"I didn't ask you to charge with me. Just retreat as planned."

The Second Team Leader, "Liang Shanshui," picked up the handgun of a fallen law enforcement officer next to him, firing with both hands to suppress the enemy while whispering, "I'll buy some time so the Executive can hold on a bit longer. Maybe we can hold out until reinforcements arrive."

Seeing several enemies aiming in their direction forced to retreat behind cover by his gunfire, he hunched over, about to dash out, but Han Li Xiao Wang suddenly tackled him from behind.

"Bullshit! What bullshit are you talking about!" Xiao Wang's forehead veins bulged with rage. "There are no reinforcements coming. There's no Saint-level in our branch. By the time the Saints from Honglin City get here, it'll be too late. Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. You're just trying to die, using yourself as cannon fodder to get the Executive out."

Liang Shanshui swore, slamming his elbow into Xiao Wang's chest, trying to push him off. "It's just one dead team leader. Headquarters can send a replacement in no time. But if a Level 5 Executive dies, Saints aren't a dime a dozen. The new Executive's term will be long, and they might not even want to stay. Do you even know how important a stable, long-term Executive is?"

This guy was weakened by poison, but he burst out with enormous strength, and Liang Shanshui couldn't shake him off.

* * *

Rat-tat-tat! A rain of bullets poured down, piercing the car shell and embedding themselves in the hood.

Liang Shanshui immediately retracted his elbow, pressed Xiao Wang's head down, and roared, "Your cousin sold his three-year-old son for a few tens of thousands when you were in high school, just for drug money. Your cousin's wife committed suicide by drinking pesticide because of it. He's a disgrace to your family. Everyone grits their teeth when they mention him. You even wanted to kill him with a knife when you turned eight."

Wang Xiao'er froze, then erupted in anger. "Don't bring up that piece of trash. It's all ancient history. Are you trying to provoke me? Yes, you succeeded in provoking me." As he spoke, he raised his arm and fired a few shots haphazardly towards the pig farm.

"Your cousin is trash, but have you ever thought that he didn't want to be trash either?" Liang Shanshui's voice suddenly lowered.

"You know about drugs. They're getting more advanced, more terrifying. Once you're hooked, you can't quit, not even in death. Compared to the drugs now, * * * * * * is just candy, nothing at all. There are many, many more pieces of trash like your cousin on the border. How many people become a disgrace to their families? How many children are sold? Our job is like controlling water; we plug the leaks wherever they appear. But once the Executive dies, the dam breaks, and the flood will submerge the entire Nanming City, the entire Guizhou Province, flowing towards the whole country. There will be more and more pieces of trash like your cousin."

Wang Xiao'er was stunned. Gunfire continued to sound. The enemy's firepower continued to pour down, and Liang Shanshui's speech became faster and faster.

"Last year, you took third place in the Transcendence level fighting competition in the Qinghe branch. The Executive asked you if you wanted to develop in another city. You refused. Why did you refuse? This is your hometown, so you don't want to leave. You want to stay and protect it. But this is also my hometown!"

Wang Xiao'er's eyes were red, but his hands loosened.

"If you choose this path, don't be afraid to die. When your level goes up, you'll have to die anyway." Liang Shanshui kicked him away and darted out like an arrow from a bow.

"Bang, bang, bang!" Gunshots rang out one after another. Dust erupted around Liang Shanshui's feet, kicked up by the bullets.

Soon, his body was splashed with water. He had been hit by bullets. Liang Shanshui paid no attention, stubbornly running towards the darkness in the east. He was a Water Ghost; ordinary physical attacks couldn't harm him.

"Cover the Captain!" Wang Xiao'er roared, his eyes red. He poked half his head out, gripped his gun with both hands, and continuously pulled the trigger.

He knew very well the Water Ghost's passive ability had a limit. It couldn't last forever, like holding your breath. You always had to breathe. Once you were continuously hit by bullets, you'd be riddled with holes the moment you took a breath.

And the Captain had been poisoned and wasn't at his peak.

"Bang!" A loud noise that drowned out the sound of the handguns echoed in the night. A sniper rifle! Wang Xiao'er, familiar with firearms, felt a chill in his heart. Immediately, he heard the sound of flesh separating and someone falling in the distance.

Wang Xiao'er's expression changed drastically.

He suddenly turned his head. Liang Shanshui had fallen in a pool of blood. His knee had been torn apart by a large-caliber bullet, leaving only a layer of skin.

A scout. This was a Fallen scout.

Wang Xiao'er understood the sniper's intention. The sniper's mission was to suppress everyone at the firefight, ensuring that the Spiritualists from the Psionic Union could successfully surround and kill the Executive.

"Save him, save him!" Wang Xiao'er roared with a ferocious expression and stumbled out without hesitation.

The sniper hiding in the shadows sneered and aimed at Wang Xiao'er.

He didn't kill the Water Ghost; he was ambushing the rescuers. He was sure that the official Law Enforcer would save his teammate.

Morality, friendship, justice—they were always the fatal weaknesses of this group of heroes.

Wang Xiao'er was just a Level 2 scout. He couldn't see the sniper's exact location in the darkness, and he couldn't judge the trajectory of the bullet. But with the sniper rifle's speed, even if he predicted the trajectory, a Level 2 scout's physical fitness wouldn't allow him to avoid the sniper bullet, especially since he was still weak and tired.

But Wang Xiao'er calmly accepted his fate. He was there to be a target.

He hadn't greeted his teammates behind him, not even with eye contact, but Wang Xiao'er believed that the moment he was hit, his teammates would rescue Liang Shanshui.

Also, only by being hit could he determine the enemy's location through the bullet's trajectory. He would return fire before he died. If he was lucky, he could kill the sniper. If he was unlucky and missed, he could force the sniper to hide, creating time for his teammates to rescue the captain.

"Bang!"

The dark, slender muzzle spat flames, and the large-caliber bullet left the barrel spinning at high speed.

At the instant the gunshot rang out, Wang Xiao'er's body stiffened as he staggered and tried his best to dodge. It was the agility of a scout.

But at that moment, a hand pushed him forward from behind without warning.

The high-speed spinning bullet seemed to touch an invisible, soft wall of air, spinning with all its might but unable to break through that layer of defense.

* * *

The law enforcement officers and official Wayfarers looked at each other in dismay.

A few seconds later, a Level 2 Fire Master couldn't bear it any longer. He held his gun with both hands, muzzle down, and slowly approached the pig farm.

When he was less than five meters away from the narrow entrance, he threw a fireball inside, illuminating the scene of the simple pigsty. The ground was covered in scattered limbs and arms, and thick blood spread along the pitted cement floor. There wasn't a single complete corpse.

"They're... they're all dead," the Fire Master murmured.

"Then, what about the reinforcements? It was reinforcements, right?" Someone asked, the last part of the sentence spoken carefully.

The Fire Master threw another fireball inside and scanned the area, shouting, "They're gone!"

It was as if it was an illusion.

Suddenly, his gaze froze. Next to Liang Shanshui's broken thigh was a dropped tube of light golden "Life Source Fluid injection?!"

Wang Xiao'er was both surprised and delighted, shouting, "It's reinforcements! It's official reinforcements!"

Only their own people would leave behind such a precious Life Source Fluid. The private Lawful organizations and the Qinghe clan experts wouldn't be willing to part with it. That mysterious expert was not only reinforcements, but also a big shot, a big shot for the low-level Wayfarers.

"It really is reinforcements."

The surviving official Wayfarers and law enforcement officers breathed a sigh of relief. Their faces, covered in blood and sweat, revealed the joy of escaping death and the relief of being spared.

Wang Xiao'er stumbled over to his captain, grabbed the Life Source Fluid, and injected it into the jugular vein.

Liang Shanshui, who had lost too much blood, quickly woke up. The first thing he said when he opened his eyes was, "Damn, I didn't die."

"Reinforcements have arrived, reinforcements have arrived, and very strong reinforcements," Wang Xiao'er said. But he was interrupted by Liang Shanshui waving his hand. "I wasn't unconscious just now. I only passed out after the beasts in the pig farm were all killed."

Wang Xiao'er smiled broadly and said, "You're about to die, and you're still so steady. Did you see the captain? Who was the rescuer?"

Liang Shanshui shook his head. "They were facing away from me. I didn't see."

"Then how did they disappear?"

"I was a bit dazed. I didn't see clearly. Maybe it was the blood loss?"

"But where did the reinforcements come from?" Wang Xiao'er calmed down. "We don't have that kind of big shot in our city, do we? Could it be from the branch? But there wouldn't have been enough time."

Even the Elders couldn't have arrived in such a short time.

The two were silent for a moment.

"Don't think about things you can't figure out. Anyway, the Executive is saved. We'll naturally know after the operation is over," Liang Shanshui said.

Wang Xiao'er nodded vigorously.

Liang Shanshui suddenly said, "Those words from before seemed a bit cheesy. Forget about them. I don't want to hear anyone mention them in the branch tomorrow."

"Don't worry. I'm not Yuan Ting from the Taiyi Sect."

* * *

East of the pig farm was a large expanse of wasteland, overgrown with weeds and muddy.

The Poison Chaser was a swordsman with dark skin. His appearance was actually quite handsome, but years of wind and sun had roughened his skin, making his handsomeness less obvious.

Besides his dark skin and roughness, the only feature on his face was a broken eyebrow; only half of his left eyebrow remained.

At this moment, the Poison Chaser was wearing a vine armor emitting a faint green light and wielding a silver longsword. He was entangled in battle with a mantis humanoid.

The Mantis Man was three and a half meters tall, robust and agile. Two one-meter-long sharp horns grew from his wrists, and he pierced, flicked, and chopped, making it difficult for the Poison Chaser to fight.

In terms of close combat ability, Spiritualists were no match for swordsmen, but the heavily scented Gu poison spread in the air.

Fortunately, as a Level 5 Executive, he still had some assets. He had two Saint-level items. The Wood Elf Armor could restore stamina, detoxify, and enhance defense.

The sword was a treasure capable of cutting through iron like mud, easily slicing through the Mantis Man's hard armor.

But the Poison Chaser was still in a life-or-death situation. Besides the Mantis Man, there was also another Spiritualist by his side. This two-bit Spiritualist was short and resembled a rat. His stubby claws twirled a half-foot-long black bamboo tube.

The poison darts, enhanced by the Spiritualist's power, "popped" like rain.

The Poison Chaser parried the Mantis Man's attacks while guarding against the poison dart's sneak attacks, as if walking a tightrope. A slight misstep would mean his demise.

And even so, exhaustion was only a matter of time.

The two Spiritualists' tactics were extremely insidious. One attacked and the other covered. The Rat cover only ambushed and never got close. Once the Poison Chaser tried to escape, the Rat cover could immediately stop him.

And if the two engaged in close combat, it would be easy for the Level 5 Executive from the Nanming Branch to escape.

"Hehe, Poison Chaser, the information you received wasn't wrong. We do have a large batch of drugs coming in, but the date isn't today; it's the day after tomorrow." The Rat spat out two poison darts, his smile cunning. "If we kill you, the drugs can quickly spread in Nanming City, be sent to various parts of Guizhou Province in the shortest amount of time, and then flow to the whole country. Then it will be difficult to stop this batch of drugs."

The Poison Chaser's face was cold. "You won't succeed."

The Mantis Man thrust with both swords, laughing mockingly. "You're just stubbornly resisting. You're already at the end of your rope. Who can save you?"

A trace of pain flashed across the Poison Chaser's face. He clenched his teeth so hard that his chewing muscles bulged. But his swordsmanship didn't seem disordered, and his steps were still smooth.

Swordsmen had an iron will. Their fighting spirit would never collapse.

"Crack!"

A sudden sound of bone breaking came. The Mantis Man and Poison Chaser, who were fighting, retreated two steps in tacit agreement, glancing out of the corner of their eyes.

This glance made the Mantis Man's liver and gallbladder crack.

A plain-looking youth had appeared next to the Rat at some point. He was holding a dripping head in his hand, connected to a small section of cervical vertebra. Red blood dripped down.

The Rat's headless corpse collapsed to the side, the bloody neck stump pouring out large amounts of warm blood.

A suddenly appearing mysterious expert had effortlessly killed a Level 5 Spiritualist.

And they didn't even know when this mysterious person had approached.

The Mantis Man retreated again and again, his expression extremely frightened, and roared, "Who are you? Who are you!"

He was a native of Guizhou Province. As a backbone member of the Psionic Union, he knew the Saints of the Qinghe branch like the back of his hand. And with this mysterious person's level, he was probably a Level 6. Even in the entire city, there were only a few such figures, and in a province, there were only a handful.

"I'm just a Fire Master from Songhai, my Spirit Realm ID is Sanqing Daozu." Zhang Yuanqing's body burst into flames, illuminating the darkness. Flames spewed from his palm, solidifying into a long knife.

The next second, he turned into a straight stream of flames and crashed into the Mantis Man. Just as the Mantis Man was about to dodge, his pupils suddenly dispersed, revealing a deep vortex.

He had been hit by Star Illusion.

"Puff!"

The line of fire brushed past, and the head with tentacles rolled up and flew off, landing with a thud.

The headless corpse crashed down, the stump of its neck charred, and small amounts of blood flowed out.

"Are you a colleague from the Songhai branch?" The Poison Chaser held his longsword, not lowering his guard.

Zhang Yuanqing said "Mhm," and in front of the swordsman Executive, he openly took off the Yin-Yang robe.

But in the Poison Chaser's eyes, the Songhai Fire Master who called himself Sanqing Daozu was just dusting off his clothes. Although the swordsman had the insight to see through illusions, the level suppression still made it a little difficult for the Poison Chaser to see clearly.

Zhang Yuanqing couldn't openly use the Night Wanderer skills. The Songhai branch only had one Night Wanderer: Yuan Kuntianzun.

"You don't look like a Fire Master at all," the Poison Chaser said in a deep voice. As a swordsman, he had that much insight.

"You don't understand enough. You can ask around. There are two Fire Master disgraces in Songhai. One is Tianxiaguihuo, and the other is me. Your people are here." The Poison Chaser raised his eyes and saw Liang Shanshui and the others running over in large strides. When they saw that the Executive was unharmed, their faces were filled with joy.

The Poison Chaser immediately went up to them, the first words out of his mouth: "How many brothers were sacrificed?"

"Four brothers were sacrificed, and six brothers from the Public Security Bureau were sacrificed," Liang Shanshui said sadly.

The Poison Chaser's eyes bulged fiercely.

"If it weren't for this Executive!" Wang Xiao'er looked at Zhang Yuanqing gratefully. "We would have all died."

Liang Shanshui bowed deeply. "Thank you for the Life Source Fluid, Executive. Our branch will pay you back when we save up enough money. Which branch are you from?"

"Songhai branch, Sanqing Daozu." The Poison Chaser took the initiative to step forward, finally letting down his guard, and deeply gazed at the youth who called himself the Fire Master disgrace. "How did you end up in our backwater?"

He didn't seem to like expressing emotions. His expression was still stiff, but the gratitude in his eyes was clearly visible.

"This isn't a backwater; this is a respectable battlefield." Zhang Yuanqing stretched out his hand and smiled. "I came to hunt down a wanted criminal. I just reported to the Nanming branch and heard Captain Xuehai Wuya say you were ambushed, so I came to take a look."

"So that's how it is!" The official Wayfarers from the Nanming branch suddenly understood, resolving their last doubts, and the smiles on their faces became warm.

Fortunately, this senior Executive came to handle some business. Otherwise, the Nanming branch would have suffered a catastrophic disaster tonight. Then, they silently wondered, who was Sanqing Daozu?

At this time, the phone in Liaison Officer Wang Xiao'er's pocket rang. He took it out and saw that it was "Xuehai Wuya calling."

When they were cleaning up the battlefield, they had already confiscated the magical artifacts that blocked the signal. Now, communications had been restored.

The Poison Chaser took the phone. "Give it to me."

At the same time, a faint shadow swept over and attached itself to Zhang Yuanqing's back, whispering in his ear, "Master, there's another evil profession nearby. It seems to be an acquaintance of yours."