns inward along those nerves.

That is, at the very moment Wang Shijun's skin peeled away inch by inch—

Beyond this towering skyscraper, in the far distance, several faint black dots are slowly moving through the clouds of the night sky.

Those were six armed helicopters fully loaded with Special Investigations Bureau Mobile Assault Team members.

They turned off their navigation lights and, under the cover of thick clouds, approached the Cloud Palace like silent owls.

The distance was still considerable, and the roar of the propellers cutting through the air was perfectly masked by the low-altitude night wind.

Secondly, there is muscle breakdown.

When the skin's defenses were completely gone, the dark red flames began to invade Wang Shijun's muscle tissue.

The firm muscles of the chest, abdomen, thighs, and forearms began to separate from the white bones.

Instead of being burned to ashes, they melted and dripped away in the high temperature, like candles, and vanished into nothingness in mid-air before they even reached the ground.

Wang Shijun could clearly feel his body irreversibly "going soft".

That feeling of powerlessness, a collapse from within the body, accompanied by the excruciating pain of burning nerves, is more devastating to a person's will than any external blow.

And in the agony of this muscle breakdown—

Below the Yunxiao Mansion, six heavy armored vehicles have arrived at their designated positions.

They stood in the darkness, their heavy diesel engines emitting a low growl as they idled.

However, this vibration, filtered by the height of fifty floors and layers of soundproofing materials, becomes so blurred and indistinguishable by the time it reaches the top floor.

Secondly, there is the carbonization of bones and the burning of internal organs.

The karmic fire finally reached its deepest point.

Starting from his toes, Wang Shijun's bones gradually lost their pale color and turned charred black.

Immediately afterwards, a series of cracking sounds echoed from the pillar of fire; these were the sounds of bones cracking and eventually shattering under extreme temperatures.

At the same time, a burst of the most dazzling light erupted from inside his chest cavity.

The heart, the central organ supplying blood, was ignited directly from within by karmic fire.

From the ventricles and atria outwards, every fiber of the heart muscle is frantically convulsing and melting in the fire.

Wang Shijun could feel that each heartbeat of his was like a bomb exploding in his chest.

That kind of pain has long surpassed the human medical definition of "pain".

It was an extreme despair, a feeling of one's soul being publicly tortured and one's existence being forcibly erased.

Even more cruelly, the karmic fire precisely avoided his pain center, not only failing to make him lose consciousness but also amplifying his pain sensitivity tenfold!

Without the grace of numbness or fainting, he had to watch himself being burned to ashes from the outside in with perfect clarity.

Each layer of pain is like a nightmare that lasts for a hundred years, and each second is as long as endless eternity.

At the very moment when bones and heart carbonize together—

On the rooftop of another skyscraper, just across the street from Yunxiao Mansion.

Through several dark windows, large-caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles were already in place.

The crosshairs had already silently locked onto the figure behind the panoramic floor-to-ceiling window.

And when the flames completely ignited Wang Shijun's internal organs—

The elevator doors at the end of the top-floor corridor slid open silently.

Fully armed Special Investigations Bureau assault team members filed out.

They wore heavy superconducting flame-retardant armor and carried state-of-the-art suppression weapons.

Like a pack of well-trained wolves, they pressed their backs against the wall, taking turns providing cover as they advanced.

The tactical boots stomped lightly on the carpet, perfectly absorbing all the sounds of footsteps.

They even suppressed their breathing to the lowest possible frequency, and their tactical hand signals were communicated with extreme caution.

Everything happened in a suffocating silence.

Li Rui stood in that study, his back view aloof and lonely.

With his back to the armed forces baring their fangs at him, the entire city was at his mercy. All he could see was the pillar of fire before him, and this final judgment against the very source of evil.

The trial has reached its final stage.

As the flames traveled up Wang Shijun's cervical spine and burned all the way to his head, time seemed to stretch out infinitely in that small space.

Wang Shijun's eyes, which had once been high above, used to looking down on all living beings and putting a price tag on human lives, were now rapidly melting in their sockets.