323: Chapter 323 An S-Rank Powerful Enemy, People Busy Working on a Rainy Night

"Hehe, do you think you've won?"

Seeing that Fang Cheng did not admit it, Captain Chen Rui let out a low chuckle like a broken bellows being pulled:

"I don't know who you really are... but you simply don't understand the terror of the Noah Organization."

"It won't be long before you'll come down to keep me company too..."

Hearing his curses and grievances, Fang Cheng was noncommittal.

The words "I am terrifyingly strong" from just now seemed to still be buzzing in his ears.

Afterwards, Fang Cheng shrugged and said:

"Since the Noah Organization is so powerful, can you introduce me to some experts in your esteemed organization who can defeat me?"

"For instance, what's the background of that Minister Luo?"

"Minister Luo?"

Hearing this name, Captain Chen Rui's gradually dilating pupils miraculously regained a trace of complex expression.

It seemed to be a mix of awe and a certain sense of anticipation.

"He... is a powerful big shot at the headquarters, a Rank 10 cadre who can squeeze into the Board of Directors."

"Even Station Chief Feng only has the qualification to shine shoes and curry favor in front of him, not worth mentioning at all..."

Captain Chen Rui gasped heavily, intermittently squeezing words out from his throat.

Then, a flash of light crossed his dim pupils as he stared closely at Fang Cheng:

"Do you think I'm exaggerating, that a Rank 10 cadre sounds like it's just one Rank higher than Rank 9?"

"But in fact, you are completely wrong!"

"Oh, could it be that I thought wrong?"

Fang Cheng nodded slightly without refuting, merely using suggestive words to guide him to continue speaking.

Captain Chen Rui appeared quite cooperative, seemingly extremely eager to display the true power and terror of Noah in front of his enemy Fang Cheng.

"The Rank 10 evaluation of the Noah Organization never looks at seniority, it is entirely a reflection of strength..."

"If placed in the evaluation system of the Special Investigation Team, that would be equivalent to an S-Rank superhuman."

"You must know that for those rampant investigators, their entry qualification is at most A+."

Breathing heavily, he said slowly:

"Even if the entire Xia Country is added together, counting the Special Investigation Team and aristocratic descendants, those who possess this kind of strength will definitely not exceed a hundred..."

"And as for experts of this Rank, the Noah Organization doesn't just have one, there are dozens of them..."

Speaking of this, Captain Chen Rui originally wanted to sneer, but his body suddenly twitched and he let out a painful muffled grunt.

He made a few cracked breathy sounds from deep in his throat, yet still endured the excruciating pain, continuing to speak with an even hoarser voice:

"Rank 10 and Rank 9, S-Rank and A-Rank..."

"The gap between them is like a natural chasm separating Mortals and gods/demons; only by stepping over this threshold can one truly step into another completely new world."

"At that level, one can completely stand above the government and ignore worldly laws and rules."

"There is simply no need to hide like you do, because... there aren't many people left who can threaten your life safety..."

"Those so-called high-ranking officials, wealthy magnates, politicians, and plutocrats are in their eyes nothing more than prey to be hunted at will!"

Captain Chen Rui paused again, gasping with difficulty for quite a while.

His voice was already feeble beyond endurance, yet a trace of fanaticism inexplicably burned in his eyes:

"They even dare to enter those terrifying Forbidden Grounds that ordinary people avoid, hunting down mysterious sources of pollution."

"Thus gaining unimaginable achievements and the opportunity to touch that kind of power belonging to gods..."

"When I first joined the Noah Organization, my initial expectation was also to reach that terrifyingly strong level..."

Having said this, Captain Chen Rui sighed gloomily, filled with thick unwillingness.

It was like the despairing and regretful lament uttered by a climber who was only a single step away from the peak, yet ultimately collapsed from exhaustion.

Hearing this, Fang Cheng's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help pressing on:

"Source of pollution, what does that mean?"

"Hehe..."

Captain Chen Rui let out another meaningless sneer.

His head slowly drooped down without answering, his mouth stiffly maintaining a terrifying arc.

Fang Cheng's eyes condensed, noticing that abnormal ashen look on the other's face.

His heart stirred instantly, and he quickly reached out, grabbing Captain Chen Rui's jaw and forcibly prying open his mouth.

A small black, partially dissolved object was mixed in the other's saliva full of blood foam.

The moment he saw this thing, Fang Cheng suddenly understood in his heart.

But it was too late.

Obviously, just a moment ago, while talking, Captain Chen Rui had bitten open the highly toxic capsule hidden behind his teeth.

The fatal venom had already rapidly spread down his throat, eroding his shattered life at an astonishing speed.

Although this person acted perversely and was a complete lunatic, his personality possessed an unexpected tenacity.

Rather than dying a humiliating death at the enemy's hands, he chose to end his own life.

Fang Cheng looked at Captain Chen Rui's face, which had completely lost its vitality, and his thoughts shifted:

Did this guy deliberately say these words before dying to strike a blow to my confidence and shake my willpower?

Then a slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and he said in a low voice:

"Unfortunately, you miscalculated."

With a panel of his own, how could he stop advancing just because of a mere S-Rank enemy.

As long as I am given time, I can continuously grow stronger and surpass every single opponent I meet one by one!

Fang Cheng let go of his hand, letting Captain Chen Rui's corpse slide to the ground, and then straightened his body.

His gaze quickly swept across the messy slaughterhouse, and finally landed on those shivering fierce dogs in the corner.

Having resolved the prey, next was the most laborious task—faking the crime scene.

Moments later, a few short and shrill dog barks abruptly sounded inside the slaughterhouse, then stopped abruptly.

In the air, the smell of blood seemed to have grown a bit heavier.

The rain poured down like pouring ink, as if the sky had been splashed with thick ink, soaking the entire world in a viscous darkness.

That white refrigerated truck sat quietly in the mud.

Two dim yellow headlights penetrated the rain screen, like two hollow and lifeless eyes, gazing at this land shrouded by darkness and death.

Creak—

A teeth-gritting frictional sound of an axle turning rang out.

The rusty iron door of the slaughterhouse was forcefully pushed open from the inside.

A tall figure draped in a black raincoat slowly walked out from the darkness.

Every step trod into the mud, making a soft "squish" sound, yet it appeared exceptionally steady without the slightest stagger.

The tyrannical rain washed away the suspicious dark red stains on his raincoat, and quickly smoothed out the shallow footprints he left in the mud.

Fang Cheng stood in the torrential rain, taking a deep breath of the cold and damp air.

Then he slowly exhaled the turbid air from his lungs.

No wonder those serial killers in movies all liked to haunt the rainy nights.

Fang Cheng wiped his wetted face from under the brim of his hat, thinking to himself.

Although such a heavy rain restricted movement, it could indeed save a lot of cleanup work, simply being a natural invisible barrier.

In the future, he might choose to handle matters more often on rainy days.

Woo~ Woo~

While contemplating, a faint sound of police sirens drifted vaguely from afar.

Fang Cheng raised his eyelids and looked towards the direction of the city center.

Ink-like dense clouds hung low and rolled, as if they were about to collapse.

The city lights across the vast rain screen appeared so distant and dim, unreal like a mirage.

Just like, that was another world...

Withdrawing his gaze, Fang Cheng stopped lingering, pulled down the brim of his hat, and with a swift flash of his figure, quickly merged into this darkness mixed with wind and rain.

Next, there were other prey waiting for him to "visit".

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.

Whoosh—

A gust of fierce wind swept howlingly, drilling into the ferocious hole on the wall of the slaughterhouse, swirling and echoing.

A darkness so thick it couldn't be dissolved shrouded everything here.

Only the lightning occasionally piercing the night sky illuminated this space filled with death and gore.

On the ground, dark red viscous pools of blood and severed limbs could be seen everywhere.

Like an Asura field that had just experienced a tragic sacrifice.

Many rusty iron hooks hung down from the ceiling.

On one of the iron hooks hung a battered corpse.

Its limbs presented an unnatural twist, swinging slightly like a pendulum with the gusts of fierce wind pouring in from the hole.

In those wide-open eyes, there seemed to remain the look of unwillingness from the very last moment before death.

The deceased was precisely Captain Chen Rui.

And behind him, on that wall splashed with filthy blood.

A demonic face pattern, painted with fresh blood and bearing an eerie smile, loomed faintly in the flashes of lightning.

It exuded a chilling, terrifying aura, as if mocking some overconfident fools.

...

Lead-grey clouds hung heavily over the midnight city.

Although the rain had eased up considerably, visibility remained extremely low.

Swish—

A black sedan drove out of the parking lot of an apartment building, its tires splashing up large volumes of water.

The windshield wipers swung back and forth tirelessly, clearing away the blurred rain streaks on the windshield.

On the center console display, the numbers flickered, showing the time—02:07.

A slender, powerful hand gently turned the volume knob.

The radio crackled with static.

Then, a soft female voice sounded, carrying the laziness and magnetic quality unique to the late night:

"Dear night-walking listeners, welcome back to 《Midnight Whispers》."

"Tonight, we will take you deep into the Soul to experience those forgotten melodies of the past days. Next up, we recommend the early hit song "Departing Person" by the love song prince Lin Zhixuan..."

Accompanied by the host's introduction, a soothing and melodious tune and singing slowly flowed within the enclosed carriage.

Like a hot cup of tea in the middle of the night, it added a rare sense of tranquility to this damp, desolate early morning.

Fang Cheng held the steering wheel firmly with both hands.

The blood-stained raincoat was tossed casually on the back seat floor mat.

His gaze pierced through the rain-blurred car window, staring at the blurred scenery of light and shadow outside.

The colors of the neon lights were twisted and elongated, forming streaks of flowing light on the glass and blurring the city's boundaries.

By now, he had left the relatively remote suburbs and driven into the junction area between Guanlan District and JB District.

The buildings and lights here began to grow denser, revealing the prosperous silhouette proper to a metropolis.

After smoothly disposing of Captain Chen Rui at the slaughterhouse, Fang Cheng did not pause at all, hurrying without stopping to the residence of another Advanced cadre of the Noah Organization.

According to Xu Hao's intelligence, that member was a Rank 7 cadre, formerly a special forces soldier.

After being enhanced through human experimentation, his physical fitness was exceptionally formidable, and he was particularly skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

But Fang Cheng silently sneaked into his residence, and with just a punch and a kick, completely blew him apart, turning him into a pile of rotting meat.

He didn't even leave himself a chance for interrogation.

Had he known earlier, Fang Cheng would have gone a bit lighter.

However, compared to Captain Chen Rui, that person's strength was truly not on the same order of magnitude at all.

Or rather, Captain Chen Rui's state after transforming had long exceeded the scope of a normal Rank 7 cadre.

At the very least, it was close to "Ghost", the former head of the Dongdu Intelligence Department who had also been killed by him.

Fang Cheng's gaze swept across the rain-washed street, habitually searching.

He wanted to see if there were any late-night snack stalls still open at this hour.

After finishing these two bouts of physical labor, his stomach was truly a bit hungry.

Unfortunately, in this weather, and at past two in the morning, the streets were desolate, with only streetlights standing guard in loneliness.

The vast majority of shops had their doors tightly shut, pitch black.

Fang Cheng withdrew his gaze, planning his next step in his heart.

He had just received the latest intelligence from Xu Hao; not far from the Midnight Forest Bar, there was another small stronghold of the Noah Organization.

It was deduced that there might be cadre-level figures left behind guarding it.

He decided to drop by and take a look on the way.

Once this hunting target was resolved, he could call it a day tonight and go home to rest well.

Thinking of this, Fang Cheng raised his head, his sharp gaze piercing through the rain curtain to look toward the end of the road ahead.

At an intersection about one kilometer away, red and blue police lights could be faintly seen flashing.

Several police officers wearing reflective raincoats, fully armed, were standing guard in the rain behind a temporarily established checkpoint, inspecting passing vehicles.

Fang Cheng's eyes flashed slightly, and unhurriedly, he fished out a palm-sized portable police strobe light from the storage compartment under the passenger seat.

Then he lowered the car window slightly, reached out his arm, and attached the magnetic warning light to the center of the roof with a "click" sound.

Next, he immediately pressed the remote control button at his side.

"Woo—woo—woo—"

The sharp and urgent siren suddenly sounded, instantly piercing the tranquility of the rainy night and appearing exceptionally grating on this empty street.

The police officers on duty at the intersection heard the siren and saw a black car speeding over with a warning light on top, subconsciously assuming that "one of their own" from some department was executing an urgent mission or chasing a fugitive.

With almost no hesitation, the officer in charge of the roadblock immediately waved to signal passage and quickly moved the roadblock aside.

Fang Cheng's expression remained unchanged as he steadily drove the sedan, roaring past the checkpoint without receiving any interrogation or obstruction.

The siren continued all the way forward, and after reaching a distance, it was turned off by him again.

Then, along with the vehicle, it quickly disappeared into the depths of the rain curtain.

Meanwhile, on an access road not far from the checkpoint,

a black SUV with special license plates quietly parked by the roadside.

Inside the cabin, the rich aroma of braised beef noodle seasoning packets permeated, mixed with a faint smell of tobacco.

Two young men in plainclothes were wolfing down instant noodles.

The instant noodles were loaded with ingredients—ham sausages, spiced eggs, and pickled mustard tubers were all there, with bright red chili oil floating on the noodle soup.

The two ate until they were covered in sweat, the corners of their mouths shining with grease.

They were precisely two administrative officers of the Special Investigation Team, Officer Zhou Liang and A-Li.

Under the command of Captain Gao Jin, they and their teammates had truly captured quite a few people from the Noah Organization tonight.

They just hadn't expected that the scale of the Noah Organization's operation this time would be so massive.

The Special Investigation Team was severely understaffed, and could only watch helplessly as most of the criminals fled in all directions.

Officer Zhou Liang and A-Li had just escorted a batch of captured prisoners back to headquarters to complete the handover, without even taking a sip of water, before being sent out again to continue patrolling, hoping to pick up a few escaping fish that slipped through the net.

Taking advantage of the temporary absence of new orders, the two quickly found a relatively secluded spot, brewed two buckets of noodles, and replenished their long-overdrawn physical strength.

"Damn it, that kid Xu Hao's intelligence is unclear!"

A-Li slurped up the last bite of noodle soup, wiped his mouth, and couldn't help complaining:

"If I'd known Noah was playing this big this time, we should have transferred Old Yang's team over too!"

"How could just Captain Gao and Commander Qin be enough? It ended up forcing us to just follow behind and clean up their messes, with even fewer chances to score merits!"

"Alright, be content."

Officer Zhou Liang was relatively calmer. He tore open another packet of pickled mustard tubers and poured it into the remaining soup, stirring while advising:

"If the whole team's elite really went out, then it truly wouldn't have anything to do with us; at most we'd be standing guard on the perimeter. Like this, at least we can still catch a few small fries, and the year-end evaluation will look a bit better."

A-Li curled his lip, wanting to say something more, when his gaze inadvertently swept past the car window.

He happened to see the black car sounding its siren earlier speeding past.

He suddenly let out an "eh," a hint of surprise appearing on his face.

"What? Found a target?"

Officer Zhou Liang asked without raising his head, concentrating on dealing with the noodles in his bowl.

"No."

A-Li smacked his lips, saying somewhat uncertainly:

"That buddy who drove past just now... couldn't see too clearly through the rain, but why did that profile of his look a bit like you, kid? Could it be your long-lost biological brother?"

"Get lost, my mom only gave birth to me!"

Officer Zhou Liang raised his head with annoyance, glaring at his partner:

"Eat your noodles, stop talking nonsense. Who knows which branch bureau's brothers are rushing off to handle a police call."

Finishing speaking, he lowered his head again, slurping up his noodles loudly, and no longer paid attention to his partner's nonsense.

After a brief rest, they still had to plunge back into this long and dangerous rainy night pursuit.

Special Investigation Team administrative officers seemed very prestigious to the officers outside, but in essence, they were no different from ordinary wage earners, even more tired and dangerous.

The hardship and pressure among it were only known to themselves.

On this stormy night, their mission had just begun.

Meanwhile, inside an abandoned lighthouse on the coast of Qingshui Bay,

someone was also waiting patiently.