Shen Tian’s face was twisted in a dark, grim expression.
Earlier that morning, just as he woke up, he had received an urgent phone call from his father with shocking news—his mother had been involved in a serious accident, and he needed to reach the hospital immediately.
Anxious to get there as fast as possible, Shen Tian had rushed outside to grab his sleek, high-end Ducati Superleggera.
But to his disbelief, both of its tires had been sliced completely flat.
Even stranger, out of the fleet of luxury cars usually parked at the estate, every single one had conveniently been sent out for repairs that morning.
Only a lone, unused sedan remained in the garage.
The sheer timing of it all felt deeply suspicious to him.
Sensing a trap, Shen Tian decided to avoid the remaining car altogether.
He walked out to the main road, flagged down a local taxi, and ordered the driver to head straight to the hospital.
However, his suspicions were quickly confirmed.
Instead of taking the highway to the medical center, the taxi gradually pulled over and came to a complete halt on a deserted, barren stretch of road—surrounded by complete silence and devoid of any traffic.
Shen Tian narrowed his eyes, a cold sneer forming on his face.
He knew with absolute certainty that he had just walked right into someone’s trap.
Before Shen Tian could even open his mouth to confront the driver, the man had already scrambled out of the taxi.
Seeing the driver flee with terrified urgency, Shen Tian didn’t waste a second.
Instinct screamed at him that something was terribly wrong.
He threw open the door and bolted from the vehicle, putting as much distance as he could between himself and the car in a matter of seconds.
He had barely hit the ground and cleared a safe radius when a deafening roar shattered the silence.
BOOM!
A massive fireblast erupted from the taxi, the force of the explosion sending shards of metal and glass flying through the air like shrapnel.
The heat wave rolled over Shen Tian, singeing his clothes as the car was reduced to a twisted, burning wreck in an instant.
Looking around, Shen Tian realized he was standing in the courtyard of a massive, abandoned complex—a desolate concrete shell surrounded on all sides by a dense, unkept forest.
Just as he turned to retrace his steps toward the main road, the heavy crunch of footsteps echoed from every direction.
Dozens of men flooded into the open area, completely sealing off his escape routes.
Within seconds, 40 to 50 muscular men in tailored black suits surrounded him, forming a tight, inescapable perimeter.
They looked like professional enforcers, silent and deadly.
He raised his head, his eyes cold as he yelled into the open air, his voice echoing off the concrete walls:
“Shen Hao!
Did you really think I’d fall for such a pathetic, cheap trap?
I know you don’t want to give me that hospital or the property.
I told you before—I never even cared about taking them from you!
But was it really necessary for you to go this far?”
He paused, a menacing glint flashing through his eyes.
“Let me warn you right now—if a single hair on my head is harmed, Uncle won’t let you off easy.
I’ve already messaged him and let him know what’s going on.
So stop playing these pathetic, cowardly tricks!”
Deep inside the surrounding forest, hidden in the thick undergrowth, Shen Hao was watching everything unfold on a tablet screen.
Watching Shen Tian issue his bold threat on the screen, Yui Ling turned to Shen Hao with a look of worry.
“Shen …
if he really called your father, your dad will definitely send someone to rescue him.
They might already be on their way here.
What do we do now?”
Shen Hao merely smirked.
Meanwhile, the scene shifted back to the grand Shen family mansion.
An enraged roar echoed through the hallways.
“Who did this?!
Who threw my laptop and phone into the water?!”
Shen Hao’s father stood in his study, shaking with rage.
In front of him on the desk lay his expensive smartphone and laptop, completely drenched, their screens cracked and fried beyond repair.
He had been looking for his devices everywhere, only to find them ruined like this.
It never even crossed his mind that his own son, Shen Hao, could be behind it—there was simply no reason for Shen Hao to do such a thing.
Instead, he assumed one of the household servants had pulled an unbelievably foolish prank.
Back in the forest
“Before he could reach anyone, I had already copied all the data from his phone remotely and completely fried his devices.
Shen Tian isn’t getting any help from anyone.”
Back in the clearing, the crowd of men in black suits didn’t move in to beat him up as Shen Tian had anticipated.
He had assumed they were just mercenaries sent to intimidate or rough him up—he never dreamed they would go for a lethal strike right out of the gate.
In unison, the men reached into their coats, pulled out silenced handguns, and opened fire from every angle.
A hail of bullets tore through the air, aimed directly at his vital spots.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Just as the metal volley was about to shred him, Shen Tian vanished from their sight in a blur of motion.
Defying normal human physics, he executed a massive, gravity-defying leap straight into the air, soaring high above the gunfire and landing lightly on the roof of the decaying three-story building.
Every single bullet whistled harmlessly through empty space where he had been standing a split second before, as if the shooters were completely incapable of locking onto his trajectory.
Taking advantage of the high ground, Shen Tian reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a set of sleek, silver needles.
Holding them effortlessly between his fingers, his eyes cold and precise, he flicked his wrist in a lightning-fast motion.
The needles flew through the air like miniature missiles, glinting briefly under the light.
With terrifying accuracy, every single needle found its mark, striking the exact acupuncture points on the necks and shoulders of the guards—the Fengchi and Jianjing pressure points designed to instantly disrupt nerve signals and induce unconsciousness.
Before the men could even pull their triggers a second time, their eyes rolled back.
Within seconds, all 40 to 50 muscular enforcers collapsed onto the hard ground, completely immobilized and out cold.
Shen Tian was just about to let out a breath of relief when the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end.
A sharp, suffocating sense of impending danger washed over him.
Instinct taking over, he threw his body into a sudden, erratic side-dodge.
Crack!
A high-caliber sniper bullet whizzed past his cheek, missing him by mere millimeters and embedding itself deep into the concrete wall behind him with a deafening thud.
The shockwave alone left a sting on his skin.
Up in the dense canopy of the surrounding forest, perched silently high in a tree, was the pale-skinned ex-military sniper Shen Hao’s mother had hired.
Hidden completely by the thick foliage, the marksman cursed under his breath, adjusting his crosshairs to lock onto Shen Tian once again.