Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Shen Hanzhou thought to himself: Yan Tingyao's men. When Lao Yan died, they searched the repair shop and deduced that my next target was Jiang Yi.

He confirmed the size of the convoy: six vehicles, each with six to seven people, totaling about forty people.

Automatic weapons, body armor, and two light machine guns mounted on the back seats of the third and fourth vehicles.

Four snipers, positioned on the high ground, had already set up their guns on the abandoned guard tower by the highway.

Shen Hanzhou gave a cold smirk.

He thought to himself: The Five Mountains Alliance also wants to get involved. You're too late. Jiang Yi is mine. Since you're here, stay here with us.

------

One kilometer away, six black SUVs were parked on the side of the road east of the abandoned slaughterhouse.

The headlights were all off, and the engine was idling.

The leader of the Five Sacred Mountains Association picked up binoculars to observe the slaughterhouse.

Through the night vision lens, the main factory building was quiet, with no lights and no people.

The windows of the office building on the north side were all dark, and the sentry posts on the perimeter were empty.

A teammate whispered, "There's no movement from the direction of the cold storage. All the sentries outside have lost contact; they're probably all dead."

The team leader lowered his binoculars, his expression grim: "Shen Hanzhou is already inside. The method used to clear the perimeter is the same as the old cigarette repair shop—sealing the body in cement, without making a sound."

The team member hesitated for a moment: "Should we rush in? While he's fighting Jiang Yi—"

The team leader raised his hand to interrupt him, his tone calculating: "No rush. Let them fight first."

He turned to his team and gestured towards the slaughterhouse: "Jiang Yi still has at least twenty people huddled in the cold storage. Even if Shen Hanzhou has that strange ability, fighting twenty people will take its toll. Awakened beings get tired, they expend energy, they run out of strength. Once he's finished off Jiang Yi and exhausted, we can go in and pick up the rest."

The team member nodded.

The team leader thought to himself: Fang Li died in the enclosed corridor because there was no space to spread out. Six people crammed into the corridor were picked off one by one; they deserved to be wiped out. Outside the slaughterhouse is open space; I brought forty men. Even if he can manipulate cement, how can he hit me from three hundred meters away in open space? Forty men can overwhelm him; we'll wear him down.

The team leader turned and walked to the center of the convoy, clapping his hands: "Everyone get out of the vehicles! Deploy in your work groups!"

The car doors opened simultaneously, and forty team members filed out.

The tactical boots thudded against the muddy ground, while the sounds of automatic rifles being cocked blended together.

"Establish a main blockade line 200 meters outside the main gate! Three lines of defense, ten men per line! Send a squad to guard the back gate! Snipers, find high ground—two up from the abandoned guard tower by the highway, two up from the water tower opposite the slaughterhouse! Remember—" The leader held up one finger, "Don't get close to buildings. Don't stay on the concrete. Everyone stand on the dirt ground."

Someone asked, "Why?"

"Shen Hanzhou's abilities are related to cement. The old cigarette repair shop, Fang Li's factory, all the dead were sealed in cement. Cement is a weapon in his hands. Standing on muddy ground, there's soil underneath, but no cement. He can't dismantle the soil."

He paused, then added, "Mr. Yan said that the live ones have priority, but the dead ones are also acceptable. Whoever is the first to subdue him will get double the reward."

Forty people quickly set out.

Thirty people were divided into three lines of defense at the main gate.

The first line of defense lay prone on the muddy ground, guns pointed at the main entrance of the slaughterhouse.

The second line of defense crouched fifty meters behind the first, with bullets loaded.

The third line of defense is positioned along the abandoned highway, maintaining mobility.

Six people blocked the exit at the back door.

Four snipers, working in pairs, climbed up the abandoned guard tower and the old water tower.

Someone whispered to the person next to them, "Forty against one, hold the open exit, and the prize money is ours."

The person next to him chuckled: "Just don't embarrass yourself like Fang Li."

The team leader stood on the muddy ground and lit a cigarette.

The smoke dissipated quickly in the night wind.

He thought to himself: "That good-for-nothing Fang Li dared to charge in with only six men; he deserved to be sealed in cement. I'm not going in; I'll just wait outside. You'll be exhausted after beating Jiang Yi, but with forty of me pressing in, even the strongest of you will have to kneel."

He took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled a smoke ring.

------

Shen Hanzhou's perception covered the entire perimeter of the slaughterhouse.

Six vehicles, forty people, three lines of defense at the main gate, the back gate blocked, and four snipers at the high point.

The team leader stood on the muddy ground smoking, the infrared heat source of the cigarette butt appearing as a pulsating bright spot to him.

Shen Hanzhou thought to himself: Yan Tingyao has really gone all out. Forty people. They're not coming in; they're waiting outside for Jiang Yi and me to both be severely injured.

His senses then probed into the cold storage.

Jiang Yi had already ordered the cold storage door to be welded shut, and four bodyguards were using welding torches to pile welding rods on the door seams.

The electric arc flashed in the basement, and welding slag sizzled on the ground.

Jiang Yi huddled in the innermost room of the command center, clutching a pistol, his finger trembling incessantly on the trigger guard.

All twenty people were in place inside the cold storage.

The twelve people in the circular corridor were divided into six groups and guarded at six key nodes.

There were four bodyguards at the entrance to the command center, and four personal guards inside.

A triple trap: a gas canister was hidden behind the airtight door at the entrance to the cold storage; a tripwire was concealed at the corner of the corridor; and a light machine gun was mounted at the entrance to the command room.

Shen Hanzhou mentally deduced: Jiang Yi was holed up in the cold storage and wouldn't come out, while Wu Yue would be blocking the way outside. Both sides were waiting for him to make the first move. Once he and Jiang Yi were done fighting, Wu Yue would come and reap the benefits.

He stood by the outer wall of the slaughterhouse, his mind racing.

If we attack Jiang Yi first—storming the cold storage, breaking through three traps, and killing twenty people—this whole process will undoubtedly drain his mental and physical strength. The Five Mountains Alliance will then press forward while he's exhausted; forty people attacking someone who's just finished a tough battle is very dangerous.

If they attack the Five Mountains Alliance first, Jiang Yi might slip away while they make their move from the outside. The cold storage definitely has a backup escape route. Jiang Yi has been in the Crimson Thorn for over twenty years; he wouldn't be without a backup plan.

He closed his eyes and weighed the threats from both sides in his mind.

Jiang Yi had sealed the cold storage door shut, piling up three layers of welding rods, making the airtight door completely sealed. He was preparing to hold it to the death, not to escape. He thought that with the ground reinforced, the cold storage couldn't be dismantled. He dared not come out, locking himself in a cage.

The Five Mountains Alliance's forty members were blocking the main gate; they were a mobile force and could change tactics at any time. If they rushed in after he was half-defeated in the cold storage, he would be attacked from both sides.

Shen Hanzhou opened his eyes and twitched his lips.

He made a decision in his heart: kill the Five Mountains Society first. After I've killed everyone outside, I'll go back to find him.

He thought to himself, "You send men to take advantage of the situation, I'll make sure your men die first. Forty men, none of them will get back tonight."

Shen Hanzhou squatted down and placed both hands on the cement ground at the base of the slaughterhouse's outer wall.

Spread your fingers wide and press your palms firmly together.

He activated his ability, extending his senses outwards from the main entrance.

Perception extends along the cement floor, old factory roads, and abandoned loading and unloading platforms, all the way to the foot of the three defense lines of Wuyuehui, two hundred meters away.

That seemingly solid mud land was dissected into layers of structure in Shen Hanzhou's mind.