The magician no longer hid, instantly unleashing his ability to its fullest, his bones crackling and popping as he said he would, to meet the collapse of his former faith in his strongest state.

The car finally drove out of the tunnel.

But as if out of control, it slowly stopped in the middle of the road.

Facing the car was a line of neatly arranged armored vehicles, packed tightly together, blocking the entire road, surrounded by soldiers armed to the teeth.

Looking into the distance, several dark muzzles pointed toward them from the roadside trenches, and a few tanks covered with camouflage nets, weeds, and shrubs lay quietly in ambush.

With a wave of his hand, the commander signaled a few soldiers forward. Instead of rushing to pull open the car door, one of the soldiers knocked on the driver's side window.

The remaining soldiers gripped their guns tightly, their expressions tense.

The car window quickly lowered, revealing a man's face. "What's the matter?"

Chen Ran's overly calm demeanor caught the inspecting soldier off guard. "Hello, there is a military exercise ahead. You cannot pass. Please show your identification. We need to check it."

"Is this your friend?" The soldier leaned slightly, staring at the person in the passenger seat. The person's posture was strange, leaning against the seat, a black cloak covering their head, a hand hanging down from the seat, motionless, with half of a broken cane lying on their lap.

"What is he doing? Why won't he show his face?" The soldier became wary.

Just as the soldiers raised their guns, intending to forcibly inspect the car, they seemed to receive some kind of order through their earpieces. The leading soldier paused, then gave Chen Ran a strange look, took a few steps back to look at the car's license plate, and then waved his hand, signaling the other soldiers to make way.

"Have the car in front move out of the way," Chen Ran said to the leading soldier.

This time, the soldier shook his head and said in a firm tone, "There is a military exercise ahead. Please turn around immediately." He paused and added, "That's an order."

"Buzz—"

Chen Ran's phone rang at that moment. After seeing the information displayed on the screen, Chen Ran no longer hesitated and began to turn the car around. Just before entering the tunnel, a strange sound suddenly came from overhead, and the sand on the ground was kicked up.

Several armed helicopters flew past at extremely low altitude. Chen Ran squinted. There were four in total, in pairs, with various weapons hanging under the short wings on both sides of the fuselage.

Realizing that the helicopters were heading toward his target checkpoint, Chen Ran didn't linger and drove into the tunnel.

On the way back, he passed a cliff and parked the car at a dangerously close distance to the edge. Chen Ran reached out and removed the cloak from the magician's head.

Under the cloak was a face with wide-open, unseeing eyes, bulging out exaggeratedly, as if witnessing an unbelievable scene before death. The mouth was wide open, a broken triangular blade piercing through the mouth and out the back of the head, fixing him to the passenger seat, blood still dripping down the seat.

Chen Ran frowned as he looked at the blood in the car, then turned sideways and, trying not to touch the idiot, pushed open the passenger door.

Then he pulled out the triangular blade, leaned back, raised his right foot, and kicked the magician hard. The body fell out of the car, rolled a few times, and fell off the cliff.

Chen Ran closed the car door, ready to go back.

But after driving only a few dozen meters, he stopped again. The window rolled down, and a broken cane was thrown out of the car, followed by a hat with a big hole in it. Then the car started again and sped away.

At the same time, inside a remote checkpoint in the mountains, a dozen bodies lay scattered.

There were no bloodstains on the bodies, only dark black handprints on their necks. These people had been strangled to death by an unimaginable force, a hand suddenly appearing from behind.

The bodies were all in the rooms. From the outside, the checkpoint was very quiet.

A charmingly dressed woman leaned against the wall in the checkpoint's best vantage point, her legs crossed on the table, exposing excellent curves, as languid as a boneless snake.

The Dancer squinted, waiting for the magician to return.

The two had a clear division of labor: the Dancer would cause trouble here, trying to lure out Crimson, while the magician would ambush on the road, minimizing their danger.

Facing Crimson, the Dancer didn't think it was a wise choice.

They were lunatics, but so were those people.

Looking at the time, the Dancer suddenly felt uneasy. "Why hasn't there been any movement for so long?" She wanted to contact the magician, but worried about ruining his plan.

"Hmm?"

The Dancer's ears twitched slightly. She heard an unusual sound—the sound of wind, a sound of rushing through the air, howling toward her!

In the Dancer's incredulous gaze, a missile descended from the sky with a dazzling tail flame, blasting the guard post where she was into a huge fireball.

That wasn't the end. Soon, a second, a third… explosions echoed throughout the entire checkpoint, and the raging fire devoured everything.

"Falcon reporting, target 7 has been destroyed. Repeat, target 7 has been destroyed!"

The pilot of an armed helicopter hovering in the air was reporting on the radio. Not far from their helicopter, there were three other helicopters hovering.

After receiving instructions from above, the helicopter pilot issued the latest instructions to the other three helicopters: "Number 2 and Number 3, join me in emptying our ammunition, repeat, fire coverage, empty our ammunition!"

"Number 2, roger!"

"Number 3, roger!"

Instantly, countless tongues of fire shot toward the already riddled checkpoint, and rockets poured out of the rocket nests. Explosions rose and fell within the checkpoint. If the previous missile attack had already destroyed this inconspicuous checkpoint, then this fire coverage completely obliterated it.

After emptying all the ammunition, Number 1, the command helicopter, issued the final instruction: "Number 2 and Number 3, return to the temporary base with me to resupply. Number 4, remain in place, maintain fire watch, and provide cover to guide ground forces into the scene."

"Number 2, roger!"

"Number 3, roger!"

"Number 4, roger! Remaining in place, fire watch!"

Not far away, a soldier poking his head out of a tank couldn't help but scratch his tank helmet after seeing the continuous explosions and resulting sea of fire, and carefully swallowed. "Good heavens, what kind of evil did the people in there commit? I'm saying, Captain, why the hell do we even need to go up there? Their ashes have been scattered eight times over."