Chapter 3: Breaking Out

Chapter 3: The Breakthrough

Boom!

The engine of the Wooden Ox heavy truck erupted with a deafening roar, striking a muddy-water Paogo before he could even attempt to dodge, pinning him against a central load-bearing pillar and crushing him instantly into a spray of shredded flesh and bone.

Tires shrieked against the concrete, sending up thick plumes of white smoke.

Through the obscuring haze, the cargo doors of the heavy truck burst open, and a swarm of Knife Sacrifice Society members leaped out in rapid succession, every single one of them clutching short-barreled firearms.

Li Jun scanned the scene, his eyes instantly identifying the weapon model—the Yulin Type I pistol.

This type of black-powder handgun had been phased out of military service decades ago.

Compared to the Wei Warrior Type IV pistol in Li Jun's possession, which was also a black-powder weapon, it was vastly inferior in terms of lethality, stability, and ammunition capacity.

Yet, due to its low cost and simple design, it had long remained a staple of the Chengdu Prefecture's underground black market, the most ubiquitous short-barrel firearm among gang members.

Outnumbered and outgunned, Li Jun made the most rational choice without a moment's hesitation, raising his hand and firing a single shot to shatter the lightbulb directly overhead.

Bang! The entire warehouse was plunged into sudden darkness.

The gunshot acted like a spark falling upon tinder, instantly igniting a raging wildfire.

Short yet blinding muzzle flashes tore the fleeting second of darkness to shreds, and the thunderous gunfire reduced the sound of the torrential rain outside to an imperceptible whisper.

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!

The moment Li Jun threw himself behind a broken pillar, the spot where he had been standing was pulverized by a dense hail of bullets, the scorching lead tearing the headless corpse behind him to ribbons.

In the intermittent flashes of light and shadow, Li Jun watched helplessly as two of his own men, unable to find cover in time, were struck and instantly turned into human sieves by the relentless stream of bullets.

In an instant, the warehouse descended into utter chaos, both sides exchanging furious fire from behind their respective cover, the air filling with the pungent stench of gunpowder and fresh blood.

"Oh, hey, Li-san! Aren’t you supposed to be the strongest enforcer of the Paogo Society's younger generation? How did you turn into a turtle hiding in its shell?"

Flame Ghost stood with an incredibly savage shotgun propped on his shoulder; stripped of its trigger guard and stock, the entire weapon resembled an ugly cannon barrel, its fist-sized muzzle gleaming with a chilling, ominous light.

A weapon so devoid of aesthetic grace could never have originated from any of the Great Ming's military-industrial enterprises; only the craftsmen of the black market would construct such a maniacal piece of work.

"Get out here and offer your head to me! Otherwise, when I catch you, I’ll chop off your limbs and send you to the Knife Sacrifice Society’s host club."

Flame Ghost’s arrogant voice carried a sickening, lecherous undertone.

"A Ming citizen serving as the Fifth Red Flag Brother in the Paogo Society... just the thought of that gimmick makes one's mouth water. Trust me, I will definitely turn you into the most popular host in Sinner Street!"

Bang! An unusually sharp, explosive report suddenly cut through Flame Ghost's frantic bragging.

The Ronin guarding Flame Ghost’s flank threw himself forward, tackling his master to the ground.

At that exact moment, a bullet grazed the top of Flame Ghost's head, shaving a clean path through his wild, crimson mohawk before slamming into the chassis of the truck, leaving a fist-sized hole in its wake.

Having narrowly escaped death, Flame Ghost felt a slick warmth on his neck; peering through the muzzle flashes, he realized his hand was stained a brilliant crimson.

"Baka!"

Flame Ghost looked at his subordinate, whose head had been half-shattered by Li Jun’s bullet to save his life, and exploded in rage, hoisting his shotgun and firing several rounds in rapid succession.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The dense spray of buckshot slammed into the concrete pillar, sending stone splinters flying in all directions, the sheer volume of suppressing fire completely depriving Li Jun of any opportunity to peek out and retaliate.

The gunmen of the Knife Sacrifice Society pressed forward rapidly, utilizing their superior firepower to pick off the isolated and hidden Paogo men one by one.

However, the muddy-water Paogo who had followed Li Jun here were an equally ferocious breed; realizing there was no hope of escape, they resolutely abandoned their cover to trade their lives with the Ronin.

For a time, agonized screams echoed throughout the warehouse, and the sickening sound of lead tearing into flesh made the skin crawl.

Flame Ghost watched his loyal inner circle take heavy casualties, the fury in his heart burning even hotter.

These men were die-hard Ronin mercenaries whom he had spent a fortune to raise, intended to be one of his trump cards for the future struggle to become the Chairman of the Knife Sacrifice Society.

Under normal circumstances, even in conflicts with the other members of the 'Ten Nobles,' he would never have dreamed of deploying them, reserving them strictly to deliver the decisive blow at the critical hour.

The only reason Flame Ghost had brought these death-commandos to hunt Li Jun down was because Li Jun had touched the Knife Sacrifice Society's forbidden scales.

Flame Ghost wanted to monopolize this achievement, washing away the society's humiliation entirely by his own hand, so that Chairman Torazuka would recognize his strength and pave his way for promotion within the organization.

But with so many casualties mounting now, Flame Ghost felt a sharp pang of regret, and his hatred for Li Jun grew deeper and more venomous.

Boom!

As he pulled the trigger, Flame Ghost swayed his head and mocked loudly, "Li Jun, do you know why your location was leaked? Because you were betrayed by your own people!"

Boom!

"Sacrificing your own life to pave the way for someone else... tsk tsk, how truly pathetic."

Flame Ghost kept his eyes locked onto the ruined concrete beam, a strange crimson light flickering deep within his pupils—the integrated night-vision cyberware operating in his eyeballs.

Boom! The violent mouth of the shotgun erupted once more with a blinding flash of fire.

"Come on out! I promise the Knife Sacrifice Society won’t kill you. In fact, I'll ask Chairman Torazuka to induct you into the society and help you take revenge on the Paogo Society, how about that? You’re such a good fighter, maybe if the Chairman is pleased, he’ll even let you replace Rukawa Tan as one of the Ten Nobles. Wealth and honor are right in front of you!"

While tempting Li Jun with words, Flame Ghost gestured to his remaining men, signaling them to flank from the left and right.

Yet there was no movement from behind the broken pillar, as if Li Jun were not hiding there at all.

However, Flame Ghost had been tracking Li Jun’s movements from the very beginning; he was absolutely certain that in that dark environment filled with stray bullets, Li Jun had no chance to escape and had to be behind that pillar.

His throat growing dry, the malice in Flame Ghost’s heart surged, and his shotgun vomited another inch-long flame.

The broken pillar was riddled with craters, its iron rebar exposed to the air.

"You Paogo scum, get the hell out here!"

Vroom!

Right then, the roar of more engines echoed from outside the warehouse as several police cruisers emblazoned with the words 'Tianfu Garrison' crashed through the breach left by the heavy truck.

"Tianfu Garrison! Drop your weapons immediately!"

"Get on the ground with your hands on your head, or we will open fire!"

The arrival of the Tianfu Garrison was entirely unexpected; a few Knife Sacrifice Society members failed to react in time and turned around rigidly while still holding their handguns.

This threatening gesture immediately drew a ferocious assault from the Tianfu Garrison, a hail of bullets instantly dropping them into pools of blood.

"Why the hell is the Tianfu Garrison here?" Flame Ghost's expression shifted drastically, his mind racing.

As someone who could secure a seat among the 'Ten Nobles' of the Knife Sacrifice Society, he was no fool, and he instantly realized that he too had been set up.

The person who had leaked Li Jun's location to him intended to use the Tianfu Garrison to wipe them all out together!

Just as Flame Ghost's face twisted in conflict, hesitating between dropping his weapon to surrender or fighting to the death, a figure suddenly bolted from behind the crumbling pillar.

Bang! Bang! Bang! ...

The trigger of the Wei Warrior Type IV pistol was held down completely, emptying all eight rounds from the magazine into Flame Ghost’s torso.

Even though Flame Ghost had implanted specialized ceramic plating into his chest and back, it could not withstand the terrifying kinetic force of the Wei Warrior Type IV pistol fired at point-blank range, and he was instantly reduced to a broken corpse.

Enduring for so long had finally yielded a thunderous strike.

After executing Flame Ghost, Li Jun immediately discarded the empty pistol, drew his blade to sever a head, and shoved the weapon deep into the abdomen of an approaching Ronin; with the muscles in his arms bulging, he used the man's body as a shield and retreated rapidly into the depths of the warehouse.

This sequence of movements was executed with flawless precision; by the time the Tianfu Garrison managed to react, Li Jun’s silhouette was already over a dozen meters away, leaving only a blurred outline.

Snapping out of their shock, the Tianfu Garrison gave chase in a panic, but when they reached the furthest depths of the warehouse, all that remained on the ground was a corpse nearly stripped of its flesh by the kinetic energy of the bullets, and a shattered window.

Wind and rain lashed the window, lightning throwing dancing shadows across the glass.

But Li Jun’s figure had long since vanished without a trace.

"Damn it!"

The captain of the garrison guards spat a curse, kicking a scattering of bones into the air, then pressed the implanted comms unit nestled in his ear canal, his voice dropping low:

"Boss, Liuchuan Tan and Yan Gui are dead. But Li Jun got away."