The man with the hooked nose stared at the pile of explosives in the center of the hall, secretly clicking his tongue. This amount of explosives is enough to destroy the entire base, right?
He circled around and discovered a body behind the explosives—it was Li Congjing's father. The rest of those who died in the conflict had been cleared away, leaving only this particular corpse.
The man with the hooked nose squatted down and carefully examined the body and its belongings. He believed Ma Yi would seize the opportunity to take action.
Just as he expected, with approaching footsteps behind him, Ma Yi made his choice—to enter the hall.
He originally planned to ambush Lin Beichen and his companion, but his instincts told him that doing so was too dangerous. After all, Lin Beichen's Palm Thunder was already prepared, and in the darkness, he was no match for it.
So Ma Yi chose to enter a door with a barely visible outline quickly.
Meanwhile, the man with the hooked nose grew bolder after hearing Ma Yi leave, not realizing the gravity of the situation.
Thinking the two behind would take some time to arrive, he continued checking for any oversight around the corpse.
After finishing, he carried the body and randomly chose a door to enter.
Lin Beichen and Xia Luyao watched all of this from the side.
Xia Luyao couldn't help but ask, "Why not stop that man?"
Lin Beichen looked at the Divination Plate in his hand and softly said, "I just calculated the number of people involved this time, but the result from the Divination Plate is..."
"What is it?" Xia Luyao asked urgently.
"Seven," Lin Beichen answered calmly.
"Seven?" Xia Luyao said in confusion, "But there are already more than seven people involved."
Lin Beichen nodded, indeed it was true.
Counting the people brought by the man with the hooked nose, the number of participants indeed exceeded seven.
"So I guess this seven refers to seven factions," Lin Beichen explained. "And some are hiding."
Xia Luyao shook his head, expressing confusion, "I really don't understand why these factions are fighting over this base."
Lin Beichen waved his hand to remove the Talisman surrounding them; now that they started talking, the invisible shield that muffled sounds was no longer needed.
"Men die for wealth, birds die for food," he said calmly.
"Moreover, only their subordinates have come, not the big players themselves." Yet he still had doubts in his heart: since the man with the hooked nose and Ma Yi were not allies, what was the mysterious man's purpose in involving them both? Unfortunately, the mysterious man was dead, and this answer might remain elusive for a while.
Suddenly, a set of footsteps came, indicating someone's approach.
Lin Beichen and Xia Luyao exchanged a glance, then Lin Beichen pulled Xia Luyao into a room that had just remained unentered.
Shortly after they left, a figure appeared at the entrance of the base.
The person was covered in blood, with a sickly flush on his face.
That person was drenched in blood, with a sickly flush on his cheek, as if he had crawled out of the depths of Hell.
He gently licked the corner of his mouth, his eyes flickering with a mad light, making one's heart palpitate.
"What a pity Joseph died like this," he muttered to himself, wiping the firearm in his hand.
He suddenly turned back, revealing a bizarre smile at the surveillance camera, as if announcing his victory to the world.
"Bang—"
With a loud noise, he mercilessly shattered the camera.
His expression gradually returned to normal, with hands in pockets, as if everything that had just happened was merely a game.
"Joseph, you never thought you'd be finished so early, did you?" His tone carried indescribable meaning, as if mocking the fickleness of fate.
He casually chose a door, walked in, and disappeared into the dark corridor.
"Do these social parasites deserve to possess your wealth?" His voice was filled with disdain and contempt, as if venting his inner fury.
Asia tightly clutched his shoulder, gasping for breath, as if to expel all the air from his lungs.
His complexion was extremely bad, anger, sadness, and fear entwined, forming a twisted image.
The surrounding trees appeared eerie and terrifying in the night, but Asia dared not move lightly.
He leaned against a tree, took out emergency supplies from his backpack, and roughly treated his wounds.
Blood constantly seeped from the wound, soaking his palm and bandages in red.
Recalling the scene of that man easily killing their comrades, cold sweat broke out on Asia's forehead.
He, too, had crossed the threshold to be a strong man, yet at this moment felt unprecedented fear.
Asia pulled out a mini tablet from his pocket, quickly accessing the surveillance footage of the hall.
In the footage, that man just shattered the camera, showing a morbid smile. Seeing this, Asia's mood surprisingly calmed down. Though the man was strong, he was not an invincible presence; as long as he teamed up with the cold-faced man, they had a chance to kill him after all they had fought side by side countless times, their tacit understanding and trust were irreplaceable.
"I hope he's already gone..." Asia closed his eyes and silently prayed. However, just as he planned to rest here for a while, a discordant voice suddenly broke the night's silence.
"Hey, isn't this Asia?" The voice was full of provocation, making Asia's nerves instill tightness immediately, he instinctively tightened his grip on the gun in his hand, ready to act at any time.