Ambush

A fight to the death had always been as swift as thunder. From Yaoguang's sudden lunge and strike, to skewering the demon nine times as he drove it back, to the moment both hit the ground, retreated five paces, and his palm strike slammed into its jaw to land the final fatal thrust—the entire sequence had been fast to the absolute extreme. Moreover, right after completing that fatal strike, Yaoguang followed up with an instant kick squarely to its midsection, sending the demon's burly frame flying several meters away, trailing blood that quickly stained the corridor red. Dead on the spot. Only now did the two bodyguards and the other man entrusted with heavy responsibilities by the demon finally react. "Boss!" "President Xu?!" Amidst their cries of alarm, the trio reacted with blinding speed. The two bodyguards immediately reached inside their coats for their guns. The man who had been conversing with the demon, seemingly set to take over Lei Ao's duties, let out a low growl. With the roar of fist force, he lunged violently at Yaoguang from behind. He was... A Martial Master as well. However, judging by the explosive force behind his punch, he was still a step shy of fully perfected bones and sinews, let alone matching a demon. Yaoguang paid him no heed at all. Just as one bodyguard drew his firearm and began bringing it to bear, Yaoguang lunged forward. Evading the punch crashing in from behind, his sword slashed toward the bodyguard pointing a gun at him with unbelievable speed. *Chrrk!* A flash of cold light. The bodyguard's right hand, held level with the gun, was cleanly severed at the wrist in a spray of blood. The hand holding the gun fell alongside the weapon. The sight widened the bodyguard's eyes in utter terror and disbelief. Yet before he could let out a scream, the sword that had severed his wrist wheeled sharply, sweeping across his throat like lightning... No! It wasn't a sweep! It was a throw! The razor-sharp blade whipped past, tearing open the bodyguard's throat and flinging free in the very same motion. *Shiu!* The faint whistle of cutting through air sounded in unison with the crunch of steel biting into bone. The short sword flew straight through the throat of the other bodyguard who had also been aiming at Yaoguang. The entire sequence was not only blindingly fast, but seamless and fluid as flowing water. *Whirrr!* From behind came the hum of displaced air whipped up by another punch. The Martial Master was closing in hard. Yet Yaoguang still did not turn around. Power erupted beneath his feet, and his body shot forward like a lithe leopard. Leaping into the air, he brought one knee up and drove it viciously into the chest of the bodyguard whose throat had just been skewered. *Crack!* Countless ribs in the bodyguard's chest instantly shattered. Under the combined momentum of the lunge, leap, and knee strike, the burly man went flying backward. And as the man flew back, Yaoguang's right hand closed with pinpoint precision around the hilt of the short sword sticking through his throat. *Shhk!* Blood spurted violently. Aided by the opposing momentum, the short sword pulled free effortlessly. Midair, Yaoguang twisted his torso sharply and slashed like lightning at the Martial Master in hot pursuit. *Not good!* The Martial Master, throwing another punch, keenly sensed the lethal danger. His face changed drastically as he tried to abort and shift his attack. In that instant, he realized that failing to use their numbers to severely wound the killer right away meant that facing this terrifying powerhouse alone was nothing short of suicide. With that thought, his charging form violently recoiled in retreat. But... Too late! *Chrrk!* The short sword, purchased at a hefty price of several hundred thousand, was sharp beyond belief. Even though the man tried to change his move immediately, his punching arm couldn't be pulled back in time. Yaoguang's spinning backslash sheared clean through the forearm at an angle from the wrist. "Ah!" Retreating in panic, the man stared at his severed arm and cried out in terror. Due to the delay in nerve signals caused by the brain's shock-induced self-preservation, his scream carried far more terror than pain. Yet Yaoguang's expression did not waver in the slightest. The moment his spinning slash brought him back to the ground, he locked into a bow stance to steady his center of gravity, crouching low like a compressed spring. The compression lasted less than a second before the spring abruptly snapped straight. Gripping the sword with both hands, power exploded beneath his feet. He shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, instantly closing the distance to the man trying to flee the fight. Furious and panicked, the man thrust his left hand out, forming a sword-finger to stab straight at Yaoguang's eyes. Yet as Yaoguang charged, he accelerated once more upon touching down. Before the strike could land, he tilted his head aside to evade it and barreled right into the man's frame. More precisely... Gripping the sword with both hands, he thrust it into the Martial Master's body first, then slammed his own weight into the man's chest, utterly shattering what little balance his retreating body possessed. Before the man's body could even be sent flying, he gripped the sword in both hands and jerked it sharply upward... *Squelch!* The upward slash split open the flying Martial Master's entire chest. Blood, broken ribs, and viscera were dragged upward into the air along the sword's path. *Thud!* The Martial Master—who was about to take over Lei Ao's position and oversee the transport of people from Dayu to Qingyu Industrial Park—slammed face-up onto the floor with a dull thud. Disemboweled. He ceased breathing on the spot. Listening to the commotion gradually spreading outside and the footsteps of figures rushing toward the sounds of fighting, Yaoguang wiped the blood off his blade against one of the corpses. He glanced at the bloodstains on his own clothes... And swapped out his jacket. After comparing his attire with that of the four men, he stripped the jacket off one of the bodyguards and threw it over his shoulders. Then, one by one, he collected the handguns and ammunition magazines from both bodyguards and stowed them away. Only then did he rise and head toward the location of the final demon. The final demon was in the opposite building. More specifically, the main building. Under Yaoguang's Perception, it had already begun moving within a small area. He briefly cross-referenced the building layout he had observed... *Heading downstairs?* Since trouble had erupted in the two-story building that served as an infirmary, the demon would naturally want to investigate. That made things easier. Yaoguang headed straight for the main building. There were several guards at the entrance of the main building, and an internal guardroom housed over a dozen more. At this moment, all of them had rushed out, on high alert. Farther away, even more guards had been alerted, patrolling in every direction. Yaoguang made a rough estimate. Across the entire Qingyu Industrial Park, there were no fewer than a hundred armed guards. Every single one was armed with firearms, and many carried military-grade rifles. For now, however, he saw no heavy firepower like machine guns or infantry fighting vehicles. Now that the entire Qingyu Industrial Park was stirred up and people were milling about, moving about in total silence as he had before was no longer an option. Yaoguang took a deep breath, remaining calm as he approached the main building from an angle with the fewest people. The ground floor was heavily guarded, so... After observing for a moment, his gaze settled on an open window on the second floor. The window was nearly five meters above the ground, and beneath it was a bare, sheer wall devoid of handholds or footholds. Theoretically, climbing it was impossible for an ordinary person. Yet... To a Grandmaster who had reached the pinnacle of the human body, any surface could become a point of leverage. This was precisely why, even though Grandmasters could not withstand gunfire, their sheer deterrent power rivaled an armed force of hundreds. More than ninety percent of fortresses could not keep a Grandmaster from infiltrating. Yaoguang narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on a brick about four meters up. Backing up slightly, he sprinted forward to build momentum, kicked off the wall with his right foot to launch into the air, and drove his sword decisively into the brickwork. As his body began to fall, he flicked the blade upward. Most of the red brick snapped and shattered. Once he landed, he sheathed his sword, stepped back, and took another running start. This time, after leaping into the air, his right hand gripped the shattered notch in the wall. Power surged, and by sheer arm strength alone, he hoisted himself up, caught the windowsill, flipped over, and slipped into the second floor. He touched down without a sound, surveying his surroundings and listening for any approaching footsteps. After a moment, he paused. According to his secret art, Perception, the final demon was on the move. Judging by its trajectory... *The staircase.* Yaoguang noted inwardly. He stepped out of the room. There were many offices on this floor, all with closed doors. He took a few strides to the stairwell, and before long, footsteps echoed from above. Judging by the noise, there were quite a few people. He looked around, quickly spotted a shard of glass, picked it up, and propped it at an angle near some mops and plastic buckets in the stairwell area. Due to the angle, anyone coming down from above would be unlikely to notice the glass immediately, and even if they did later, they wouldn't necessarily think anything of it. Yet through the glass, Yaoguang could clearly monitor the situation in the stairwell. Just as he suspected—less than five seconds after placing the glass, two men in camouflage carrying rifles were the first to descend, scanning their path as they moved. They were bodyguards. His target... Seemed to be waiting on the floor above while the area below was cleared. However, that wasn't the main point. The main point was the weapon held raised in both hands. "Snow Dragon Federation Type 11 automatic rifle?" ... The two elite-looking guards quickly reached the second floor. One looked down toward the lower flight of stairs while the other swept his gaze across the second-floor corridor. Their movements were not only professional, but their physiques were noticeably robust. In hand-to-hand combat, they were likely on par with top-tier Martial Artists. Seeing no one, one guard remained on guard while easing half his body into the stairwell and making an "all clear" tactical hand signal. Soon, a group of people escorted a two-meter-tall man in a sharp suit down the stairs. The moment he saw his target appear in the glass reflection, Yaoguang, temporarily concealed on the second floor, took a quiet breath. At this moment, to evade the guards, he was more than ten meters away. Yet as he crouched slightly and his vital energy erupted, he was like a leopard lunging for prey, crossing the ten-meter gap in an instant! One second! No, barely half a second! Just as the guard caught the faint whoosh of wind and rolled his eyes to react, a short sword drove like lightning through his left eye, piercing his brain and jutting out from the back of his skull. Before the corpse could even fall, Yaoguang seized the rifle gripped in the man's hands, its muzzle... Aimed straight at the group descending the stairs. "Look out!" A panicked shriek erupted. In the next instant... A dense burst of gunfire roared through the confined space of the stairwell! *Da-da-da-da!*