Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Duan Peng was trapped at the bottom of the pit, and the scars on his face were still faintly visible.

The gunman was sealed off to the side, the liquid nitrogen gunman was sealed off at the bottom of the pit, and the three bodies were sealed into three side-by-side human-shaped protrusions in the collapsed pit.

Shen Hanzhou stood at the edge of the collapsed pit, looking down at the three sealed corpses, and took out a photo of his senior sister.

"Senior sister, seventeen. Of the three members of the rapid response team sent by Zheng Daoyuan who went into the building, they are dead. There are still six outside."

He put away the photos, turned around, and went up to the sixth floor.

Jiang Yubai crouched behind the corner of the corridor and saw that Shen Hanzhou's coat had a tear in the left arm.

You are injured.

"Abrasions. Not deep. The three who went into the building are dead, and there are still six outside blocking the exit."

"What do we do now?"

"Don't go through the main entrance. Go through the equipment mezzanine."

Inside the command vehicle outside the main gate, Team Leader Fang stared at the infrared screen—all three life signals inside the building had simultaneously gone out.

He spoke into the encrypted channel: "Duan Peng and the other two are dead. The target is still inside the building; infrared data shows he and Jiang Yubai are moving down."

Zheng Daoyuan's voice came through the channel, cold as ice: "He's looking for another exit. The main gate and garage are guarded; he won't force his way in. There's an equipment mezzanine at the back of Building 3, and the outer wall of the mezzanine is concrete—he can break through that wall and get out. Send a team to block him outside the south wall of the community. If he and Jiang Yubai want to escape to the eastern suburbs, they'll have to go through the old middle school alley."

"One person from the second group will stay and guard the unit entrance, while the other two will go around to the outside of the south wall."

"Force him out of the building. Only in an open area can the range advantage of liquid nitrogen be fully utilized."

"Yes."

Shen Hanzhou led Jiang Yubai from the fire escape on the first floor into the equipment mezzanine.

The mezzanine was filled with old pipes and abandoned heating equipment, and the air was thick with choking dust.

Shen Hanzhou pressed his right hand against the outer wall of the mezzanine and activated his ability—the cement wall was dismantled to create an opening just wide enough for one person to pass through, outside which was the green belt behind Building No. 3.

"Go out from here. Climb over the south wall of the residential area and you'll find the alley leading to the old middle school. They'll definitely be guarding the main gate and the garage, but there might not be anyone at the south wall."

Jiang Yubai ducked out, followed by Shen Hanzhou, who waved his right hand and sealed the cave entrance with cement again.

The two moved quickly along the green belt, with no motion-activated lights overhead.

The engine of the off-road vehicle was still running at the main entrance, and the faint static of the rapid response team's walkie-talkie could be heard.

Touching the south wall, Shen Hanzhou placed his right hand on it—a gap was created in the cement wall.

The two climbed over and landed in the alley of the old middle school.

The pit where Liu Wei and Sun Hao had been sealed off still remained in the alley, with two heads lying askew on the edge of the pit.

Jiang Yubai glanced at the two heads but said nothing.

The two walked east along the alley.

When Shen Hanzhou reached the middle of the alley, he suddenly stopped.

Perception extends forward—there are two heartbeats outside the east exit of the alley, and shooting positions have been set up on the wall.

The two members of the rapid response team had already circled around to the east side of the alley, blocking the road leading to the old town.

On the west side of the alley—towards Cui Ting Yuan—Team Leader Fang and the remaining member of Team Two were chasing after them, their flashlight beams already shining into the west entrance of the alley.

They were attacked from both sides. Two men blocked the exit from the east, while two others chased them in from the west. The alley was narrow, with brick walls of old buildings on both sides, without cement—the brick walls were made of sintered clay, and their molecular structure was different from cement.

Jiang Yubai lowered his voice: "Can we get out?"

"There's not much cement in the alley. But the old buildings aren't just made of bricks—every floor slab is made of cement."

Shen Hanzhou pressed his right hand against the brick wall, and his power extended upwards along the wall.

The steel bars in the precast slabs on the second floor of the old building began to break at the molecular level, but reinforced concrete is a composite structure—the cement matrix wraps around the steel mesh, making it much slower to disassemble than plain cement.

He could sense the lattice structure of each steel bar glowing faintly in his perception, and the molecular bonds of calcium carbonate and silicate were breaking one by one, but not fast enough.

The two heartbeats were still going on outside the east exit of the alley. Ceramic bulletproof plates were mounted on the wall, and the nozzle of the liquid nitrogen injector was pointing directly at the alley entrance.

Charging head-on would be suicide.

But if the precast slabs on the second floor of the old building collapse, they could directly smash through the east wall—they were crouching under the wall, with the windows of the second floor of the old building right above them.

Jiang Yubai squatted behind him, leaning against the brick wall, breathing rapidly but making no sound.

She was holding the sealed file bag in her arms, which contained the experimental data and backup materials that Shen Yanhui had left behind three years ago.

"Squat down and don't move."

Shen Hanzhou said in a very low voice, "The ceiling is about to come down."

Jiang Yubai shrank into the recess of the brick wall, clutching the file folder tightly to his chest.

Shen Hanzhou closed his eyes.

All mental energy was concentrated and poured into the prefabricated slabs on the second floor of the old building.

The rate at which the molecular bonds of the steel bars break suddenly accelerates, the lattice structure of the iron-carbon alloy collapses in perception, and the cement matrix decomposes from calcium carbonate into molecular fragments of calcium oxide and carbon dioxide.

The entire precast slab is detached from the wall at the second floor level.

The weight of the precast slab carried it through the old building's exterior wall, and bricks and mortar shattered under the impact.

When the wooden awning above the alley was smashed, the rotten planks shattered into palm-sized pieces that flew everywhere.

It crashed into the wall on the east side of the alley.

The wall collapsed directly under the weight of the precast slabs, bricks and cement debris exploded, and the rising gray-white dust surged in the morning light.

The two rapid response team members were crouching outside the wall, completely unaware that the attack was coming from above.

The edge of the precast slab struck the ceramic bulletproof plate set up by the two men.

The ceramic slab withstood the impact without breaking, but it was knocked to the ground, and the support frame bent and deformed.

The liquid nitrogen tank detached from the team member's back during the impact and crashed to the ground.

The tank cracked, and liquid nitrogen sprayed out, splashing onto the lower bodies of the two men and the surrounding ground.

The liquid nitrogen boiled into white mist the moment it came into contact with the air, and a thick layer of white frost formed on the cement floor.

The two men's legs were frozen in liquid nitrogen ice, and they lost sensation below the knees.

At extremely low temperatures, the skin turns white and hardens, blood vessels constrict to the point of almost stopping flow, and excruciating pain spreads upwards from the frostbitten area along the nerves.

Both of them screamed in agony at the same time.

Shen Hanzhou did not give them time to break free.

He pressed down with his right hand.

Cement dust from the wall ruins and precast concrete slab fragments surged up simultaneously.

Cement powder started coating the two men from their ankles upwards, covering their calves, which were frozen solid by liquid nitrogen, their knees, and their thighs.

The tissues of the frostbitten hand, caused by liquid nitrogen, shattered under the pressure of cement powder, and blood seeped out from the cracks, mixing with the cement powder to form a dark brown frozen mud.

The two struggled desperately, their upper bodies still moving, their arms still trying to push away the constantly surging cement powder.

Cement powder covered his waist.

Wrap it around your chest.

Wrap it around your neck.

Cover your mouth.

Wrap the head.

The two were trapped inside the ruins of the wall, with only their heads resting on the pile of broken bricks.

His face was frozen with the deathly pallor of liquid nitrogen frostbite and the terror of being swallowed by cement.

Its mouth is wide open, its eyes are bulging out, and its tongue is sticking out.

The liquid nitrogen ice layer was still emitting cold mist around their sealed bodies.