89: Chapter 89 The End of a Tycoon: The "Gate of Life" Leading to Hell

Wan Hong, the South Wa capital that Bao Youxiang once bragged was a "little fortress in Southeast Asia," was currently trembling under the tracks of the Death God Legion.

"Boom—!!"

A deafening roar, as if the earth itself had shaken three times.

A 120mm high-explosive shell, carrying the whistle of the Death God Legion, struck the imposing vermilion gate of the Wa State United Army Commander-in-Chief's headquarters.

The two majestic white marble lions instantly turned into a sky full of gravel, scattering in all directions like a funeral salute for this old era.

Before the smoke and dust had cleared, an M1A2 SEPv3 main battle tank, painted in digital jungle camouflage, smashed through the wall like a prehistoric beast just charged out of hell, its tracks crushing the broken bricks and tiles as it charged into the courtyard.

The coaxial machine gun on the tank body spat fire like a dragon, turning the guard company soldiers who were still trying to resist behind sandbags into sieves, along with their sandbags.

Inside the main building of the headquarters, it had already become a pot of boiling porridge.

Documents and papers fluttered like snowflakes, the arrogant staff officers of ordinary days dropped their phones and fled, and the once-insufferable officers now only hated that their parents hadn't given them two more legs, even drawing guns on each other to fight for the escape route.

And on the third basement level, in the core safe room that claimed to be able to withstand nuclear attacks, the air was suffocatingly heavy.

Bao Youxiang, the warlord who had ruled South Wa for decades, was currently sweating profusely, stuffing things into several huge silver aluminum alloy suitcases, completely losing his image.

Gold bars, bundles of Franklin-faced US dollars, pigeon-egg-sized uncut rubies... these were the savings he had scraped together for half his life, stained with blood and tears, and they were also his capital for a comeback.

"Hurry up! Everyone hurry the fuck up! Didn't you eat?!"

Bao Youxiang roared at his son Bao Junfeng, who was scrambling to help, and Xiao Mingliang, who had an ashen face. Spit sprayed onto both of their faces. "Stop taking those worthless documents! What do you need paper for when you're about to lose your life?! As long as we're alive and have the money, we can go to Thailand, go to Europe, and we'll still be rich! We can still live like gods!"

The American consultant Sam no longer had his usual "God's-eye view" arrogance.

He carried a bulging tactical backpack, clutched an M4 carbine tightly in his hand, his tactical helmet was crooked, and he kept looking at his watch with a panicked expression.

"General Bao, we don't have much time!" Sam's voice carried undisguised fear. "Satellite imagery shows that Zhang Cheng's vanguard has captured the first floor and is assaulting the basement! Their demolition team is blowing up the partition walls! If we don't leave now, it will be too late! I don't want to die in this hellhole!"

"Go! We go now!" Bao Youxiang slammed the suitcase shut. With a "click," it locked. A flash of cunning and ruthlessness crossed his face. "That little bastard Zhang Cheng thinks he's won? Hmph, I've managed Wan Hong for decades; I've long had a backup plan! Want to catch me? In your next life!"

He walked quickly to the corner of the safe room, stopped in front of a seemingly ordinary bookshelf, and reached out to turn a nondescript blue and white porcelain vase.

"Zha zha zha..."

Accompanied by the dull sound of mechanical friction, the bookshelf slowly moved to the sides, revealing a thick explosion-proof steel door with dual fingerprint and iris password locks behind it.

"This is an escape route I secretly built five years ago, costing 20 million US dollars!" Bao Youxiang looked at the group triumphantly, his eyes as if he were looking at a bunch of country bumpkins who had never seen the world. "It leads directly to the primeval forest five kilometers outside the city, where a fully fueled helicopter and two bulletproof off-road vehicles are hidden. Besides me and the foreman who built it—of course, I've already silenced him—no one knows about this path! Even if Zhang Cheng turns Wan Hong upside down, he won't be able to catch a single hair of mine!"

The once desperate eyes of Bao Junfeng and Xiao Mingliang suddenly ignited with hope, and even Sam breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead: "God bless! General Bao, you really are an old fox! I knew I was right to follow you!"

"Cut the crap! Get in!"

Bao Youxiang quickly entered the password and passed the iris verification. The steel door clicked open, revealing a deep, dry cement tunnel that even had emergency lights on. A cold wind blew out from inside, but everyone took it as the breath of freedom.

The group, like stray dogs, dragged the heavy money boxes and plunged into the tunnel. As the steel door closed heavily behind them, the gunfire on the surface was instantly cut off, and the surroundings fell into a suffocating silence, with only rapid footsteps and heavy breathing echoing.

The tunnel was long, extending downwards. Bao Youxiang walked at the very front. Although he was panting and his lungs hurt like a bellows, the smile at the corners of his mouth grew thicker.

"Zhang Cheng, oh Zhang Cheng, you are still too green after all." He cursed viciously in his heart, "Ginger is still spicier when it's old. Once I escape, I will contact my old connections and use this money to put a bounty on your head on the dark web! Three million wasn't enough this time, I'll offer three hundred million! I don't believe there's a life in this world that money can't buy! I will make you sleep with one eye open!"

After walking for about twenty minutes, a faint natural light finally appeared ahead. That was the exit! That was freedom!

"We're here! The exit is ahead!" Bao Junfeng shouted excitedly, ignoring his fatigue, and rushed over as if he had been injected with chicken blood.

The exit was set in an extremely hidden natural cave, covered by dense vines on the outside. As long as they pushed open the door disguised as a rock, there would be the air of freedom, the vast world!

"Freedom! I'm free!" Bao Junfeng pushed open the disguised door and rushed out, breathing in the air outside greedily.

However, the next second, his cheers stopped abruptly, like a duck whose neck had been tightly pinched by an invisible hand.

Bao Youxiang, Xiao Mingliang, and Sam, who followed closely behind, also rushed out. The smiles on their faces hadn't even had time to bloom before they instantly froze, and then everyone stiffened in place, as if petrified.

On the open space outside the cave, there was no helicopter or off-road vehicle as they had expected.

Instead, there were two neat rows of fully armed Death God Legion special soldiers, like black sculptures!

Dozens of black gun barrels reflected a cold metallic luster in the sunlight filtering through the leaves, pointing directly at their foreheads. Even on the surrounding trees, several black-clad ninja-like soldiers were hanging upside down, holding crossbows.

And in the middle, sitting on a portable tactical folding chair, was a tall, cold-faced man. He was wearing black combat gear, his tactical vest was full of magazines, and he was toying with a cold, gleaming tactical dagger, his infrared prosthetic eye flickering with an eerie light in the shadows of the trees.

It was Old K.

"Commander-in-Chief Bao, you walk too slowly." Old K slowly raised his head, put away the dagger, his voice flat without any emotional fluctuations, as if he were waiting for some old friends who were late. "I've been waiting here for a full half hour, the tea is already cold."

"This... this is impossible!"

Bao Youxiang's legs went soft, the money box in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter," and the heavy gold bars hit the stone with a dull thud, scattering all over the floor. He widened his eyes, as if he had seen a ghost, trembling all over: "How did you know about this?! This secret path... no one in the world knows about it!! I killed that foreman and buried him!! "

This was his biggest trump card, his last straw! How could it be exposed?! Could Zhang Cheng really use sorcery?

Old K stood up, patted the dust off his trouser legs, and a mocking arc curled at the corners of his mouth.

"No one knows?" Old K took a transparent sealed bag from his pocket, which contained a very ordinary-looking lipstick—that was the camouflage device Huamei had prepared to release poison gas.

"Did you forget that you once sent a woman named 'Huamei' to Pangkham?" Old K shook the bag in his hand, his eyes playful. "You sent her to die, to execute that childless 'Equinox Flower' plan. Unfortunately, to save her own life, for the sake of her sister studying in Europe, she sold you out completely."

"The blueprints of this secret path, the exit coordinates, and even the passwords—she drew them in the interrogation room more detailed than you, the owner. She even knew where you hid the spare keys."

"Hua... Huamei..." Bao Youxiang felt the world spinning, a mouthful of old blood surged up to his throat, and the fishy, sweet taste filled his mouth.

He had calculated everything, used every poisonous scheme, and in the end, he was defeated by the very "poisoned arrow" he had shot himself! The boomerang had struck his own heart, piercing him through!

"This is retribution." Old K said coldly. "You make others extinct, others will cut off your path to survival. It's fair."

"I am an American citizen! I am a diplomat! I want to see my lawyer! I want to see the American Ambassador!"

Sam, who was next to him, suddenly screamed. He threw away the gun in his hand like a hot potato, raised his hands high, trying to use that set of diplomatic rhetoric to save his life. "You can't kill me! According to the Geneva Convention, I have the right to request..."

"Bang!"

A dull gunshot interrupted his chatter.

A burst of blood exploded from Sam's knee. He screamed and knelt on the ground, his face twisted and distorted.

The one who fired was a Death Soldier next to Old K. The muzzle was still smoking, and his eyes looked at him like he was garbage.

"This is Northern Myanmar, not Washington. Here, my gun is the convention." Old K walked in front of Sam, looking down at him. "The Geneva Convention protects soldiers, not terrorists and troublemakers. You are on our list, belonging to 'harmful trash that must be cleared.' Keeping you alive is because the Master thinks you are still a little useful."

"Don't... don't kill me..." Sam was rolling on the ground in pain, snot and tears streaming down his face. Where was the arrogance of pointing out the country from before?

Bao Junfeng had already pissed his pants, limp on the ground trembling, unable to even say words of mercy. Xiao Mingliang looked ashen, sitting on the ground. He knew everything was over, and all his calculations had come to nothing.

Bao Youxiang looked at the cold-eyed Death Soldiers around him, then at the gold bars scattered on the ground, and suddenly burst into a shrill, manic laugh.

"Hahahaha! Lost! Completely lost!"

He suddenly pulled a gold-plated pistol from his arms, trembling and pointing it at his own temple, his eyes unfocused and crazy: "Zhang Cheng... you are so ruthless! But don't think you can humiliate me! I am the King of Wa State! I will die like a..."

"Whoosh—!"

A cold light flashed.

A flying knife precisely pierced Bao Youxiang's wrist, the huge force carrying his hand to hit the tree trunk next to him, nailing it firmly!

"Ah!" Bao Youxiang screamed, and the pistol fell to the ground.

Old K's figure appeared in front of him like a ghost, kicked him to the ground, and then stepped heavily on his chest, making him unable to move.

"Want to die?" Old K's voice was as cold as a Siberian wind. "The Master said, your life does not belong to you now."

"The crimes you committed, the blood debts you owe, those wronged souls you killed, are all waiting for you. We will take you back to Wan Hong Square, back to Pangkham, and on that high-profile judgment stage, expose all the rotten things you've done one by one! Let the whole world see your true face!"

"You will die, but definitely not now, and definitely not so easily."

Old K waved his hand: "Take them all away! Just keep them alive, don't kill them! Take these gold bars too, this is the construction fund for our new district!"

Several wolf-like Death Soldiers rushed up, roughly pressed Bao Youxiang and others to the ground, tied their hands behind their backs with special zip ties, put black hoods over their heads, and dragged them like dead dogs to the armored personnel carrier parked not far away.

...

Two hours later, in Wan Hong.

As the news of Bao Youxiang's arrest spread, the remaining Wa troops in the city completely gave up resistance. Flags of the "Kokang National Army" with black backgrounds and gold stars were planted in every corner of the city, announcing the arrival of a new era.

When the "Black Hawk" helicopter carrying Zhang Cheng slowly landed on the square in the center of Wan Hong, it was already dusk.

The setting sun was like blood, dyeing this city that had just experienced the baptism of war into a golden red.

On the square, tens of thousands of Wa army prisoners were concentrated and guarded, squatting on the ground in a black mass, not daring to lift their heads. And in the center of the square, Bao Youxiang, Bao Junfeng, Xiao Mingliang, and that American consultant Sam were kneeling in a row, with armed Death Soldiers standing behind them.

Zhang Cheng walked off the helicopter, his leather boots making a crisp sound on the concrete floor. He walked to Bao Youxiang and reached out to take off his hood.

Bao Youxiang squinted, adjusted to the light, and then stared fixedly at this excessively young man in front of him. It was this person who had taken everything from him in just half a year.

"Zhang Cheng..." Bao Youxiang's voice was hoarse, as if he had instantly aged ten years. "The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit, I admit defeat. But don't be smug, Naypyidaw won't let you go, and the Americans won't let you go! The path you are taking is a dead end!"

Zhang Cheng looked at him, with no anger or mockery on his face, only a calmness that saw through the dust of history.

"Whether my path is a dead end is not something you need to worry about. But your path has reached its end."

Zhang Cheng turned around, facing the countless soldiers and onlookers in the square, his voice echoing over Wan Hong through a loudspeaker, stirring everyone's heart and soul:

"That era ruled by the collusion of drug lords, warlords, and foreign forces has ended!"

"From today on, this is no longer a paradise for drugs, no longer a hotbed of crime! This is the North Myanmar Joint Autonomous Region! It is the home of all the common people who want to live a peaceful life!"

"Cheer! Because the darkness has passed, and the dawn has arrived!"

"Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Tens of thousands of Death God Legion soldiers raised the weapons in their hands and let out a heaven-shaking roar. The sound was like a tsunami, washing away the dirt of the old era, announcing the birth of a new hegemon.