Homo Sapiens

Java.

In the eastern tropical rainforest of Papua Island.

In the camp, Du Jianxin stared with a savage expression at the dozen or so people before him, a shotgun in his hands.

Not far away, Wang Zhiyuan and Cui Fei lay on the ground, their bodies mangled beyond recognition by buckshot.

The few young men who had come with Wang Zhiyuan were scared witless, scrambling frantically to escape in all directions.

”Hahaha... You trash! Go to hell!” Du Jianxin raised the shotgun again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

”AHHHH...”

”Help me!”

”Waaaaah...”

His face a mask of crazed ferocity, Du Jianxin emptied the shotgun and quickly fled the scene.

Back in the jungle camp.

The five who had narrowly escaped with their lives stared at the field of corpses, still shaken. One of them, a man with a square face, shakily took out his phone and dialed his head bodyguard.

”Hello... Young Master Chen?”

”Quick! Get to the camp and pick me up! Du Jianxin’s gone insane, he... he...”

The head bodyguard immediately sensed something was wrong. He quickly soothed him, ”Young Master Chen, are you still at the camp?”

”Yes! ...Just get here, quick!”

Over twenty minutes later, dozens of bodyguards arrived at the camp. The gruesome sight that greeted them left their faces pale.

Seeing his bodyguards arrive, Young Master Chen finally came to his senses, some of the terror draining from his face.

Meanwhile, the bodyguards for Wang Zhiyuan and the Du Family looked utterly grim. Wang Zhiyuan’s head bodyguard, Wang Xiu, in particular, felt like he could die.

Wang Xiu quickly asked, ”Young Master Chen, what exactly happened?”

Young Master Chen, having calmed down slightly, was still pale. ”It was... it was Du Jianxin. He’s completely nuts. Just because Zhiyuan said something to him, he opened fire on us...”

”What? Impossible!” When the Du Family’s head bodyguard, Du Dalong, heard this, his world turned upside down.

But Young Master Chen, still in shock, roared back, ”Bullshit! I wasn’t the only one here! Right, Tanxi! Weren’t you recording with your DV camera?”

Another girl, shivering uncontrollably, pointed with a trembling hand to the DV camera on the wooden table.

Wang Xiu had someone bring it over immediately.

The DV camera was indeed still recording. He rewound it about twenty minutes and found the footage of Du Jianxin’s rampage.

The evidence was now irrefutable.

”Damn it! Has he lost his mind?” Wang Xiu cursed.

But this was beyond his authority to handle. His only option was to make a call back home immediately.

Meanwhile, Du Dalong and the other Du Family bodyguards were detained to prevent any information from leaking.

***

Aboard the plane leaving Java, Du Jianxin was filled with utter despair. He knew he and the Du Family were finished.

The plane soon arrived at Xingdao Island Airport.

Disguised, Du Jianxin appeared at the entrance of a small company.

”I’m looking for Victor.”

”Do you have an appointment?” the receptionist asked, eyeing him warily.

”Call him. Just say Du Jianxin is here to see him.”

The receptionist made a call. A moment later, she said, ”The boss will see you. You can go up.”

He went up to the seventh floor.

Victor, who had already stepped down from his post, hadn’t left Southeast Asia yet mainly to hand over his work. Joshua had asked him to stay and help for a while.

He was puzzled to hear that Du Jianxin had come to visit, but he didn’t refuse the meeting. After all, managing this network of contacts was part of the handover.

”Du! What brings you here?” Victor asked as he brewed some coffee.

Du Jianxin said with a grim expression, ”Victor, I need your help.”

”Oh? Tell me about it,” Victor said, pouring him a cup of coffee.

”I need you to help me get a new identity and immigrate to Britain.”

Victor’s eyes narrowed. ”Du, what happened? You’re not skipping town because you went bankrupt, are you?”

”I’ve offended some people. I have to leave now. I hope you’ll help me, for old times’ sake and all our years of cooperation,” Du Jianxin said, a look of fear on his face.

”You’ve offended some people?” Victor’s expression instantly grew serious. For someone with Du Jianxin’s influence to be running for his life, he immediately had an idea of what was going on. ”What did you do?”

”You’ll find out in a few days. For now, just help me with the new identity and the immigration,” Du Jianxin said evasively.

Victor thought for a moment and didn’t refuse. It wouldn’t cost him anything to help, and Du Jianxin might even be a useful pawn later on.

”Okay. I’ll have it all sorted out for you within a month.”

”Thanks. Right now, I need you to help me leave Xing Island secretly. I can’t stand to stay in Asia for another moment.”

Victor nodded. ”No problem. I’ll arrange a temporary identity for you. You can head to Britain first.”

That same afternoon, Du Jianxin boarded a flight to Britain.

After watching the plane depart, Victor returned to his office and immediately had someone investigate what Du Jianxin had been up to these past few days.

Clearly, he hadn’t yet realized the gravity of the situation.

***

Li Qingye had already returned to Luzon.

He was in the middle of perfecting the design for a new weapon.

Phil knocked on the door.

”Come in.”

”Boss, Du Jianxin has completed his mission and is on his way to Britain,” Phil reported.

Li Qingye raised an eyebrow, his hand still scribbling calculations for water pressure and depth. ”Leak Du Jianxin’s whereabouts to them. Let them and the Black Ship tear each other apart.”

”Yes, sir.”

”Have Yang Tiancheng get things moving.”

”He’s already been notified. A week ago, he had Yang Haibo and the representatives of the other families arrange an internal social gathering in Xiangjiang.”

The corners of Li Qingye’s mouth tilted up slightly. ”Xinlan, in a few days, I want you to go and welcome them for me.”

Wu Xinlan, dressed in a maid’s uniform, had nothing but fear and helplessness on her face. ”You’re a monster!”

CRACK! Sangjibada Laiyal, holding a small leather whip, struck Wu Xinlan with it.

”Ahhh...”

Sangjibada Laiyal laughed maliciously. ”Daring to curse again? It seems you still haven’t recognized your place. I’ll be sure to properly punish a disobedient bitch like you later!”

Hearing this, Wu Xinlan recalled the days she had been dominated by Sangjibada Laiyal, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably. ”No! I’ll be good... waaaah...”

”Too late!” Sangjibada Laiyal’s vicious expression vanished. She turned to Li Qingye and said gently,

”Sir, I’ll take her to the punishment room now.”

”Mm.”

Wu Xinlan, who was about to speak, suddenly found herself unable to. Her body followed behind Sangjibada Laiyal as terror rapidly swelled in her heart.

Last month, Long Yuanzhi had dispatched her to Luzon under the pretext of ensuring the progress of the Luzon chemical project.

The moment she arrived in Luzon, she saw Wu Heguang working as a garbage sorter. Then, she was taken away to be ”educated.”

Especially after Sangjibada Laiyal returned from Hongsawaddy, Wu Xinlan was ”educated” by her so thoroughly that the memories were deeply seared into her mind, almost giving her a psychological trauma.

Li Qingye felt not a shred of pity for Wu Xinlan’s plight.

He continued with his work.

This was a new type of weapon he was designing specifically to compensate for the shortcomings of loitering munitions—a sea-based torpedo.

The design was quite simple. It utilized the same type of submersible biological exoskeleton previously used by the Blood Blade Special Team to encase a torpedo. This special torpedo would then be ”planted” in the sediment layer of the seabed.

The biological exoskeleton would protect the torpedo from water pressure and corrosion, allowing it to be deployed long-term within the seabed sediment.

When needed, a program in its bio-chip could be activated, causing the biological exoskeleton to launch the torpedo and attack nearby ships.

This thing was far stealthier than a submarine.