"Bang!"
A plume of blue smoke drifted past.
Everyone outside the office gaped in shock.
Inside, the old man nearly dropped the teacup in his hand.
Mo Ran stared blankly at the hole shot through his palm.
"I said I don't have time." Wang Wen held up a tiny silver pistol that looked like a toy.
The Intelligence Department members on duty rushed forward. Some fetched medicine, others cleaned the wound, and still others bandaged it.
Amid the flurry of activity, they shot Wang Wen complicated looks.
Mo Ran let the others fuss over his bloodied palm, seemingly unable to feel the pain. He stared at Wang Wen in a daze. "Why did you use a gun?"
"Oh, this." Wang Wen calmly put away the silver pistol. "Given my outstanding contributions to the Guard Department, and the fact that I was once attacked by a knife-wielding thug, they specially issued me a mini pistol for self-defense."
Mo Ran continued to press him in a daze. "Why did you use a gun?"
Wang Wen looked puzzled. "???"
"This was supposed to be a contest of fists and feet. Even concealed mechanisms and hidden weapons would've been acceptable." Mo Ran suddenly raised his voice and shouted at Wang Wen, "Why use a gun?!"
"It was the quickest way." Wang Wen bent down and picked up the shell casing. Worried it might be hot, he even blew on it before explaining to those around him, "The Guard Department issued these bullets to me, and every single one has its own serial number."
As he spoke, he walked past Mo Ran and dug the bullet out of the wall opposite. "I have to keep it safe. If I lose it and something happens later, I'll be held responsible."
After securing the bullet and turning around, he found Mo Ran standing right in front of him, though he'd been far away just moments earlier.
Wang Wen narrowed his eyes and waited.
Then Mo Ran's voice rang out, cold as an icy wind. "You look down on me."
Wang Wen shook his head and drew his pistol, chambering a round.
This time, he pointed the muzzle straight at Mo Ran's forehead.
With the gun pressed against his forehead, Mo Ran stared at Wang Wen cross-eyed and said coldly, "At this range, I'm faster than the gun."
Wang Wen appeared unconvinced and pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
Almost before the shot rang out, the figure in the gun's sights vanished.
A tremendous pressure bore down on Wang Wen's right cheek. A flash of sharpness glinted between the fingers of the fist striking toward him.
For once, Wang Wen felt a genuine sense of danger.
He closed his eyes at once.
"Boom!"
The Intelligence Department lobby erupted as if a gas canister had exploded.
A chaotic shock wave sent paper, wood, and stone fragments flying. Cracks appeared in the nearby walls, while the floor at the center of the blast was pulverized, exposing the steel support panels underneath.
The crowd that had gathered to watch was caught in the crossfire. The "stray bullets" carved bloody lines across their skin.
They hurriedly retreated behind desks, not daring to face the blast head-on.
After a few breaths, the shock wave slowly subsided.
At the center of the explosion, Wang Wen turned around and silently looked at the fist in front of him.
Anyone standing nearby and looking closely would have seen that Mo Ran's fist was only half a centimeter from Wang Wen's nose.
That half-centimeter was all that kept Mo Ran from advancing, no matter how hard he pushed.
The next moment, his arm fell limply to his side.
His face pale, he looked at Wang Wen. "A master of mental power?"
Wang Wen asked him impassively, "Satisfied?"
Mo Ran raised his other hand. "I can still attack once more at that level. What about you?"
Wang Wen narrowed his eyes.
"That's enough." The old man emerged unhurriedly from the Department Head's office.
He stopped in front of the two men, glanced at Mo Ran's hanging right hand, and said calmly, "Go rest."
Mo Ran lowered his head and obediently stepped aside.
Someone entered through the Intelligence Department's main entrance. The old man went over to meet them, then returned a short while later with a dark-colored box. He handed it to Wang Wen and said, "Go save him."
Wang Wen opened the box. Inside lay a porcelain bottle. He removed the bottle's seal, and a wax pill the size of a soybean rolled out.
He closed his eyes again.
A gentle breeze passed over his hand from nowhere, softly enveloping the entire pill.
When he opened his eyes, Wang Wen nodded and thanked the old man. "Thank you. I owe you one."
With that, he strode out of the Intelligence Department.
The moment he turned away, a rush of bright red blood finally poured from his nose.
Wang Wen pressed his clothes against it, feeling somewhat relieved by his body's resilience.
At least he hadn't passed out uncontrollably again.
He left the First Consortium building with his nose covered.
He returned to the hospital operating room.
Outside the door, the doctor was speaking to the boy's mother.
Wang Wen rushed over and heard her muffled, silent sobs.
The doctor recognized Wang Wen and spoke to him in a low voice. "We did everything we could. Please—"
"I got the medicine. Let's try again!" Wang Wen grabbed the doctor and pulled him back into the operating room without giving him a chance to finish.
Seeing the frail boy on the operating table, lifeless and already taken off the ventilator, Wang Wen took out the porcelain bottle and said to the doctor, "The Great Restoration Golden Pill from the five-hundredth floor of the World Tower! Find a way to give it to him!"
The doctor was thrown into confusion at the words "five-hundredth floor." "How could there be such a thing? The highest recorded floor is only—"
He couldn't finish. Wang Wen shoved the bottle toward him so forcefully that it nearly went up his nose.
"Fine. Let's try it." The doctor poured the wax pill from the bottle into a clean dish, cut away its wax coating, and took out the yellow-brown pill.
With the assistant's help, he fed it to the frail boy with half a spoonful of glucose water.
Before the assistant could even let go of the boy's mouth, a visible flash of golden light appeared inside it.
The next moment, golden light spread to every wound on his body, covering them like a layer of golden liquid, pulsing with vitality.
As the golden light pulsed, the flat line on the monitor began to rise and fall faintly.
The boy slowly began to breathe again.
It was as if the person lying there weren't a patient on the brink of death, but simply a child who'd fallen into a deep sleep.
The assistants and nurses in the room widened their eyes and clenched their fists.
The doctor carefully examined the boy from head to toe. Then he stood up, shaking his head in amazement. "It's a miracle!"
He raised his head.
Looking at Wang Wen, who was smiling by the door, he spoke with profound emotion. "He's out of danger now."
Outside the hospital room.
As the medical staff hooked up various instruments and attached an IV drip to the sleeping boy, his mother grabbed the doctor's hand and thanked him fervently.
The doctor looked a little awkward. "Actually, we didn't do much."
Wang Wen said, "Without the emergency treatment buying us time, no amount of items could have saved him."
The doctor smiled warmly at Wang Wen, then gestured to the boy's mother. "He's the one you should really thank. Without the precious medicine he brought, there was nothing we could do."
The boy's mother grabbed Wang Wen's hand and shook it vigorously. "Wang Wen, come by our place sometime. Auntie will make you fish!"
At last, the commotion died down.
The doctor caught up with Wang Wen as he was about to leave the hospital. "Do you have any more of that pill? If you do, our hospital would like to buy one for research. Name your price."
Wang Wen shrugged helplessly. "It's a rare item from the five-hundredth floor of the World Tower, one of the First Consortium's prized treasures. I can't get my hands on a second one. You could try talking to them."
The doctor's hopeful expression dimmed as soon as he heard the words "First Consortium."
Heaving a sigh, he turned to leave. "The First Consortium? Then it's not something you can buy with money."
Wang Wen smiled. Standing outside the hospital entrance, he watched the setting sun sink lower on the horizon and remembered the boy's mother saying as they parted, "Tell me how much the medicine you used cost, and I'll find a way to pay you back. Even if I have to sell everything we own, I'll repay you!"
He silently shook his head.
He thought:
That really isn't something money can buy!
Before you continue