What?!
Hearing Song Hui's words, everyone else was startled and immediately looked over. A sheet of white paper had been stuck to the gate, with what seemed to be some words written on it.
"What's going on? When did this sheet of paper show up here?" Zheng Cheng's face darkened, and he roared, "How are you people doing your jobs? How can you let someone scribble all over the place?"
"No, no, I remember clearly. There wasn't any paper on the gate before. It suddenly appeared here." Song Hui felt a chill in his heart. "It definitely wasn't one of our people."
It appeared out of nowhere?!
Everyone present felt a chill rise from the soles of their feet. They were all powerful martial artists, yet they hadn't sensed a thing. Someone had suddenly stuck a sheet of paper nearby without them noticing.
If the other person had wanted to assassinate them, wouldn't it have been ridiculously easy?!
"Go see what it says." Zheng Cheng frowned deeply. He also felt that something was out of the ordinary. With his cultivation at the Martial Apprentice Ninth Heaven, it should have been impossible for him not to notice any movement at all.
And yet, he hadn't sensed a thing. It was extremely strange.
"Yes!"
Suppressing his fear, Song Hui stepped forward and read the words aloud: "Thank you all for your kindness toward me. To show my gratitude, I'm sending everyone at Black Bear Company a grand gift. I'm deeply grateful. Signed: Desolate."
A grand gift?!
Everyone exchanged glances, unsure what to say. What kind of grand gift was this? Had the other person really done all this just to thank Black Bear Company?
The problem was, Black Bear Company was a criminal organization. Its members committed every kind of evil, killed countless people, and destroyed countless families. They had never done a good deed. No one had ever sent them a grand gift or thanked them—not once.
"Who is Desolate?" Zheng Cheng asked.
Song Hui and the others shook their heads. "We don't know. We've never heard that name before."
"Damn it, this is bad! There's danger here. Run!" Suddenly, Zheng Cheng's hair stood on end. An intense sense of danger spread through his body, and the fear of death overwhelmed his instincts.
With a whoosh, every muscle in his body tensed. Like a raging polar bear, he charged toward the building's exit, carrying a howling gust of wind with him.
But it was already too late.
Boom!
At that instant, the timed micro nuclear bomb hidden at Black Bear Company exploded. Its force was equivalent to hundreds of tons of explosives, and it instantly blasted the entire Black Bear Company building to pieces.
Even the surrounding hundreds of meters were flattened. A shock wave of unimaginable power swept across the area. The air seemed to solidify, the earth trembled, and every window within several kilometers shattered.
"No, no, no!!!" Song Hui and the others screamed, their eyes filled with terror. But their reactions were nowhere near as fast as Zheng Cheng's. They were instantly buried inside Black Bear Company and blown to pieces.
Even though Zheng Cheng had reacted extremely quickly and was powerful enough, the explosion was still too terrifying. The massive shock wave injured him, and countless huge rocks fell from the sky—steel and concrete from the building, plunging from above like meteors and capable of smashing enormous craters into the ground.
Bang, bang, bang!!!
Several minutes later, Black Bear Company had been reduced to rubble. Broken chunks of buildings lay everywhere, and a huge crater marred the ground. The entire place looked like a ruin.
A figure struggled out from among the rubble. Blood covered his body, and he was badly injured. His face was twisted with rage. It was Zheng Cheng. As expected of a powerful martial artist at the Martial Apprentice Ninth Heaven, he had managed to escape with his life despite being caught in such a terrifying attack without warning. His survival instincts were formidable.
"Desolate!"
Zheng Cheng threw back his head and roared, so furious he could have burst a lung. "You dare blow up the Black Bear Company building? You dare commit such an outrageous crime? Do you think you can escape? Do you think you'll survive?"
"You're dead! Do you hear me? You're dead! No one under heaven or on earth can save you!"
"I swear I'll catch you, tear you to pieces, and wipe out your entire family!"
He had never been this angry. Someone had dared to target him and Black Bear Company, even planting a timed micro nuclear bomb and blowing up the entire company building.
This had never happened before. It was an unprecedented disaster.
This was a blatant provocation, a slap in Black Bear Company's face. It was an insult!
If Black Bear Company didn't retaliate and capture this Desolate, it would lose all face. They would never be able to hold their heads high in Black Moon City again.
And Zheng Cheng himself would be forced out because of this incident. He would suffer a major setback, and there was no way he could keep his position as supervisor.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!
Suddenly, more than a dozen pebbles flew in from afar, like sniper bullets. They tore through the air with a piercing whistle and terrifying force, instantly converging on Zheng Cheng's body.
"What? There are more attackers?!"
Zheng Cheng was stunned. He hadn't expected the culprit to still be here after destroying the entire Black Bear Company building—to stay behind and kill any survivors.
But he was, after all, a powerful martial artist at the Martial Apprentice Ninth Heaven. Even though he'd been caught in the explosion and lost most of his fighting strength, he still had some strength left. He was no ordinary person.
Bang, bang, bang!!!
His hands moved like lightning. In an instant, he threw nine punches, each carrying the force of ten thousand jin. They were terrifying, like an Explosive Bear Roar, and far more powerful than Xiong Batian's punches.
In an instant, the stones were smashed to pieces, and the force of his punches shot in every direction.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!
But the enemy's assault gave him no time to catch his breath. More than a dozen laser beams shot toward him, covering almost his entire body. Each one was aimed at a vital spot. If even one hit, he would certainly die.
"Bastard!" Zheng Cheng panted heavily as he did his best to fend them off. He darted aside, then leaped. His legs sprang like coiled springs, carrying him clear of the laser fire in an instant.
Before he could relax, a terrifying force suddenly struck, roaring like a fierce tiger. It was timed with exquisite precision, catching Zheng Cheng off guard and leaving him no chance to counterattack.
The punch slammed squarely into Zheng Cheng's chest, breaking three of his ribs on the spot and sending him flying like a scrap of paper, utterly powerless to resist.
"Who is it? Who are you? Is it you? Is it Desolate?!" Zheng Cheng screamed, overcome with grief and fury. Even now, he couldn't see a single person around him.
Even after being struck, he still hadn't seen who had attacked him. It was as if the enemy could turn invisible.
"That's right. I'm Desolate." A voice sounded from above.
Whoosh! A laser shot toward him.
"No, no, no!" Zheng Cheng was terrified. In midair, he had nowhere to go and nothing to push off against. He couldn't dodge. The laser arrived in the blink of an eye, and with a bang, his head was blown apart.
Zheng Cheng was dead!