Xu Rongzhi, Dead!

Huo Yu covered an area roughly twenty meters around the butler.

The falling points of those fiery barrages were not uniform. Instead, they followed a spatial distribution that Mo Yuan had calculated in advance, with each barrage landing precisely enough to seal off the butler's usual escape routes.

The entire rain of fire was like a carefully woven net, compressing the butler's range of movement into an increasingly smaller space.

The butler moved rapidly through the rain of fire. His speed was astonishing, and it was almost impossible to make out his exact movements. All that could be seen was a dark-gray afterimage weaving and dodging between the fiery barrages.

His toes landed in gaps untouched by the rain of fire, and with every dodge, his body just barely skimmed the edges of the barrages. He avoided the first wave, the second wave, and the third wave.

But the density of the rain of fire exceeded expectations.

A dark-red fireball about the size of a fist suddenly veered off course as it fell. Its original landing point had been roughly two meters from the butler, but during its descent, the airflow from another barrage exploding nearby pushed it aside. It deviated by a tiny angle and landed precisely on the next foothold along the butler's escape route.

The butler tried to adjust his center of gravity in midair, but the deviation had happened too quickly. Even a Titled Douluo's reaction speed could not complete a second change of direction across such a short distance.

The fireball touched his left shoulder. It did not explode, but quietly clung to his shoulder before rapidly spreading outward. When the dark-red flames came into contact with his Soul Power barrier, they seemed to have found an entrance. They spread along the barrier's patterns toward his entire body, and their rate of combustion increased sharply the moment they touched the protective Soul Power.

The butler grunted, and his entire body fell from midair to the ground.

He was still conscious when he landed, and deliberately used his right hand, which had not yet been reached by the flames, to brace himself against the ground and keep from suffering a direct impact. But the flames spread faster than he could move.

In less than two seconds, the dark-red fire swallowed his upper body. It then burned through his coat and inner lining, and the smell of burning clothes quickly spread through the air.

The flames were nothing like ordinary soul-guidance fire, which could be extinguished with Soul Power. They seemed to "recognize" the location of his protective Soul Power before igniting it directly from within. The stronger the protective Soul Power, the more thoroughly they burned.

The butler's body stiffened in the fire for a moment before all movement ceased.

By the time he fell, his body had been completely covered by a layer of dark-red flames, like a piece of charcoal burned all the way through.

The charred smell of burning drifted through the air. The ground battered by the rain of fire was marked with rings of blackened circles, their boundaries extraordinarily clear, with almost no excess residue in the centers. Every barrage had completed its release with precision at its predetermined position.

Mo Yuan lowered Judgement of Shamash.

He glanced at the butler lying motionless on the ground and confirmed that the man no longer showed any signs of life before turning toward the front.

Xu Rongzhi stood at the gate, his face as pale as paper washed clean by water.

His lips moved, but no sound came out. The gate to the estate behind him was still wide open, and the stone-paved road inside led to the light-gray mansion. Yet he showed no sign of wanting to retreat—not because he did not want to, but because his legs no longer obeyed him.

If the last taut thread in his heart had not been holding, he would have wet himself long ago.

He watched helplessly as the final line of defense beside him was dismantled in less than ten seconds. The sense of security being ripped out from its very foundations left his entire body limp, as though his spine had been pulled away.

Mo Yuan walked forward several steps and stopped roughly two meters in front of him.

Xu Rongzhi finally found his voice.

It was at least an octave lower than before, and trembled noticeably. "You... how could you possibly..."

"I told you from the beginning," Mo Yuan said calmly. "Unfortunately, you're not a clever man."

Xu Rongzhi's knees buckled.

His body dropped, and his knees struck the stone-paved road with a dull thud. He sprawled on the ground in an extremely miserable posture.

Both hands supported him on the paving stones in front of him, his fingers curled inward, his knuckles gone white from exertion.

"I was wrong, Mr. Mo Yuan. I was really wrong." His voice came in broken fragments. "I... I shouldn't have had people obstruct your project, and I shouldn't have sent people to threaten you... I surrender. Whatever compensation you want, I'll give it to you—money, resources, women, technical support. Whatever you say..."

Moyan watched him without replying.

Xu Rongzhi spoke faster and faster, as if he wanted to pour out every condition he could offer before the other man's patience ran out.

"Let me go this once. I promise that from now on, I'll never touch anything related to you again... No... I'll be your most loyal dog. I still have some standing in the Federation... I..."

His voice grew increasingly frantic, carrying the desperate misery of someone clinging to every possible straw before death.

Mo Yuan listened quietly until he finished, then shook his head.

"All right, put away this clownish performance," he said. "I gave you plenty of chances, but you never cared. Now you're begging me for mercy not because you know you were wrong, but because you know you're going to die."

Xu Rongzhi's lips trembled, as though he still wanted to say something.

But Mo Yuan gave him no chance.

He raised his wrist slightly.

The muzzle of Judgement of Shamash adjusted its angle slightly upward, and a fiery bullet flew out, striking Xu Rongzhi directly between the brows.

The instant the projectile touched his skin, it burst apart. Dark-red flames spread outward from that point in every direction, burning so quickly that before the astonishment on Xu Rongzhi's face could transform into anything else, both it and his body had already been swallowed by the mass of fire.

The flames lasted for roughly two seconds before extinguishing on their own.

Only a patch of charred black remained where Xu Rongzhi had been kneeling. Its outline was still faintly discernible—that was the shape he had left behind in this world.

A silver-gray metal badge rolled out from the ashes and bounced twice on the stone-paved road. Its surface was covered in a layer of blackened oxidation, and its original luster was no longer visible.

Mo Yuan glanced at the two scorch marks on the ground, confirmed that all traces of life had vanished, and then dispersed Judgement of Shamash.

He stood where he was and surveyed the surroundings.

The area at the estate entrance was a complete mess. Broken Mecha parts were scattered everywhere, and a few of them were still giving off wisps of smoke.

Most of the Mecha pilots who had fallen to the ground had managed to climb to their feet with difficulty, but not one of them dared approach Mo Yuan. Not one of them even dared make a sound.

They merely stood at a distance. Some supported injured arms, while others leaned against the holly bushes, staring with a mixture of fear and bewilderment at the short young man standing in the center of the grounds.

"Remember this: I, Mo Yuan, am the one who killed your young master. Whatever means you have, feel free to use them. But remember the price you'll pay. Goodbye..."

He turned and walked toward the motorcycle parked nearby, mounted it, and turned the key.

The engine's deep hum rang out again, especially clear in the quiet air.

He looked back one last time at the open wrought-iron gate, then twisted the throttle and rode away from the estate along the stone-paved road he had come by.

The sound of the motorcycle traveled south along the asphalt road, gradually fading until it was completely swallowed by the distant city noise of Mingdu.