A plea for help

After nearly two hours in the air, Li Qi and the others finally drew slowly closer to Killian's main base.

About a kilometer from the base, the helicopter descended slowly, its rotor rumbling low.

Li Qi quickly put on the armor specially upgraded and modified for him.

After an entire night of development, the armor's wearability and portability had improved considerably. Even outside the villa, he could put it on extremely quickly, arming himself in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

Everyone stood neatly behind the formation of yellow-and-red armor suits, their expressions solemn as they waited quietly for Li Qi's orders.

Xu Wenwu and his family of three were among them. Xu Wenwu looked composed, exuding the authority of a seasoned veteran.

Quake, Daisy Johnson, stood poised and agile, her eyes full of resolve.

The Ten Rings' two mid-ranking leaders were there: a ninja wearing a theatrical mask, his eyes gleaming mysteriously beneath it, and a muscular, one-armed man from North America who radiated ferocity.

There were also nearly thirty death warriors dressed as kung fu masters, their expressions cold, ready to charge into battle at any moment.

Li Qi gave the order, his voice firm and powerful. Everyone swiftly followed the surrounding dilapidated streets, rushing toward Killian's main base like tigers charging down a mountain.

For safety, Maya stayed aboard the helicopter. Through the radio and live video feeds, she focused intently on developments on the battlefield, ready to provide Li Qi and the others with precise intelligence at any moment.

This was a somewhat abandoned town on the outskirts of the city. A massive opera-house-style building stood quietly within it, surrounded by tall courtyard walls and heavy gates, giving it a mysterious, sinister air.

The surrounding kilometers were deserted, the silence unsettling. That was precisely why Killian had chosen it as his temporary main base.

After approaching the high wall, Li Qi first had several armor suits behind him launch a few small reconnaissance drones.

The drones slipped lightly over the wall, flying like nimble birds into the courtyard and deeper inside.

Through the shared surveillance feed, Li Qi discovered that several houses and courtyards to the side were empty, their silence somewhat eerie.

However, when the drones flew south, several suspicious figures appeared on-screen. Carrying pistols or light weapons, they looked alert, with a trace of tension in their eyes. They were clearly patrol personnel.

Li Qi signaled JARVIS to fly the reconnaissance drones deeper into the courtyard. Sure enough, they discovered more armed thugs, roughly twenty in all. But this differed considerably from the numbers Maya had provided earlier.

With no time to think it over, Li Qi decisively ordered everyone over the high wall and toward the courtyard shown on the surveillance feed.

Everyone moved nimbly, clearing the high wall almost instantly with clean, efficient movements.

Wearing his Iron Man armor, Li Qi led the charge. He assigned Xu Xialing to assist from the flank, while he advanced boldly alongside Xu Wenwu and several puppet armor suits controlled by JARVIS, driving straight toward the enemy's heart like a sharp blade.

After crossing two high walls in succession, they finally encountered the armed thugs on patrol.

Xu Wenwu reacted swiftly, immediately firing the ten rings from his arms as though launching a Kamehameha. Spinning at high speed with a sharp rush of wind, the rings slammed into a thug's chest.

The tremendous impact sent the thug flying backward like a kite with its string cut. He crashed heavily into the doorframe of a nearby storage room, coughing up blood.

Under the precise control of the artificial intelligence JARVIS, several armor suits attacked the other armed thugs. Bang, bang, bang, bang! Pistol shots rang out in quick, crisp succession. Before all the thugs were brought down, the gunfire also alerted the armed thugs farther back, breaking the silence.

Li Qi abandoned stealth and decisively ordered everyone to push forward quickly.

Led by the two mid-ranking leaders, more than twenty armed Ten Rings members fearlessly scaled the high walls like valiant warriors and charged into the core of the base's outer perimeter.

The moment the two sides clashed, fierce bursts of rat-tat-tat-tat erupted, weaving together into a symphony of death.

Dexterously controlling the ten rings with both hands, Xu Wenwu unleashed a powerful Kamehameha shock wave toward the ground below. A dazzling arc flew over the high wall with earth-shattering momentum, joining the fierce battle.

In his hands, the ten rings displayed power far beyond that of modern gunpowder weapons, knocking three armed thugs to the ground in the blink of an eye. Before the thugs could react, they had already collapsed.

At this point, Li Qi did not participate directly in the fighting. The two female bodyguards guarded the rear of his red-and-blue armor with agile movements, like loyal sentries.

He watched the situation closely from the edge of the battlefield, his eyes calm and focused as he constantly analyzed its changes.

Besides the current courtyard, fighting broke out in several adjacent courtyards in succession. Both sides were locked in fierce combat, gunfire, battle cries, and screams intermingling. People kept falling amid the hail of bullets, their blood staining the ground red.

Li Qi instructed JARVIS to control several armor suits and scan the entire courtyard, trying to find traces of Killian.

However, within this enormous, somewhat abandoned theater, they found no target matching Killian's characteristics.

Moreover, what struck Li Qi as strange was that his side had already gained an overwhelming advantage on the battlefield. The enemies in the base had either been subdued or eliminated.

The Ten Rings and the remaining combat armor suits controlled by JARVIS had achieved a crushing victory. The unusually smooth course of the battle left Li Qi vaguely feeling that something was wrong, and unease welled up in his heart.

During the fighting, he had encountered only two or three people with superpowers-dangerous individuals modified by the Extremis Virus-and Xu Wenwu had successfully subdued them all.

By rights, there should have been more dangerous superpowered individuals here whose hands could generate intense heat, but their actual numbers were far below expectations.

Li Qi could not help sinking into thought, his brow furrowed as he considered the reason behind this.

He therefore temporarily withdrew from the courtyard, intending to contact Dr. Maya and ask for further details.

Just then, JARVIS reported to Li Qi that two armor suits had found the leader of this dangerous gang.

He was a man with European features and a long, thick beard, currently hiding in a place resembling a safe room, trembling all over like a frightened rat.

The surveillance feed was quickly transmitted into Li Qi's armor helmet. He recognized the man at a glance as the leader this organization presented to the public, though Li Qi suspected he might merely be a puppet.

Li Qi headed there with the two female bodyguards and discovered that the so-called safe room was actually a prison used to hold people.

The bald, heavily bearded leader was crouching in a corner, trembling as he clutched a strange creature tightly in his arms.

The creature had four feet but no visible head, and both ends looked like a rump. Curled motionless in the bearded man's arms, it seemed badly frightened, its body trembling slightly.

Li Qi recognized the creature in the bearded man's arms as Dijiang, a legendary creature from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

It had neither head nor tail, only four legs and two wings. Lively by nature but exceedingly rare, it was said to originate from the mysterious Ta Lo Village, Ying Li's hometown.

Ying Li recognized Dijiang at first glance. A gleam of delighted surprise flashed in her eyes as she gave Li Qi a detailed introduction to Dijiang and told him a little about the mysterious Ta Lo Village.

Li Qi nodded slightly. Xu Xialing stepped forward and hauled the trembling bearded man out of the corner in one clean movement.

Li Qi approached. Looking at the imposing, towering humanoid armor before him, the bearded man shook with fear, unable even to speak coherently. He only kept shakily begging for mercy, his voice tearful.

After Li Qi asked a few simple questions, the bearded man spilled everything he knew.

Just as Li Qi had expected, the bearded man was merely a scapegoat, a puppet, of no value to Li Qi. His greatest talents amounted to singing opera and putting on performances.

Li Qi therefore decided to spare his life.

Meanwhile, Ying Li had already gently gathered the adorable little Dijiang into her arms. The little fellow clearly still remembered Ying Li and behaved very obediently in her embrace, even nuzzling her arm gently.

Ying Li hurriedly showed Dijiang to Li Qi. After studying it carefully, Li Qi realized that this adorable little creature might be able to lead them to the entrance to Ta Lo Village, so he instructed Ying Li to take it back to the villa first and care for it properly.

To thank Li Qi for sparing his life, the bearded man provided a crucial clue: the base's core force, including Killian, had already left to carry out a major mission.

According to something the bearded man had overheard by chance, they had headed to the United States air defense command, intending to kidnap the secretary of the Air Force and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and loot its missiles and various guided missiles to strengthen their forces.

Only then did Li Qi understand why the base's forces had been so weak: Killian had taken the most important superpowered individuals with him.

Li Qi was just about to have JARVIS inform Colonel Rhodes of the situation so he could prepare a response in advance when a call came in from Major Rhodes.

After he answered the video call, the live feed from the other end was clearly transmitted onto Li Qi's helmet visor.

Fierce gunfire and scenes of combat at the United States' North America Aerospace Defense Command came into view.

The command's garrison and base defense personnel were fighting desperately against a group of superpowered individuals whose hands radiated red, intensely hot energy.

Killian stood out in particular, his hands a fiery red. Enemy bullets struck him but inflicted almost no meaningful damage as he moved through the hail of gunfire as though no one could stand in his way.

This group of superpowered individuals was actually taking on the heavily defended Air Force command base on its own.

Major Rhodes had called precisely to seek urgent help from Li Qi.

After their several encounters, he knew full well that Li Qi possessed extraordinary abilities capable of changing the situation.

Therefore, rather than seek help from other commands and bases in North America, he had contacted Li Qi immediately.

After a moment's thought, Li Qi judged that the benefits of going to the air defense command's rescue now far outweighed the risks. He nodded in agreement and told Major Rhodes they would come to support him as quickly as possible.

Only then did Major Rhodes breathe a sigh of relief and hang up, his face full of joy.