Voodoo Doll

Twelve hours later,

inside Tai City's most famous hotel, the Lansikadun Seven-Star Hotel.

Fang stood in the bathroom, warm water pouring down from the showerhead and washing over his gleaming black skin. His physique was in excellent shape, like a professional athlete's, with every contour of his rippling muscles clearly defined.

The last time Fang Linyan had seen Fang, he had been suffering from three severe injuries!

First, he had taken a shield strike to the chest, breaking at least three ribs and caving in his chest.

That wasn't all. He had also been shot twice. One bullet had struck him in the abdomen, leaving a horrifying wound as big as a bowl. The other had followed a trajectory that defied the laws of physics and gone straight for his neck.

Fang had managed to dodge in time, but the bullet had still slammed into his shoulder blade, near his neck. The flesh had been mangled, and the bone was clearly visible.

But now, Fang's grievous injuries had mostly healed. His sunken chest had returned to normal, while his shoulder blade and abdomen bore the marks of stitches. They were visibly healing, with scabs already forming on the surface.

After his shower, Fang casually threw on a bathrobe and went to the sitting area of the suite. A lavish spread and a bottle of Romanée-Conti wine had already been laid out on the table. He poured himself a glass, then set to work on the exquisite food.

Fang ate quickly, but he didn't wolf his food down. Even when alone, he displayed impeccable aristocratic manners. It wasn't hard to infer that he had grown up in comfortable circumstances, given that he maintained such composure even in private.

Just then, someone outside rang the doorbell. Fang paused, then walked over to the door and asked,

"Who is it?"

The person outside replied politely,

"Sir, one of the dishes you ordered was Italian Cheese Chicken. It needs to marinate for eighty minutes before it can be prepared, so the flavor can fully develop. I'm here to serve it to you."

Fang thought back, then returned to the table to check the menu. Once he confirmed that he had ordered the dish, he went back to open the door. But he was a cautious man, so before opening it, he pressed one eye to the peephole and peered outside.

But as Fang closed one eye and put the other to the peephole, the carved tooth pendant around his neck suddenly gave a soft crack. A mass of fractures appeared across it.

A bone-chilling feeling abruptly swept over Fang. Then, on the other side of the peephole, he heard something shatter—and a shadow shot straight toward him at incredible speed!

In that instant, time seemed to slow dozens of times over. Fang let out a startled cry and jerked his head back. A long, thin steel needle pierced through the peephole and stabbed viciously toward him. If Fang had reacted even a tenth of a second slower, it would have punctured his eyeball and plunged deep into his brain.

His opponent had actually predicted that Fang was cautious and would check outside through the peephole. They had laid such a vicious trap specifically for him!

Even as Fang quickly leaned back, the steel needle chased after him like a venomous snake, coming within just two or three centimeters of his eyeball. Yet those few centimeters remained forever out of reach.

Seeing that the needle had lost its momentum and couldn't advance another half a centimeter, Fang felt a little relieved and began thinking about how to counterattack. But the tip of the needle suddenly spun, and a dense cloud of white mist sprayed out of it.

Fang's pupils contracted sharply. He wanted to curse! He could have avoided it if the needle had kept stabbing, or even if it had exploded into shrapnel. But its follow-up attack was a cloud of water mist. That left him utterly helpless.

The white mist had barely drifted across his face for a second before Fang rolled backward along the floor and got clear. He felt no pain at the moment. Instead, there was a faintly sweet smell in his nostrils.

Fang didn't have time to think it through, because the door exploded with a bang. A hail of gunfire followed!

Even after the bullets struck the floor and walls, they detonated in small explosions. Bowl-sized craters appeared in the concrete walls. They were clearly specially made.

After rolling away, Fang raced for the bathroom. Following his memory, he snatched up the damp bath towel and vigorously wiped his face. At the same time, he flipped his wrist, and a strangely shaped black pill appeared in his palm as if by magic. He swallowed it in one gulp.

Why was the pill strange? Because after Fang swallowed it, it let out a humanlike scream. It truly defied common sense.

Fang had rolled away, wiped his face, and taken the pill in one fluid motion. Clearly, he had plenty of experience dealing with ambushes like this. When he turned around, a Voodoo Doll made from animal bones and straw had appeared in his hand, its body wreathed in black smoke.

Fang slashed his wrist, and blood immediately trickled onto the Voodoo Doll. Then he flung it out of the bathroom, followed by a flashbang!

A blinding light filled the room.

Thirty seconds later, every one of the elite operatives who had rushed in—men trained through brutal special-agent drills—lay dead. At least half had been killed by their own comrades. The most terrifying thing about the Voodoo Doll was its ability to create illusions. The attackers had raised their guns and fired wildly, turning the comrades fighting beside them into riddled corpses.

The other half had died of heart failure, overcome by terror!

Only then did Fang rise from his hiding place in the bathroom. With a sneer at the corner of his mouth, he calmly changed into a suit. He even washed his hands and checked his hair in the mirror before picking up a suitcase and sauntering out. He looked every bit like a business executive on his way to a negotiation, completely composed.

But as Fang stepped past the shattered doorway and into the corridor, the sneer at the corner of his mouth froze.

Three people stood ahead of him with their backs turned. All three wore trench coats, their hats pulled down over their heads. They looked rather eerie.

The key point was that the Voodoo Doll he had unleashed was dancing right in front of them. Strange, dark gray-black wisps curled through the air, occasionally forming a contorted human face that screamed before slowly fading away.

But the three people were completely unaffected by the Voodoo Doll's mental corruption. They simply stood there in silence, like statues. Even Fang's arrival failed to attract their attention.

Suddenly, all three turned around, lifted their heads slightly, and looked at Fang!