The Dragon City Rises

From the rooftop of a twenty-story residential building.

Hou Guoyu hunched over as he ran to the railing. Unhurriedly, he opened the locking buckle at his waist, attached it to the descent rope, and dialed a number with the phone tucked between his shoulder and ear.

After making these preparations, Hou Guoyu didn't leave immediately. He even had the leisure to pop a fresh betel nut into his mouth.

A dozen seconds later, the call connected.

"Hello?" Gou Liuzi's voice sounded.

"The target should be gone," Hou Guoyu said casually. "I'm pulling out now!"

"Stay on the line, I'm listening," Su Tianyu replied.

"Got it." Hou Guoyu grabbed the rope, flipped over the railing with one hand, and dove downwards, beginning a rapid descent without hesitation.

Initially, the speed of the fall was practically like jumping off the building—incredibly thrilling and dangerous.

"Snap!"

Midway, Hou Guoyu didn't grip the buckle. Instead, once he was below the tenth floor, he began using his hands to drag the rope and control his speed.

When a person falls from a great height, the weight of their body, combined with the force of inertia, creates tremendous pressure. Controlling the speed of the descent with just one's arms requires immense strength in the arms and wrists, precise judgment of weight, and a strong mental fortitude. Otherwise, a loss of grip would be equivalent to jumping off the building, or gripping too tightly could easily cause the arms to be unable to withstand the speed of the fall, resulting in fractures or dislocations.

"Snap!"

After landing, Hou Guoyu released the buckle and used an electronic remote control to open the fixer at the top end of the rope. With a gentle tug, the rope came crashing down.

While bending over to pick up the rope, Hou Guoyu continued to observe the situation in the compound. He noticed that his opponents had just rushed to the entrance and were still at least two or three hundred meters away from him.

"Damn, too slow!" Hou Guoyu gathered the rope, slung it diagonally across his chest, and muttered into his phone, "They panicked. They're slower than I thought."

"Don't rush, stall them a bit," Su Tianyu immediately replied. "They're not like the Qing Yi Bureau. Many of their staff members are temporarily assigned and weren't previously involved in military intelligence."

Hou Guoyu, with his gun strapped to his back, turned and ran, crossing the street, as he saw his opponents about to approach him.

"There! He's there!!"

Sure enough, the investigators who rushed out immediately gave chase after seeing Hou Guoyu wearing combat gear, a headscarf, and a long gun on his back.

"Tap, tap!"

Seeing their reaction, Hou Guoyu began to flee quickly towards the alleyway diagonally across from him.

"Chase him! Catch him!" Zhou Xian, following behind the crowd, roared with bulging eyes, "Hurry!"

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Gunshots rang out as some of the investigators opened fire. But they were carrying pistols, which had a very limited range. Moreover, Hou Guoyu kept running close to the buildings on the side of the road, his figure appearing and disappearing, making it impossible for them to hit him.

"Things are pretty intense! Are you okay? Do you need me to send someone to pick you up?" Su Tianyu's voice sounded on the phone.

"Small scene, no problem." Hou Guoyu glanced back at their position, suddenly stopped, raised his long gun in a split second, and, chewing on his betel nut, pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

"Crash!"

"Bang!"

"Crash!"

"…!"

Hou Guoyu aimed at the opposite side, pulled the bolt, and fired three shots in a row, wounding two people.

In fact, he had held back. Otherwise, with his shooting accuracy and the weapon he was currently using, firing at this distance would have been a massacre, and it would have been difficult for the dozen or so opponents to get close.

The gunshots echoed through the street. Two wounded investigators fell to the ground, wailing in agony, attracting more staff from the compound to surround them.

"Someone, hurry, someone!" Zhou Xian, staying behind, waved his hand and shouted, "Get the long guns!"

This time, half of the twenty or thirty people who rushed out of the compound carried long guns.

Seeing the situation, Hou Guoyu felt that the time was right. He immediately continued to sprint forward and slipped into the alley on the right.

After entering the alley, Hou Guoyu ran all the way to an off-road vehicle that had been prepared in advance. He got in, started the engine, and sped towards the other exit.

He wasn't driving too fast, and the alley was straight with no side roads, so Hou Guoyu was also observing the rear while driving. He saw Zhou Xian and the others had rushed over and were firing at him.

After putting about two hundred meters between them, the off-road vehicle reached the other exit, which was blocked by two diagonally parked commercial vehicles.

Seeing this, Hou Guoyu's face showed no surprise. Under the hail of gunfire, he carefully scanned the inside of the car to confirm everything was in order before pushing the door open and rushing out.

Taking two steps out of the alley, Hou Guoyu fled to the left and disappeared into the night.

A few minutes later.

Zhou Xian led his men to the entrance of the alley, where they found the car Hou Guoyu had left behind, as well as the two off-road vehicles blocking the way.

"Huff, huff!"

Zhou Xian gasped heavily and kicked the wall, cursing, "Too damn arrogant! I swear, if I don't subdue this gang of bastards from The Dragon City, I'll resign immediately!!"

That's right, Zhou Xian's mentality had completely collapsed. The sentence he had said most often since arriving in The Dragon City was, "Too arrogant!"

The suspect, Ah Shui, had been silenced right under his nose. And this time, just after forcing Yang Gang to talk, this important suspect + witness had been killed, even under the full protection of the investigation team!

If it were a regular department handling the case, Zhou Xian might not have been so angry. But what kind of unit was he leading? It was a special investigation team established by the Grand Council, equivalent to a royal envoy sent to the provinces by the emperor.

But such a team was finding it impossible to move an inch in The Dragon City, and even felt helpless and terrified! For example, someone had gathered outside the investigation team's compound earlier, which had made many staff members unconsciously panic.

Zhou Xian's face was dark. After a long silence, he glanced at the off-road vehicle abandoned by the bandits. "Call the technical team to investigate the clues! Notify Team Two to control the rooftop where the bandits fired the shots! Hurry!!"

Five minutes later.

"Squeak!"

A car stopped at the investigation team's compound. Tan Mingchao pushed the door open and rushed out, his eyes staring in shock at Yang Gang's shattered body on the ground. He gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice, "Damn! The Tongji Association is really something. They can kill someone even under the full protection of the investigation team!"

"What about Yang Gang's family? Should we continue with that over there?"

"The biting dog is gone, what's the point of continuing!" Tan Mingchao, also mentally unbalanced, replied, "Tell… tell the people who took the benefits to return the money to me immediately!"

…

Ten minutes later.

Wearing casual clothes and riding a bicycle, Hou Guoyu said into the phone, "The bait has been laid. The rest depends on their reaction."

"Well done, mwah!" Su Tianyu replied happily.

"So damn disgusting!" Hou Guoyu's skin crawled.