Inside a Mediterranean-style villa on the island of Hawaii.
A middle-aged man in a bathrobe stood by the sea-view window, holding a satellite phone.
His face was pale, and his eyes were filled with a sinister aura.
He said coldly, "My son's injuries cannot be left like this."
"You know he's nominally my nephew, but in reality, he's Huang Dongcheng's only bloodline!"
"Now he's neither human nor ghost, and even advanced foreign technology is helpless. You want me to stay calm for the sake of the bigger picture?"
"If your son were castrated, could you stay calm?"
Though his voice wasn't loud, it was filled with resentment and ferocity.
It startled the naked Caucasian beauty lying on the bed behind him, who shivered and pulled the covers tighter.
She muttered in her foreign tongue, "Why would it be cold in Hawaii?"
Huang Dongcheng didn't look back, his eyes flashing with murderous intent. "Do you think I want to do this?"
"I want him to pay with his life!"
"Don't worry, this won't involve you. I've hired purely foreign mercenaries."
"They should have already entered the country. Before I return, that little beast named Li Chonglou will surely die!"
With that, Huang Dongcheng hung up the phone.
His eyes blazed with killing intent.
At the same time, night fell over mainland China.
A private jet landed silently at Yong'an Airport.
Four foreigners disembarked simultaneously. The leader, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Westerner, had a deep frown on his brow and exuded a chilling aura.
They received their cases from the ground crew, changed into casual suits, and put on sunglasses.
Instantly, their imposing presence was concealed, making them appear ordinary.
They then headed towards two separate exits of the airport.
"Jerry, meet me in the west of the city after leaving the airport. Someone will provide us with weapons," the leader said into his Bluetooth earpiece as they neared the exit.
As soon as he finished speaking, two figures darted out from the sides.
One on each side, one of them instantly pinned the speaking man to the ground.
The other, slightly slower, exchanged a few blows with the man's accomplice before kicking him down.
"What are you doing? Let me go! I'm an American. Do you want to die?" the blonde man's eyes flashed with panic as he yelled fiercely, speaking fluent Mandarin.
He tried to struggle free but was held down firmly, completely unable to move.
The person pressing on his back and twisting his arm was Zhou Jiao, a top operative of the Xiong Ying (Strong Eagle) force.
"Old Zhou, west exit is handled!" At the same time, Zhou Jiao's colleague's voice came through his earpiece.
"Finished. Knock them all out, but don't alarm the public," Zhou Jiao said sternly.
*Whack! Whack!*
With two palm strikes, the two men immediately lost consciousness.
When they woke up, they found themselves in a narrow room, securely bound to chairs. Before them loomed Zhou Jiao's enlarged face.
A questioning voice echoed, "Wilens? Ranked eighty-second on the international assassin list. I'd really like to know who gave you the guts to dare come to my Shenzhou continent?"
"Who exactly are you?" Wilens' pupils contracted sharply, and his body hair stood on end.
He had always heard about the mysterious East being a forbidden zone for mercenaries.
But he had never taken it seriously, nor given it much thought.
In his opinion, the East was nothing if he willed it.
But only at this moment did he suddenly realize that his every move had been monitored.
He was taken down before he could even exit the airport.
His lifelong pride and arrogance now felt like a joke.
"You're not qualified to know who I am. Your three accomplices have already been arrested," Zhou Jiao said with a cold smile. "What awaits you is legal punishment."
"However, do you know why I brought you here instead of the National Security Bureau?"
Hearing this, the furrow on Wilens' brow eased slightly, and his eyes lit up. "Are you going to make a deal with me?"
*Slap!*
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Jiao slapped his face hard, knocking his head to the side, and spat on him. "Deal with your head, my ass!"
"You idiot, I brought you here simply to beat you."
"A mere barbarian daring to cause trouble in my Huaxia? I think you've eaten the heart of a bear and the gall of a leopard."
"Confess who your mastermind is, and I'll leave you with a complete corpse."
"Otherwise, with my Huaxia's five-thousand-year history, we're not just about benevolence."
Zhou Jiao didn't hold back with this blow. He was already a top operative in the special forces, with individual combat prowess not inferior to Li Chonglou's at present.
A single kick could collapse a brick wall, so one could imagine the force of this slap.
One side of Wilens' face was numb, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He spat out a broken incisor.
His eyes were filled with fear and despair.
Is this how China deals with things?
He truly must have lost his mind before. No wonder none of the top ten assassins on the dark web dared to accept this mission, which had been posted for nearly a week.
The bounty had increased from one million dollars to ten million dollars.
He thought he had struck gold, but now it seemed he had received a death warrant.
"I really want to tell you, but on the dark web, we can't know who posted the mission..." Wilens clearly didn't have much backbone, his tone full of sincerity, the ferocity in his eyes completely gone, looking as pitiable as a lamb.
Unfortunately, it didn't evoke any sympathy from Zhou Jiao.
*Bang!*
Before he could finish speaking, a heavy punch landed in his stomach.
*Ugh...*
This punch forced out the unfinished seafood Wilens had eaten yesterday, vomiting it onto the floor.
It emitted a pungent, fishy smell.
Zhou Jiao stepped back, his face filled with contempt.
He knew very well that the dark web missions hid the poster's identity, and it was difficult to track with current network technology.
But that didn't stop him from using it as an excuse to beat someone.
Whether he confessed or not was irrelevant.
As long as he could beat him to his heart's content.
He truly loved the mission that Fan Da had given him. Compared to his comrades protecting Li Chonglou's family and friends, he was having the most fun.
"Speak, who was your assassination target?" This was purely a question asked with full knowledge of the answer.
"Li... Li Chonglou..." Wilens quickly wiped his mouth and replied.
*Bang!*
Another kick landed directly on his face, breaking his nose. Snot mixed with tears and blood instantly smeared his entire face.
Wilens fell face-first, tears streaming down like a bursting dam.
"Still daring to kill? You deserve a beating," Zhou Jiao said after kicking him, cracking his neck with a *crunch*, still unfulfilled.
Wilens was completely broken.
But he didn't dare to say another word.
He cried out in his heart.
"Brother, I'm an assassin...
What else would an assassin do if not kill people? Are they here for tourism?
You're asking questions you already know the answer to, and no matter how I answer, I get beaten. This is simply torture."
He now deeply regretted his impulsive click on the dark web mission.
And that large upfront payment. If he had a chance to do it all over again, he would return every cent of the deposit to the scoundrel who posted the mission, and then tear out his trachea.
*Crack!*
While regretting, a piercing pain suddenly surged through him, almost making him faint.
Three of his fingers were lightly crushed by Zhou Jiao's foot.
The pain from his fingers was unbearable, and even as an assassin, no matter how cold-blooded he was, he couldn't endure such heart-wrenching agony.
"Still pretending not to speak? You deserve to be beaten!" Zhou Jiao's voice was like a demon from hell, devoid of any anger, but it terrified Wilens so much that his eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
Seeing this, Zhou Jiao kicked Wilens' head hatefully and cursed, "Damn it, he can't take a beating at all. He's far worse than the world's number one assassin that Fan Da caught personally ten years ago."
"With this kind of trash, he dares to accept an assassination mission in China."
"Take him to the National Security Bureau."
"Yes!" Immediately, two soldiers entered the room.
They glanced at Wilens'惨状 (miserable state) without any expression, as if it were commonplace.
One dragged a leg, and the other dragged the other, treating Wilens like a rag and dragging him out of the room.
The other three accomplices of Wilens fared no better.
They became training dummies for the Xiong Ying soldiers.
After all, after being cooped up in the mountains for several years, it was a rare and excellent opportunity to release their pent-up aggression. Who would want to miss it?
At this very moment, Li Chonglou was drinking tea in Ning Lang's room, his brow furrowed as he watched the video sent by Zhou Jiao.
He wasn't feeling pity for these assassins who came to kill him.
Instead, he felt pity for the person who posted the mission. If they saw this scene, he wondered what their reaction would be.
*Bang!*
Simultaneously, in the villa on the island, Huang Dongcheng couldn't contain his rage upon seeing the red "Mission Failed" prompt on the dark web, smashing the computer to pieces.
"How could this happen?"
"Why were they all annihilated in just two hours?"
"A bunch of useless idiots!"
Huang Dongcheng cursed fiercely, his eyes wide.
"Chairman Huang, please calm your anger. That's our motherland. Even the top ten assassins on the assassin list dared not accept this mission. It's normal for these pawns to be wiped out," a beautiful woman with a stunning figure, who was massaging his shoulders, comforted him.
"That's your motherland, not mine. I'm from Maple Leaf Country!" Huang Dongcheng snapped back.
A sinister glint flashed in his eyes. "I, Huang, will never suffer such a great loss. I don't believe that little beast has that much capability."
"Yeniao, how many years have you been with me?"
"Seven years..." the woman replied.
"How have I treated you?" Huang Dongcheng's eyes grew colder.
"Chairman Huang has been immensely kind to me. If not for you, I would probably have been sold into the mountains by now," Yeniao said respectfully, lowering her head.
"Very good. Since those useless foreigners are afraid to accept the mission, you go and kill him for me. This ten million dollars will be yours!" Huang Dongcheng raised his eyebrows. "You graduated from a martial arts school and have trained in Sanda and combat. You've been my personal bodyguard for seven years. This shouldn't be difficult, right?"
Yeniao was stunned at first, then a struggle appeared in her eyes.
After a few seconds of silence, her struggle turned into resolve. She walked in front of Huang Dongcheng and knelt on one knee. "My life was saved by Chairman Huang. Even if you asked me to die, I wouldn't hesitate."
"I will kill this person named Li Chonglou!"
"I will avenge the young master. If I fail the mission, I will commit suicide before Chairman Huang!"