Chapter Summaries

Jiang Yan Hai learned that a CIA action team was coming for him and prepared the villa estate for an attack. As the team began setting up surveillance interference, snipers, and a drone near dusk, he waited for the assault to begin.

• Jiang Yan Hai learned from his contacts at home that a CIA action team had entered the Golden Triangle and assured them he could defend himself.
• The CIA action group planned a drone reconnaissance, camera interference, a breach through the villa estate wall, and sniper support.
• Jiang Yan Hai warned Black Lion to increase patrols and keep everyone armed while Ma Yun Fei’s personnel were away on an operation.
• Jiang Yan Hai detected the CIA teams entering his warning range, then set up his firearms at a third-floor balcony overlooking their sniper positions.
• Near dusk, the CIA snipers began taking position, a drone circled overhead, and external operatives prepared to interfere with the perimeter cameras.

Jiang Yan Hai let the CIA operation proceed, then used Er Dan to detonate bombs planted around the villa and the enemy’s surveillance and sniper positions. The attack devastated the CIA teams as they breached the perimeter, while the Blood Wolf members were left stunned by the blasts.

• Jiang Yan Hai stayed with Inov without warning Blood Wolf, and the CIA commander ordered the operation to begin with two vans approaching the villa.
• When Jiang Yan Hai’s phone alarm sounded, he kicked Inov aside as the CIA triggered interference and bombs exploded beneath several surveillance cameras.
• The CIA commander ordered the operation to continue, and two assault teams blew holes in the perimeter wall while a drone launched toward the villa.
• Jiang Yan Hai ordered Er Dan to detonate the remaining bombs, killing or severely injuring snipers, assault operatives, and a drone operator.
• The Blood Wolf members were stunned as the twelve CIA ground assault operatives were hit by bombs just after entering the estate.

After bombs crippled the CIA operation, the commander ordered a retreat while Jiang Yan Hai pursued the surviving operatives. He tracked their groups toward the highway and prepared to intercept them.

• An explosion cut off the CIA command room’s screens and communications, and a wounded drone-team member reported that Jack had been killed by a bomb.
• The CIA commander ordered an immediate rescue for the drone team, the destruction of evidence, and a withdrawal from the area.
• Jiang Yan Hai sent Red Fox, Vulture, and Bob Lee to search the planted bombs and then rushed to the drone pilot’s location.
• Jiang Yan Hai tracked the retreating CIA operatives without revealing himself and spotted eight people in three vehicles heading toward the highway.
• Jiang Yan Hai told Er Dan to monitor their communications and jam any satellite signals as he sped ahead to intercept them.

Jiang Yan Hai intercepted the enemy convoy after Er Dan altered its evacuation route, trapping eight men on an isolated road. He disabled their lead vehicle and held them at gunpoint as they argued over whether to flee, while Ma Yun Fei’s convoy was on its way.

• The commander activated a level-one emergency evacuation plan after his vehicles lost satellite signal, and Er Dan altered the route in the plan.
• Jiang Yan Hai learned where the convoy was headed, drove ahead, and set up an ambush on an old road.
• Jiang Yan Hai fired a 12.7-millimeter round into the first vehicle’s engine, stopping all three vehicles without killing anyone.
• The commander opened the car door to test the sniper, and Jiang Yan Hai’s next shot tore through the windshield and back seat.
• The trapped men debated whether to wait or scatter, and one team member began a countdown to run.

Jiang Yan Hai held the surviving CIA team members at gunpoint after killing their commander and contacted headquarters about the prisoners. Headquarters declined to take them, and Black Lion arrived with a squad to secure them.

• The commander ordered his team to stay inside their vehicles and surrender if approached, after a sniper shot killed a team member who tried to flee.
• Jiang Yan Hai called headquarters and reported that he had captured seven CIA personnel, including the operation's commander.
• Headquarters told Jiang Yan Hai it could not take the prisoners and advised him to gather whatever intelligence he could.
• About half an hour later, Black Lion arrived with half a squad and vehicles belonging to Ma Yun Fei's men.
• Black Lion's squad disarmed and restrained the CIA personnel, and Jiang Yan Hai came down from the hillside.

Jiang Yan Hai captured the CIA attackers after his plan nearly wiped out their assault force, then returned to the base with Blood Wolf and the prisoners. Ma Yun Fei went to consult others about the captured CIA personnel, while Blood Wolf thanked Jiang Yan Hai for saving them.

• Jiang Yan Hai identified himself to the CIA commander, ordered the prisoners taken away, and had their vehicles destroyed.
• Jiang Yan Hai returned to the cleaned-up base, where Red Fox reported that seven surveillance personnel had survived and the other injured fighters were unlikely to live.
• Ma Yun Fei asked Jiang Yan Hai how to handle the prisoners, and Jiang Yan Hai told him to consult others before Ma Yun Fei went to contact them.
• Black Lion, Inov, Bob Lee, Red Fox, and Vulture thanked Jiang Yan Hai for saving Blood Wolf, and Black Lion offered to follow his lead in future operations.

After the CIA attack, Jiang Yan Hai and Black Lion agreed to cooperate rather than abandon Ma Yun Fei’s job. Jiang Yan Hai then ordered Er Dan to identify promising underworld figures in the Golden Triangle Special Zone while continuing the search into Pantheon’s website.

• Black Lion decided that his mercenary group would stay on the job and rely on Jiang Yan Hai, who promised to cooperate and protect them.
• Jiang Yan Hai considered helping Ma Yun Fei stabilize his power to make the area more secure and limit the CIA’s ability to act.
• Jiang Yan Hai ordered Er Dan to analyze and monitor underworld figures in the Golden Triangle Special Zone, focusing on people with principles, judgment, resilience, and weaknesses.
• Er Dan estimated the analysis would take nearly ten days, so Jiang Yan Hai asked it to distribute the work across Botnet servers.
• Jiang Yan Hai ordered the Botnet nodes to share the load covertly and devote full capacity to the analysis whenever they were not scanning Pantheon’s website.
• After issuing the orders, Jiang Yan Hai rested, confident that there would be no danger that night.

Jiang Yan Hai proposed that Ma Yun Fei unite the Golden Triangle Special Zone’s underground forces and control the city, offering to help him build a new organization. Ma Yun Fei agreed, leaving Jiang Yan Hai to help identify trustworthy people while Ma Yun Fei gathered information about his inner circle.

• Ma Yun Fei thanked Jiang Yan Hai and asked how to improve his position.
• Jiang Yan Hai advised Ma Yun Fei to unite the city’s underground forces and restrain them, making the city safer while securing his own base there.
• Ma Yun Fei admitted he did not know how to begin, and Jiang Yan Hai offered to find candidates and guide him in forming a new gang.
• Ma Yun Fei agreed to the plan and promised to provide whatever assistance Jiang Yan Hai needed.
• Jiang Yan Hai asked Ma Yun Fei to gather information on the people he trusted most, while Ma Yun Fei reflected on Third Master Bai’s disappearance.

Jiang Yan Hai began his mission in the Golden Triangle and met Yun Qing, a malnourished girl trying to buy medicine for a festering wound. After buying the medicine and giving her money, he went to a hospital, where he found a grieving father holding his unconscious daughter, Lili.

• Ma Yun Fei told Jiang Yan Hai that the CIA would not harass them for the time being, and Jiang Yan Hai began his mission after receiving two suitable targets.
• Jiang Yan Hai met Yun Qing on a chaotic street and learned she needed medicine to treat a festering wound.
• Jiang Yan Hai bought medicine for Yun Qing and gave her ten US dollars before she ran off.
• Jiang Yan Hai drove to a hospital and found a man sobbing beside the wall with his unconscious daughter, Lili, in his arms.

Jiang Yan Hai rescued people he considered suitable for building a gang and offered them money and a choice in exchange for helping him take control of the city’s underworld. Nine days later, eight men stood before him and pledged to follow his lead.

• Jiang Yan Hai gave a desperate father one hundred thousand dollars to save his sick daughter, then left without asking for repayment.
• Jiang Yan Hai gave Yun Qing ten dollars and told her to leave the dangerous street.
• Jiang Yan Hai rescued a captured man and woman from a gambling den and told them he wanted them to help control the city's underworld.
• Jiang Yan Hai gave the rescued couple ten thousand dollars and a week to decide whether to join him.
• Nine days later, Jiang Yan Hai met with eight men in a KTV, and they pledged not to hesitate when he needed them.

Jiang Yan Hai instructed eight men to help Ma Yun Fei bring the city’s criminal groups under their control and establish an organization governed by rules. He left after explaining his hopes for a safer city and asking them to alert him if outsiders arrived, leaving the eight men to decide how to proceed.

• Jiang Yan Hai told the eight men to follow Ma Yun Fei and form their own organization, which he initially named Black Star.
• Jiang Yan Hai urged them to use their control of the city’s dark forces to enforce rules, protect businesses, and reduce chaos.
• One of the men suggested calling the group Soaring Ambition, and Jiang Yan Hai told them the name mattered less than their goals.
• Jiang Yan Hai handed the eight men thirty-six rules and revealed that he had been a CIA agent who defected and wanted warning if outsiders entered the city.
• Jiang Yan Hai promised to bring Ma Yun Fei to help the eight men, then left them to discuss their next steps.

Jiang Yan Hai helped establish Black Star by giving its eight members rules and information, then brought their files to Ma Yun Fei so he could decide whether to recruit them. Ma Yun Fei resolved to investigate the men and saw them as trustworthy allies who could help him gain control of the city.

• The eight members of Black Star discussed why they had joined and agreed to follow its thirty-six rules and identify one another by numbers.
• Jiang Yan Hai listened as the group swore to uphold the rules, then sent them information after receiving word that Black Star had been established with its leader’s position left vacant.
• Jiang Yan Hai gave Ma Yun Fei files on the eight men and insisted that Ma Yun Fei investigate them himself.
• Ma Yun Fei reviewed the files and concluded that the men and their close associates could become loyal, influential subordinates.
• Ma Yun Fei thanked Jiang Yan Hai and promised him and Black Lion a place in the city if they ever needed one.

Ma Yun Fei investigated the people Jiang Yan Hai recommended and agreed to help Yun Tao and his sister Yun Qing. After giving Yun Qing money for her brother’s treatment, Ma Yun Fei left them to seek help while Jiang Yan Hai explained to Black Lion why joining Ma Yun Fei’s group could offer them a safer life.

• Ma Yun Fei finished investigating the candidates and went to Jiang Yan Hai to arrange helping them, beginning with Yun Tao.
• Jiang Yan Hai told Ma Yun Fei that Yun Tao had been injured and robbed, and that his sister Yun Qing had begun selling herself to support them.
• Ma Yun Fei and Jiang Yan Hai found Yun Qing in an alley, where Ma Yun Fei offered her money and asked why she was selling herself.
• Yun Qing said her brother was sick and led Ma Yun Fei, Jiang Yan Hai, Black Lion, and Inov to her home.
• Jiang Yan Hai told Black Lion that joining Ma Yun Fei’s group could spare Yun Qing and Yun Tao from the dangers of their current lives.
• Ma Yun Fei returned after leaving money for Yun Tao’s treatment, and Jiang Yan Hai praised him for handling the situation well.

Jiang Yan Hai’s plan helped Ma Yun Fei recruit eight men and reshape the territory around his home through protection fees, security, and violent enforcement. Ma Yun Fei gained control of nearly half the city and turned local businesses into a network of informants.

• Jiang Yan Hai reassured Ma Yun Fei about waiting for the injured man, while Black Lion wondered whether Jiang Yan Hai’s apparent impatience was deliberate.
• Ma Yun Fei quietly helped the eight men resolve their problems over nearly half a month, following the approach Jiang Yan Hai had predicted.
• Ma Yun Fei armed the men and sent them to collect protection fees while promising local businesses safety and help against extortion.
• Ma Yun Fei ordered the men to wipe out a small-time leader and all sixty-two of his followers, and the police removed the bodies the next day.
• Ma Yun Fei expanded his control over nearly half the city and gained the cooperation and information of local shopkeepers and innkeepers.

Over two months, Ma Yun Fei’s gang stabilized most of the Golden Triangle Special Zone, improving security and trade while Jiang Yan Hai and Blood Wolf trained his trusted men. When Kahun’s people challenged Ma Yun Fei for territory in the mountains, Jiang Yan Hai and the mercenaries finally got a mission.

• Ma Yun Fei’s gang took control of three-quarters of the city, strengthened its ranks, and kept a low profile as trade and the special zone government’s economy improved.
• Blood Wolf’s people helped train Ma Yun Fei’s trusted men while Jiang Yan Hai spent his free time exercising and reading.
• Red Fox told Jiang Yan Hai that Kahun’s people were fighting Ma Yun Fei for territory in the mountains.
• Jiang Yan Hai agreed to go with Red Fox, and the eager mercenaries prepared for their first mission in two months.

Jiang Yan Hai agreed to join Ma Yun Fei’s operation against Kahun after recognizing a connection to a murdered friend. He warned Ma Yun Fei against torturing captured undercover officers, and Ma understood why after reading Kahun’s torture record.

• Technician repeatedly defeated Red Fox and Vulture at poker and bomb disposal, leaving them resentful of his skills.
• Jiang Yan Hai told Ma Yun Fei he would join the mission against Kahun and said they would leave on foot the next day.
• Jiang Yan Hai warned Ma Yun Fei to kill captured undercover officers quickly rather than torture them, then revealed that a friend and the friend’s family had been killed by a Mexican drug lord.
• Jiang Yan Hai said the drug lord had later died more miserably, then left the meeting as Ma Yun Fei and Black Lion confirmed the operation would begin the next day.
• Ma Yun Fei read Kahun’s file and learned that Kahun had tortured an Anti-drug Police officer for at least forty-five hours before killing him.

Jiang Yan Hai and Blood Wolf’s team prepared their weapons and tactics for a surprise attack against Kahun’s forces. Black Lion told Jiang Yan Hai that after the mission they might go to the Republic of Evia to investigate a man who could make dirty bombs, and the team finished gearing up for their departure after midnight.

• Jiang Yan Hai and Black Lion organized weapons and ammunition in the armory as Blood Wolf’s people joined them.
• Black Lion invited Jiang Yan Hai to join the sniper teams, but Jiang Yan Hai chose to enter the battlefield with the main force and stay alongside Black Lion.
• Black Lion assigned White Headed Eagle and Hummingbird’s teams to locate and eliminate enemy snipers, while the others split into two combat teams.
• Black Lion told Jiang Yan Hai that the team might go to the Republic of Evia after the mission to pursue a possible job involving William and dirty-bomb technology.
• Jiang Yan Hai and the others changed into jungle camouflage, armed themselves, and prepared to leave after midnight.

Jiang Yan Hai prepared to join the Blood Wolf members on a mission to kill Kahun, while Ma Yun Fei promised to guard his quarters and support the team. After the mercenaries shared details about the families and partners they might leave behind, they set out before dawn for the target area.

• Jiang Yan Hai cleared his quarters, warned Ma Yun Fei to keep everyone out, and said Kahun was as good as dead.
• Jiang Yan Hai returned to the armory and insisted on joining the Blood Wolf mission despite Inov's objection.
• The Blood Wolf members joked about their combat gear and spoke about the families and partners they might leave behind.
• At two in the morning, Black Lion woke the team, and the members checked their weapons and equipment.
• Ma Yun Fei gave Black Lion a satellite phone and sent the thirteen-person team away in four vehicles toward the river entrance.

Jiang Yan Hai kept pace with the team as they advanced through the jungle toward their target. Three kilometers from the destination, he detected and cleared a chain of booby traps, then took point as the group continued.

• Jiang Yan Hai matched the team's pace while Red Fox and Inov traded insults over the comms.
• Black Lion ordered the team to maintain radio silence as they advanced toward the target through the rainforest.
• Jiang Yan Hai stopped the group after detecting a concealed tripwire near Black Wolf Balek.
• Jiang Yan Hai found and secured several booby traps, warning the team that their enemies seemed to know they were coming.
• Black Lion accepted Jiang Yan Hai's offer to lead, and the team passed the traps in single file with Balek marking the danger for those behind.
• Red Fox asked how Jiang Yan Hai had spotted the traps, and Jiang Yan Hai explained that he detected the repellent scattered around them.

Jiang Yan Hai led the team to the enemy camp and organized a cautious infiltration after spotting its defenses. As dawn broke, Carlos’s drone revealed key targets, including a 23-millimeter anti-aircraft gun that Jiang Yan Hai volunteered to destroy.

• Jiang Yan Hai detected enemy sniper teams, hidden sentries, and remotely controlled bombs, then recommended waiting until dawn to attack.
• Black Lion agreed to let Jiang Yan Hai command, and Jiang Yan Hai assigned the snipers to overlapping firing positions and split the others into two groups.
• The two groups reached their positions as the sky brightened, while Carlos launched a drone to scout the camp.
• Carlos spotted a machine gun and a 23-millimeter anti-aircraft gun, and Jiang Yan Hai said he would destroy the anti-aircraft gun.