Shi Qiang: No? How is he so fierce?!

Inside the black Passat, it felt as though all the air had been sucked away.

The unlit half of a Red Pagoda Mountain cigarette fell from Shi Qiang's mouth onto his lap, and he did not even feel its lingering warmth.

He stared fixedly at the small screen on the center console. On it, the black SIG Sauer P365 in Pan Han's hand was aimed steadily at Zhang Qi.

"Sniper! Sniper! Are you ready?!"

Shi Qiang grabbed the radio, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping rusted metal.

"Wolf Den, received. The target and hostage are overlapping; unable to establish a firing window! Repeat, unable to establish a firing window!"

The sniper's hesitant voice came through his earpiece.

It was over.

Those two words struck Shi Qiang's heart like chunks of ice.

Damn it, this had been a trap from the very beginning.

What bullshit Clearers' gathering? They had been after Zhang Qi's life from the start.

Otherwise, Pan Han would not have drawn his gun without warning—

At this distance, even if the sniper could fire, he would not be able to save him from the muzzle.

"Fuck!"

With that thought, Shi Qiang cursed aloud and slammed his fist into the steering wheel.

Inside the café, the gentle smile on Pan Han's face did not change in the slightest. Yet something else had seeped into that smile.

"Goodbye—Mr. Zhang Qi—"

He spoke softly, as though bringing the curtain down on a splendid play.

Zhang Qi's existence was an absolute threat to the Lord's arrival.

His influence in academia, that mind capable of calculating chaos models out of thin air, and his nonchalant attitude when facing the Lord—

All of it made him the most dangerous heretic.

Pan Han had originally thought that eliminating this heretic would require a carefully planned