Thud! Long Bing suddenly dropped to the ground next to him.

“What’s wrong?” Xia Lei hurriedly bent to check on her.

Long Bing’s eyes were tightly shut and her chest rose and fell. She did not react and did not awaken even when Xia Lei hit her lightly on her cheeks.

Xia Lei felt the clothes she had dropped; they were still wet and the smell on them was thick. This discovery discomfited Xia Lei. She had also wet her clothing with urine to counter the effects of the anaesthetic gas but he was free of its effects while she had lost consciousness.

Long Bing’s body was very healthy and quite resistant, especially with systemic training. She should have had a greater tolerance than him.

What was going on?

Xia Lei abruptly remembered when his brain had heated up strangely. Was that the reason?

Ahn Suhyeong’s voice came again over the receiver, “Come on, Xia Lei. Talk.”

Ahn Suhyeong was still probing. How very meticulous and cunning of him.

Xia Lei ignored him. He shook Long Bing by the shoulder again but she did not respond. He gave up.

Ahn Suhyeong spoke, “I’ll tell you. The Americans are very interested in you. I don’t know why but I know that what awaits you must be a hellish fate. I’ll cut off your manhood before I hand you to them, as payment for daring to go against me.”

Xia Lei made a snap decision as he listened to Ahn Suhyeong ramble on. He moved his wet clothing away from his face a little. He held his breath, then took a cautious breath of anaesthetic gas. The small inhalation made him frown with its nose-piercing pungency; he was fairly nervous. However, other than finding the smell highly unpleasant, he did not feel any numbing effect.

What was going on here?

He hesitated, then attempted an even riskier course of action. He put his wet clothes down and took two deep breaths of anaesthetic gas. He still did not feel any effects.

The result was clear - the anaesthetic gas had no effect on him!

This result shocked Xia Lei.

He did not know the exact reason but another layer of mystery was added to the mysteriousness of the AE capsules.

Ahn Suhyeong’s voice came from over the receiver again but there was some background noise this time, and he spoke in Korean. “That punk must have lost consciousness. No need to keep trying to talk to him. No one can get through a minute of this military-use anaesthetic and five minutes have passed already.”

“Stop the gas then, or he’ll die down there.” A man spoke, also in Korean. “The Americans want that punk and they specified that he has to be alive. We can’t kill him.”

Ahn Suhyeong spoke, “Go turn off the gas, Kim Jiyeon.” After a pause, he said, “Cha Gori, take some men with you and come with me to the basement.”

“And this punk in the room?” asked Cha Gori.

“Get rid of him along with the woman in the basement after we hand Xia Lei to the Americans,” said Ahn Suhyeong.

Ahn Suhyeong was using Agent Xiao Wu’s communications device. He had surmised that Xia Lei and Long Bing had lost consciousness and so held nothing back. The more Xia Lei heard, the angrier he became. He couldn’t wait to rush up there and give Ahn Suhyeong a one-two.

The sound of a mobile phone ringing came over the receiver and Xia Lei heard Ahn Suhyeong talk with someone on the phone in Chinese. “Hello? Oh… Tianyin, I was just about to call you when you called me… Wangfu Hotel? Conference… There’ll be many reporters? Nn, yes, of course the collaboration between our two companies has to have media coverage. Mm, yes. I’ll be right there.”

It was a call from Shentu Tianyin.

“I’ve got to go to Wangfu Hotel for a bit. You take that punk and hand him to the Americans. This punk and that woman - get rid of them.”

“Rest assured, Young Master. I know what to do,” said Cha Gori, “But do I just hand Xia Lei over to the Americans like this? I heard you saying that you want to cut his manhood off as payment. Would you like me to cut his manhood off?”

“Heh heh heh…” Ahn Suhyeong chuckled. “Sure, but remember not to kill him. Stop the bleeding and apply anti-inflammatory medication after you castrate him.”

“No problem,” said Cha Gori.

“You men sure are wicked,” said Kim Jiyeon.

“Hahaha…” Cha Gori and Ahn Suhyeong laughed.

The receiver quieted after that. No sound came after there was a sound of the device being put down on some surface.

The gas stopped billowing through the vents, and the ventilation fans started to work, quickly sucking the white cloud of anaesthetic gas out of the room.

The air was normal again but Long Bing and Lu Sheng did not awaken.

This was normal - even patients undergoing surgery regain consciousness after several hours, what’s more with this amount of anaesthetic gas.

Xia Lei took Long Bing’s handgun and went back to sit on the cold tile next to the lift door. He had both hands on guns but kept his left gun-wielding hand at an angle where the people coming out of the lift couldn’t see it. His preparations complete, he shut his eyes and waited in silence for the battle to come to him.

A few minutes later, the lift moved. It first went up, then down again.

Xia Lei took a deep breath to calm his body and nerves. His eyes were shut but his left eye saw everything in the basement clearly.

The lift doors opened and Cha Gori and Kim Jiyeon stepped out of the lift. Close behind them were four of Ahn Suhyeong’s bodyguards. One of them had Agent Xiao Wu restrained and another held Xiao Wu’s notebook computer and some spy equipment in his hands.

It was easy to see what they were planning. They wanted to kill Long Bing and Agent Xiao Wu here, then destroy all the evidence and take Xia Lei with them to hand him over to the Americans.

Cha Gori first saw Long Bing on the floor, then Lu Sheng and finally Xia Lei. A sneer appeared in the corners of his mouth. “I hear this punk’s cunning and has ungodly skill with the gun. Did he think that we were going to have a gunfight with him? Haha… What a joke. The greatest weapon on this Earth is not a gun but brains.”

Kim Jiyeon laughed. “He thought we didn’t know that he had placed a tracker on Young Master. He came chasing like a dog and fell right into our trap. Looks like this punk isn’t as impressive as the Americans say he is.”

“He’s still quite smart. He knew to use urine to counter the anaesthetic gas.” Cha Gori smelt the pungent smell in the air and saw the wet clothes on the floor.

“It was still useless.” Kim Jiyeon waved her hand. “Get to work, boys.”

A tough-looking bodyguard with a goatee smiled wickedly. “Manager Kim, can’t we have some fun first? This Chinese woman looks good.”

“You fuckers, we don’t have time to waste,” said Kim Jiyeon with a frown.

The bodyguard who had spoken kicked at Long Bing’s thigh. “We won’t need much time, Manager Kim. Half an hour’s enough. Don’t you guys also need time to do the surgical procedure? You guys do that, and we do her. Haha!”

“Go on then, you fuckers!” Kim Jiyeon said in annoyance.

Two of the bodyguards lifted Long Bing off the floor and pulled her towards the boxing ring, one on each hand. Of the two other bodyguards, one threw Agent Xiao Wu to the floor and the other put Agent Xiao Wu’s notebook computer and backpack on the floor, then followed the others, his tail wagging.

Cha Gori walked towards Xia Lei. “Your little gun will be missing when you wake up, punk.”

The four bodyguards had their hands off their guns and their backs were about five metres from the lift.

Now!

Xia Lei did not even open his eyes. He lifted his right hand a little and aimed at Cha Gori’s chest. He squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

A huge red flower bloomed on Cha Gori’s chest and he was thrown to the floor.

Xia Lei levelled the gun again before he could react. Bang! A bullet went into Cha Gori’s head.

It was all too sudden. Kim Jiyeon reacted only after Cha Gori had died.

Her reaction was not as quick as Xia Lei, who had been waiting for his moment. A bullet had already left the muzzle of Xia Lei’s gun by the time she pointed her gun at him, and hit her in the knee. Her body fell towards the floor, out of her control, and another bullet went into her head before her body hit the floor.

The two leaders had died in two seconds!

The four bodyguards came back to their senses then and the furthest two took out their guns. The two in front tossed Long Bing aside and prepared to get their guns.

Xia Lei shot up from the floor, his hands whipping about and his fingers pulling at the trigger while he was in motion. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Two bodyguards were just turning around and the bullets hit them in their heads and chests, robbing them of their lives. The other two bodyguards did not even have time to adjust before they were gunned down.

Xia Lei was skilled with not just the sniper rifle - he was exceptional with the handgun too. His vision, his focus, his reactions and his body all surpassed that of a normal human!

The bodyguard with the goatee was still alive. He struggled to lift his arm and shoot back at Xia Lei.

Bang! A bullet came flying and hit the hand holding the gun in an instant. A finger went flying off from his palm along with the gun, but he could not feel the pain any longer.

Xia Lei walked over to him, his gaze cold.

“Don’t… Don’t kill me… I have… wife and kids…” pleaded the bodyguard with the goatee.

Xia Lei responded in Korean. “Let your wife remarry.”

“No-”

Bang! A bullet shot from the muzzle of the gun and opened up a pit in the goateed bodyguard’s head. Blood and brain matter splattered. It was fairly disgusting but Xia Lei did not have any sort of reaction to things like these anymore.