Chapter One: Gunfire

  In the eastern suburbs of Nanchuan City, there is a range of small hills, one of which is called Xifoshan. It is the shortest among the group of mountains and is surrounded by other peaks in the center, with a very hidden terrain. On the top of Xifoshan Mountain, someone has flattened the entire mountain peak and built a traditional Eastern-style quadrangle courtyard house, with high walls and deep houses, which has a bit of an ancient noble mansion's flavor.

  The gate of the quadrangle courtyard is closed, and the lighting lamp on the gate shines weakly in the stormy rain, illuminating an area of less than a few meters. The lights in the yard are also very sparse, with only a faint light shining through the main house in the backyard, while all other areas are shrouded in darkness.

  A flash of lightning struck down, and the fleeting bright light shone on the four dark figures in the courtyard, who were none other than the Cao Sen brothers.

  They wore nylon helmets, Kevlar bulletproof vests, held Remington shotguns, and had Desert Eagle pistols holstered on their right hips, with SOG combat knives inserted in their combat boots, silently searching the entire courtyard.

  When they left Cao Sen's dormitory building, they asked Sima De if he knew Zhu Jianjun's whereabouts. Sima De proudly told the brothers that he had been monitoring Zhu Jianjun recently and was very sure that Zhu Jianjun would be at the Western Buddha Mountain Villa tonight. So with one sentence from Sima De, the four plague gods arrived at this Siheyuan in the mountains.

  Soon, the four of them searched the front yard of the quadrangle courtyard and didn't find anyone. Cao Sen gestured to move forward to the backyard under the light of the lightning.

  Cao Sen took the lead, with his three brothers closely following behind him. They all crouched down, hugging the wall and forming a line, their shotguns at the ready as they slowly approached the room with the light on. As soon as they reached the vicinity of the room, the four men quietly crouched down to listen for any sounds around them. Apart from the faint laughter coming from inside the room, there was only the sound of wind and rain. Everything seemed normal, so Cao Sen gave a hand signal, and the four men crept up to the door like ghosts.

  Cao Sen and Teng Fei guarded the gate, while Guo Jing and Ding Haituo each held down one of the windows. Just then, a bright flash of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating everything in the courtyard.

  Cao Sen's gaze swept the backyard like a knife, and he saw a ball-like object about the size of a ping-pong ball standing upright in the center of the yard. Although it was just a fleeting glance, Cao Sen still noticed that the spherical object and its base were exquisitely crafted, definitely not ordinary objects. Sensors? Could they be motion or temperature sensors? Even in the heavy rain, cold sweat broke out on his body.

  Better safe than sorry, Cao Sen didn't dare to be careless and waved his hand for the brothers to retreat back to the front yard.

  At that moment, the lights in the house suddenly went out, followed by the sound of shattering glass from the windows. Several black gun barrels protruded from the broken windows, and even the side rooms had guns pointing out. The four Cao brothers were almost trapped in a crossfire with no blind spots.

  Cao Sen reacted extremely quickly, raising his hand to shoot at the gap between the door and the frame with a shotgun. The door was blasted open by the shotgun, and he immediately followed up with a strong side kick, stomping heavily on the door as if trying to force his way in. However, instead of entering, he rolled away from the door towards the center of the courtyard. The three men behind him quickly followed suit, crouching down to steady themselves. Of the four shotguns, two were aimed at the main house, while the other two targeted the rooms on either side.

  Almost simultaneously with Cao Sen's action, the enemy hiding in the room opened fire and shot, and the bullets flying out of the two side rooms grazed Cao Sen's body and hit the door frame. The dense gunfire also rang out inside the house, all aiming at the door, and the flying bullets made the wooden chips fly horizontally.

  In the courtyard, Cao Sen and his three companions fired their shotguns in unison, the muzzle flames almost forming a torch. A large number of lead bullets poured into the rooms on both sides, where gunshots were flashing. In the midst of the stormy weather, the tiles and glass shattered by the bullets flew everywhere. The shotgun's close-range firepower was brought to its extreme by Cao Sen and his companions, completely suppressing the enemy's firepower. As they fired, they quickly retreated to the front yard, and just as their ammunition ran out, the four of them safely hid in the front yard.

  The backyard room lost firepower suppression, and immediately gunfire erupted, with bullets shooting at the gates of the front and back yards.

  Cao Sen leaned against the courtyard wall, loading his shotgun with ammunition. His eyes gleamed with a cold light in the wind and rain, amidst the thunder and lightning that illuminated the sky. The fighting spirit and killing intent emanating from him made his three companions, Teng Fei, feel a chill run down their spines. Soon, however, this chill turned into a similarly turbulent and surging fighting spirit and killing intent. Their years of infatuation with special warfare, their years of self-mortifying training, had finally come in handy today. The four brothers were going to use all their skills to engage the enemy in a battle to the death.

  As for who the enemy was, whether Zhu Jianjun was among them or not, Cao Sen and his team didn't consider it. The bellicose factor deep within the four young men who were crazy about special warfare had been completely ignited, and against the backdrop of the raging storm, they yearned for a real battle.

  Cao Sen saw that his brothers had all replenished their ammunition, so he made a gesture for Teng Fei and Ding Hai to attract the enemy at the gate. He and Guo Jing went in two different directions along the wall of the courtyard, each finding a suitable place to climb over the wall. After they were in position, Teng Fei and Ding Hai suddenly poked their shotguns out and launched a fake attack on the rear yard.

  The firepower in the backyard reacted immediately, with automatic rifles, submachine guns and pistols firing in unison. Bullets of various calibers hit the courtyard wall with astonishing kinetic energy, turning the brick wall into a beehive within seconds. Forced to change positions, Teng Fei and Ding Haitao could no longer stay here, or they would be hit by enemy bullets piercing through the loose walls.

  Taking advantage of the enemy's firepower being attracted, Cao Sen and Guo Jing jumped up with their hands on the wall head for leverage, and they had already rolled onto the wall head horizontally, then quickly flipped into the backyard.

  Bang! Teng Fei and Ding Haitao continued firing to attract the enemy's firepower, providing cover for Cao Sen and Guo Jing.

  Cao Sen crouched along the right wall and crept to the window of the side house, suddenly inserting the muzzle into the window and firing continuously. In a small area, the shotgun's lethality was amazing, Cao Sen only pulled the trigger four times, and there was no movement inside the house. To ensure safety, Cao Sen fired two more shots at different angles in the room when he rushed in, dropped the shotgun, drew out the Desert Eagle, and rolled into the room.

  Two robust men were lying in the house, their bodies almost shattered by shotgun pellets fired at close range. The floor and walls were covered with thick blood, and a strong smell of gore filled the room. Cao Sen, who had killed for the first time, showed no remorse or tension. He calmly chose the best shooting position, held his gun with both hands, and pulled the trigger repeatedly at the flashing muzzle in the main house.

  The power of the Desert Eagle is indeed extraordinary, amidst the shooting sounds of various firearms, its unique dull and short gunshot can still be heard clearly. The powerful .44 Magnum bullet flew out of the Desert Eagle's barrel like a miniature cannonball, shooting into the enemy's hiding position, this superweapon that can kill an animal over one ton with one shot brought great intimidation to the enemy.

  What made the enemy even more terrified was that the same gunfire also came from the wing room on the left, and at the gate, there were two of the same pistols spitting fire. Although they had automatic rifles and submachine guns, in close combat, the power of these two guns was discounted, and Desert Eagle's .44 caliber bullet was absolutely their nightmare.

  Tsao Sun and his men fired a withering crossfire from three directions, pinning down the enemy.

  Zhu Jianjun was in the main room, crouched behind a thick nanmu wood Eight Immortals table, cursing loudly. He didn't know which group of people had killed their way in. Unfortunately, he hadn't brought any special troops with him tonight. If he had known something like this would happen, he definitely would have deployed a whole battalion to guard the place. No matter who it was, anyone who dared to threaten his safety would be killed.

  Along with Zhu Jianjun, there were four or five other gang members, one of whom looked particularly different, with eagle eyes and an eagle-like nose, his entire face was as if the face of an old eagle had been transplanted onto a human head. Especially his pair of eyes, light yellow in color, revealing a gaze even sharper than that of an eagle, this man was the big boss of the underworld organization on the east side of Nanchuan City, and people respectfully called him Eagle Brother.

  Eagle Brother held a Beretta pistol and hid behind the wall, using the lightning to see a brother who had been shot dead. The man was hit by Desert Eagle on his right shoulder, and the .44 bullet almost blew half of his body away. His sinister face twitched slightly.

  "Who's there on the outside road? What's good to talk about!" Eagle Brother shouted.

  "Hand over Zhu Jianjun!" Teng Fei's teeth-gnashing voice.

  Zhu Jianjun? Eagle Brother unexpectedly glanced at Zhu Jianjun's hiding place, how did this kid manage to offend such a formidable opponent?

  Is it Teng Fei? Damn! Zhu Jianjun cursed in his heart, originally thinking that the other party was looking for Eagle Brother to settle accounts, but unexpectedly they were coming for himself! Since Teng Fei has arrived, Cao Sen must also be here. Dammit, those four idiots, if only they had killed Cao Sen and his brothers at the teaching building earlier, there wouldn't be today's trouble! But how did Teng Fei and his people know it was him who sent someone to kill them? Zhu Jianjun secretly made a ruthless vow: as long as he could get through this hurdle today, the first thing he would do is kill Cao Sen and his four brothers - absolutely no more delays.

  "Eagle Brother said: 'What Zhu Jianjun, brother doesn't know him, you guys have come to the wrong place?'"

  Teng Fei's eyes turned red with rage as soon as he heard the words. He aimed at the location where Eagle Brother's voice came from and fired two shots.

  The bullet didn't penetrate the thick, solid green brick wall, but it shook Eagle Brother's heart. He was shocked that the other party had a firearm with such power and rolled on the spot to change his hiding position.

  Cao Sen hid in the darkness, replacing a new magazine for the Desert Eagle, silently observing the situation in front of him and thinking about how to break into the enemy's room. The Desert Eagle was not the best choice for breaking in, he planned to let Teng Fei and Ding Haitao use shotguns to clear out the enemies inside the house, while he and Guo Jing would provide cover with the Desert Eagles.

  Just as Cao Sen was formulating his tactics in his mind, the Eagle Brother inside the house made a new move. His eyes slowly changed color from light yellow to transparent and then to silver white, and actually emitted a faint silver glow in the pitch-black room.

  Zhu Jianjun obviously knew what Eagle Brother was going to do and immediately spoke up: "Teng Fei, what have I done to offend you that you want to fight me to the death?"

  "Zhu Jianjun, you know what you've done yourself, get your ass out here!" Teng Fei roared.

  With a whooshing sound, a white light flashed beside Eagle Brother, passing through the window and around the courtyard wall, following the sound of his flight straight to his face.

  A strong gust of wind hit him in the face, and Teng Fei instinctively ducked his head to avoid it. With a "pu" sound, an object struck his helmet. Teng Fei reached out to touch it, and surprisingly, it was a flying dagger about an inch long!

  Teng Fei's heart was shocked, and he hastily made a sideways flip followed by a horizontal roll, raising his gun to aim at the top of the wall.

  A flash of lightning cut across the sky again, and Teng Fei did not see any sign of the enemy. So where did the flying knife come from just now?

  Cao Sen, however, discovered an abnormal situation with the help of the lightning. He noticed that there was a strange energy flow in Zhu Jianjun's room, which was neither the common energy threads found in nature nor the threads representing power, but something he had never seen before. It extended from the room all the way to the back of the courtyard wall, where Teng Fei had just been. Cao Sen's heart skipped a beat - this wasn't good!

  "Take off, turbulent, leave there quickly!" Cao Sen shouted into the throat microphone.

  "What the heck is this?"

  Tsao cursed angrily in his earphones.

  "What's going on?" Cao Sen asked anxiously.

  "A knife, growing eyes like it's chasing me to stab, ah!" The last cry of his soaring tone was accompanied by pain, apparently he was injured.

  Damn it, special ability! The enemy is using superpower to attack Teng Fei. Cao Sen wants to help his brother, but he can't use his own special power in the dark. He flicks his eyebrow and jumps out of his hiding spot, picks up a shotgun on the ground, opens the tactical flashlight, and suddenly a snow-blue light beam illuminates the backyard.

  Kuo Ching shouted: "Ts'ao Sen, you're crazy! Turn off the flashlight!" As he spoke, he fired his rifle repeatedly in the direction of the enemy to suppress any possible shots at Ts'ao.

  Cao Sen didn't have time to dodge back into the house, using his tactical flashlight to illuminate that strange energy flow and find its source. His eyes locked onto a pistol shell on the ground, focusing his mind to see the gravity acting upon it. He superimposed dozens of segments of gravitational lines, suddenly making the shell jump up, flip over in mid-air, and shoot into the energy flow with a whoosh.

  Eagle Brother reacted quickly, dodging the shell that attacked him and recalling the flying knife that attacked Teng Fei to spin around and protect himself.

  Cao Sen's heterodyne continuously controlled the empty shells on the ground, drawing arcs and flying into the enemy's hiding house through the window one after another. The speed was not much slower than that of bullets, catching the enemies in the house off guard and making them scream and howl.

  Eagle Brother remained calm, manipulating his flying knives to spin around the window frame, blocking the incoming bullets. The knives and bullets occasionally collided, producing a crisp clanging sound, splashing out bright red sparks, as if igniting fireworks at the window, which was quite a sight.

  Next to him, Guo Jing was stunned. He knew that Cao Sen could see the hidden ghosts, but he didn't know that Cao Sen could control objects. After a moment, he came back to his senses. Isn't this the best time to attack? Guo Jing called up Teng Fei and Ding Haitao, all three of them holding shotguns, quickly approaching the room, at the same time opening the tactical flashlight on the shotgun, suddenly pointing the muzzle towards the inside of the room.