Outside Jiangbei City, at the Eastern Suburbs intersection.
Strict traffic controls had been imposed five kilometers out along the outbound route, while residents across a large swath of the suburbs had been evacuated to safe locations under the pretext of a flood-control drill.
Figures in black overcoats stood at the intersection, their eyes beneath their baseball caps so cold and intimidating that no one dared meet their gazes.
Leading them was a scruffy-bearded man in his thirties.
He sat on the hood of a car with a cigarette in his mouth, his left hand bandaged and his right gripping a steel pipe, his overcoat draped casually over his shoulders.
Those in the know understood that he was a Netherworld Messenger.
Anyone else would have thought some gang boss had come out for a turf fight.
Yet even Qiu Hong, the hot-tempered, bald brute, could only stand respectfully at his side.
That made his identity obvious: Jiang Yi, leader of the Netherworld's Third Team, nicknamed Jiang Menshen.
"What matters most when you're out on the streets? Loyalty! I'll charge in first later, and none of you brothers had better quit on me. Get in there and slash away! Show them what we've got! Beat the bile out of those Dark Alliance bastards!!"
The moment he spoke, the solemn atmosphere vanished, and traces of tension and hot-blooded excitement filled the air.
"Team members, team members," Qiu Hong hurriedly corrected him in a low voice.
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He was reckless enough himself on a normal day, but compared to this team leader, he was nothing.
The word "rules" seemingly did not exist in the man's eyes. Not long ago, to stand up for his Third Team brothers, he had taken a group to cause trouble at the