The man in the green Beijing Guoan uniform kicked open the security room door on the second floor, punching the control panel and ripping out two wires, causing a surge that fried the entire system.
A professional robbery gang couldn’t have done better.
“Everybody down! Hands on your heads!” shouted “Adi-King” in broken Chinese.
He rushed into the crowd. Guards closed in from all sides. He didn’t want to wrestle with them — one suplex would snap their spines. Instinctively, he yelled the command he’d always used during anti-terrorist operations, before emptying his submachine gun at terrorists.
The shoppers screamed, ducking down and covering their heads.
“Talk about being cooperative.” “Adi-King” was quite satisfied with the anti-terrorism awareness of the Chinese crowd. During missions in Europe, he often dealt with panicking hostages who wouldn’t cooperate.
However, his satisfaction lasted for just a second before he saw a pretty girl in front of him, not only crouching but also holding up her wallet as if presenting a treasure.
Damn it! They thought it was a robbery!
The ground floor descended into chaos. Guards converged from all directions, while a bunch of muscleheads scattered in different directions. A wall of balloons was released, drifting upwards, while someone on the second floor scattered paper dandelions, originally meant for a Qixi Festival celebration — now they floated like little parachutes in the air. Someone else threw glow sticks into the crowd, and the large floral centerpiece fell, exploding into thousands of silk flowers that hung suspended in the air like a sea of petals.
The elite team from the Facilities Department was having quite a good time. It was a simple mission after all—they just had to draw the guards to the ground floor, disable the monitoring system, and leave the rest to the team member with the purest bloodline. Their job was simply to play with the guards for five minutes.
They didn’t notice that the truck they’d abandoned in the rain was trembling as it slowly started up again, heading toward the main entrance of the building. The wipers were off, so the rain on the windshield obscured any view of the driver inside.
On the rooftop, Chu Zihang stood amidst the torrential rain, holding the “Flower Delivery” box. The Runda Building was forty-six stories tall, reaching a height of 210 meters. From the edge of the rooftop, everything below looked tiny, as if he were detached from the rest of the world.
Lonely. Vast.
Chu Zihang let his body tilt forward, falling straight down.
In freefall, he reached into the box and pulled out the sword. The flower petals scattered, and the divine sword, Murasame, screamed as it cut through the air.
On the 21st floor of Building A, security guards had blocked every entrance, from the stairwell to the elevators. At Tang Wei’s command, they all mobilized. On paper, Millennium was a security company, and they were professionals—eighty or ninety of them, none of whom were pushovers. The building’s alarms were already blaring, and in theory, the attackers shouldn’t be able to get up here, even if they were armed. The guards didn’t understand why Tang Wei was so on edge. Besides, the bank was on the ground floor, and the 21st floor housed only their security company—full of tough guys, the air thick with sweat and smoke. Any would-be bank robbers would hardly prioritize this place.
“Hey, hey! Someone’s jumping!” one of the guards shouted, pointing outside.
Most of the people noticed a figure flash by outside. Almost immediately, they heard the sharp whirring of a tightened steel cable, followed by the creaking of gears. A huge black figure ascended, and standing in the rain was the sunglasses-wearing delivery man, holding a sheathed long sword. He unfastened the rappel harness around his waist, letting the empty flower stems fly off into the wind.
This was his direct route. While he had rappelled down, the Facilities team had already activated the suspension platform used for cleaning the glass curtain wall. The platform ascended while Chu Zihang descended, using the rappel harness to slow himself. The result was a perfect touchdown.
It seemed laborious, but was in fact straightforward. This was the optimal invasion route that Norma had deduced after analyzing the entire structure of Runda Building. The chaos on the ground floor was simply to obscure the real purpose of the mission and to control the suspension bridge, while distracting the bulk of the security guards below.
Four minutes and forty seconds remained. Chu Zihang only needed to sweep through the 21st floor and retrieve the documents within that time. In the underground garage, the Panamera was already running. The Facilities team was sitting in the driver’s seat, blocking off the parking entrance. Traffic was jammed on the western road, with red lights everywhere, while the eastern road had been cleared. Once Chu Zihang returned to the ground, he could leave immediately.
Time was absolutely under control, and the plan was flawless—each step connected seamlessly to the next.
The guards stared in astonishment as the delivery man pulled out a device like a stun gun, placing it on the surface of the tempered glass. Sparks flickered, and the entire pane of glass vibrated at a high frequency before shattering.
Chu Zihang breached the 21st floor, and the guards had no time to think—they drew their stun batons and rushed him. Two guards stepped forward in unison, swinging at Chu Zihang’s head. By martial arts school standards, these were elite-level moves—enough to take down three or five men. But that was against people. And their opponent now… could hardly be called a mere “person.”
Chu Zihang suddenly accelerated. Before the batons could come down, he was chest-to-chest with both guards. He placed his hands on their chests, paused for a moment, then exerted force. His chosen martial art was Tai Chi—soft force repelling the two men, who weighed over 150 pounds each, making them stagger back and collide with the walls on either side. Chu Zihang then hooked the necks of two more guards, seemingly lightly, and spun around. The spinning motion sent both of them flying, each crashing into another guard. The guards were stunned—there had been ten of them, and six were down in an instant, with the attacker not even fully engaging; his sword was still in its sheath.
A whole team of guards rushed in from the corridor—reinforcements who had no idea what was going on. They were full of vigor, assuming they were dealing with a petty thief. It was one thing to rob a bank and scare some tellers, but this thief had the nerve to rob a security company full of tough guys.
Chu Zihang frowned slightly. This group would cost him some more time. Just then, he heard an ethereal song, like a chant from an ancient monk. An unseen domain spread across the room, and every guard’s skin began to seep a blood-like red. Their hearts pumped violently, sending large amounts of blood throughout their bodies, instantly multiplying their physical abilities. They didn’t even realize the change; they simply charged at Chu Zihang with all their strength.
Yanling: King’s Servant, Sequence No. 28—a domain that enhances the physical abilities of living beings. In ancient times, dragons used this Yanling to inspire loyalty among humans and even beasts, enhancing them into an army.