Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

After Shen Yanhui's death, he volunteered to be transferred to Lieyang Province to participate in the pursuit of Shen Hanzhou, citing "familiarity with the target's background" as the reason. However, the real reason was that he had seen Shen Yanhui working overtime in front of the fume hood until the early hours of the morning, and he wanted to know what kind of person the woman was who could carve out the word "escape" on the dissection table.

"Old Ding didn't let us leave."

Zhou Ming spoke, his voice steady, "Our location is in the garage. His abilities rely on concrete, and the garage floor is all concrete, which puts us at a disadvantage in a fight. But we have an advantage—the electrical room door is iron, and the walls have steel mesh. If he doesn't know where we are, he won't go into the electrical room when he passes by the garage."

Qian Kun took out a flashing tripwire mine made by Xiong Bei from his waist bag.

This tripwire was specially made by Xiongbei Equipment Department for Shen Hanzhou. Its outer shell is made of engineering plastic, and it is filled with high-intensity blast explosive and infrasound generator. When triggered, it can release a strong light that can cause blindness and infrasound that can damage the vestibular system within half a second.

He hung one on the wall outside the power distribution room door, and strung a thin wire across the doorway half a meter away, his fingers surprisingly steady.

"If he spots us first," Qian Kun straightened up, dusting off his hands, "at least the tripwire will hold him off for a few seconds."

The two turned off all the indicator lights and sat in the dark.

The only sounds in the electrical room were the low-frequency hum of the ventilation ducts and the faint green light of the walkie-talkie indicator light, which flashed every few seconds.

The green glow of the emergency exit indicator light seeped through the crack in the electrical room door, drawing a thin green line on the ground.

Zhang Desheng and Zhao Ping climbed to the bottom of the water tower.

Zhang Desheng reached out and pushed the iron gate, but couldn't open it.

He used a brick to block the door from being blown shut by the wind when he came up this morning, but now the brick is gone and the iron gate is tightly closed.

"Someone has moved the door."

Zhang Desheng lowered his voice, drew his pistol with his right hand, and flicked the safety with his thumb.

Zhao Ping's flashlight beam swept across the doorknob.

Under the beam of the flashlight, the doorknob was covered with a fine layer of gray powder. It wasn't dust, but rather the iron-gray powder left behind after the cement was dismantled, still carrying the slight warmth left after the molecular bonds broke.

"Brother Zhang—" Zhao Ping's voice trembled, "He came by—"

Zhang Desheng kicked open the iron gate.

The entire cement ground around the base of the water tower outside the gate has turned to powder and collapsed into a circular ash pit half a meter deep.

The surface of the gray powder still emitted fine dust, resembling a layer of breathing gray life under the moonlight.

Shen Hanzhou had been to the water tower and set traps around its base, waiting for the people inside to step into them.

"You can't walk on the ground."

Zhang Desheng's voice tightened. He took a step back and pulled the iron gate shut again. "Climb out the window—climb from the second-floor window of the water tower to the roof of the old factory next door. The roof of the old factory is made of asbestos tiles, and there are steel beams underneath. He might not be able to dismantle it."

The two retreated back into the water tower, climbed to the second floor, and climbed out of the window.

Zhao Ping climbed over and placed his left foot on the asbestos tile roof of the old factory building.

The asbestos roof shattered beneath his feet, revealing a thin steel mesh beneath the tiles that held them in place.

Zhao Ping's foot got stuck in the gap of the steel mesh, and his ankle hit the edge of the steel bar hard. He groaned in pain and lay on the roof, unable to pull his leg out.

Zhang Desheng then turned over, squatted down, pried open the gaps in the steel mesh, and pulled Zhao Ping's feet out.

Zhao Ping was in so much pain that he was covered in cold sweat. He gritted his teeth and didn't cry out, but his teeth were chattering loudly.

Ten meters ahead, the roof of the old factory building has a crack in the middle.

Large sections of asbestos roof tiles collapsed, exposing the rusted steel beams underneath.

Shen Hanzhou rose from the collapsed area, his right hand outstretched, the eyes behind the crack in his glasses staring straight at the two of them.

His coat was covered in cement dust left over from the commercial complex, reflecting a grayish-white sheen in the moonlight.

Zhao Ping roared, his voice echoing through the empty old factory: "Brother Zhang—he—"

Zhang Desheng released Zhao Ping's foot, drew his gun, turned around, and fired.

The bullets shot towards Shen Hanzhou, the muzzle flashes particularly glaring in the night.

With a flick of his left hand, Shen Hanzhou instantly pulverized the cement joints of the old factory's brick wall, and a dozen red bricks were dismantled and reassembled to form a brick wall in front of him.

The bullet struck the brick wall, sending brick fragments flying. The bullet was embedded in the dense mineralized material, still a full half-knuckle thick away from penetrating.

Shen Hanzhou activated his ability with his right hand towards the steel mesh beneath Zhao Ping.

The iron-carbon alloy bonds of the steel mesh broke, and a dozen thin steel bars simultaneously crumbled into iron-gray powder under his willpower.

Zhao Ping fell through the gap in the roof, his back slamming onto the concrete floor of the old factory. The impact forced the air out of his lungs, and he curled up in pain, groaning incoherently.

Zhang Desheng fired two more shots.

The bullet pierced through the brick wall and struck a brick pillar behind Shen Hanzhou, sending fragments flying across the pillar's surface.

When he fired the third shot, Shen Hanzhou flicked his right fingertip, and the asbestos roof and supporting steel beam under Zhang Desheng's feet disintegrated at the same time.

The steel beams disintegrated beneath Zhang Desheng's feet, the rusted I-beams crumbling into iron-gray powder in a fraction of a second.

Zhang Desheng fell through the gap in the roof and landed next to Zhao Ping.

The gun slipped from his hand and slid three meters away, hitting the brick wall of the old factory with a dull thud.

Zhang Desheng propped himself up and tried to crawl toward the gun.

The cement floor turned to powder the moment his palm pressed down, and his hand sank into the powder, grasping at nothing.

Cement dust surged up from the ground, enveloping his legs, knees, and thighs.

He tried desperately to pull himself out by bracing himself on his elbows against the ground, but the cement crumbled into powder where his elbows pressed down, and his body sank deeper and deeper into the ground.

As cement dust filled his chest, he raised his head and roared at Shen Hanzhou, "Mr. Zheng won't let you get away with this—"

Cement dust engulfed his neck, mouth, and head.

Zhang Desheng was trapped at the bottom of the pit, his face twisted on the cement floor.

His mouth was wide open, his eyes bulged out, and his expression froze at the moment of his roar.

Zhao Ping lay on his side, blood seeping from the wound on his ankle.

He struggled to push off the ground with his still-movable leg, causing a large section of the concrete floor to collapse beneath him.

He sank deeper and deeper with each push, his face covered in a mixture of tears and cold sweat.

He looked up at Shen Hanzhou, his lips trembling as he squeezed out the last few words: "No—please—my family—"

Cement dust surged up from the bottom of the pit, engulfing his legs, waist, and chest.

Zhao Ping was trapped at the bottom of the pit, tears still on his face, before they could even reach his chin before being engulfed by cement powder.

Shen Hanzhou stood in front of the two corpses, his breathing becoming heavy.

He has been using his abilities for over four hours straight since infiltrating the commercial complex in the early hours of the morning, and the depletion of his mental energy is beginning to show on his body.

The old injury on my left shoulder, caused by the shockwave from a rocket in an abandoned industrial area, was still aching from the impact of the fall from the roof.