Viper sprinted across the damp concrete foundation deck, his rubber-soled combat boots making no sound against the mist-slicked stone.
Behind him, eleven shadow-clad mercenaries moved in tight tactical formation. Each carried a ten-pound block of military-grade thermite wrapped in waterproof neoprene, equipped with radio-controlled magnesium fuses.
At the base of the central climbing crane, Viper raised his left hand, signaling an immediate halt.
“Team One, secure the eastern tower leg,” Viper ordered through his throat microphone. “Team Two, take the western leg. Slap the magnetic brackets against the main load-bearing flanges. We light the fuses together on my mark.”
Wolf, his second-in-command, knelt beside the thick blue steel column of the German hybrid crane. He peeled the adhesive tape from the thermite block, slamming the heavy magnetic clamp against the alloy beam.
CLACK.
The powerful magnet locked onto the metal with a dull metallic thud.
Wolf pulled a digital countdown igniter from his tactical vest, his eyes gleaming with vicious anticipation behind his Kevlar balaclava. “Igniters armed. Three thousand degrees of pure chemical heat. In ninety seconds, this German crane will melt into glowing syrup. The sixty-meter boom will topple directly across the foundation, smashing the jade pillars to dust!”
Viper reached for his master radio trigger, sneering beneath his mask.
“These spoiled corporate billionaires think a few security guards can protect an empire,” Viper scoffed softly. “Light the thermite! Once Master Lu Jian’s cranes collapse, Taichu Sky-Tower will be shut down for a year!”
He drove his combat boot down onto the deck to pivot toward the southern perimeter.
The moment Viper’s heel struck the steel decking plate, an ancient mechanical balance shifted beneath the foundation.
TICK.
A sound like an antique clockwork spring releasing echoed through the subterranean rebar.
Beneath the feet of all twelve mercenaries, the solid steel decking plates dropped three inches on oiled hydraulic springs.
CLANG-SHNK!
Heavy, interlocking manganese-steel jaws shot up from the deck seams like giant mechanical bear-traps!
Master Lu Jian’s pressure-sensitive [Nine-Palace Interlocking Steel Baffles] snapped shut with terrifying speed. Precision spring-loaded teeth clamped tight around the boots and shins of all twelve intruders!
“A trap!” Wolf shrieked, stumbling forward as the steel teeth bit into his Kevlar gaiters. “My leg is pinned! I can’t move!”
Viper thrashed violently, drawing a hardened tactical pry-bar from his belt. He jammed the wedge into the interlocking baffle teeth and threw his full weight against it.
CLINK.
The ancient Luban mortise-and-tenon locking cams did not budge a single millimeter.
The more pressure Viper exerted, the tighter the secondary counter-weight teeth bit into his ankle, locking his joint in an unbreakable iron vise.
“What kind of demonic mechanism is this?!” Viper cursed, sweat pouring down his face beneath his mask. “Cut the hinges! Use the thermite torches!”
Before any mercenary could strike an igniter, a deafening electronic hum cut through the night mist.
CLICK-BOOM.
Thirty heavy stadium floodlights mounted on the scaffolding blazed to life all at once.
Ten thousand watts of brilliant white light washed across the foundation deck, turning the dark fog into daytime glare. The twelve mercenaries raised their hands to shield their blinded eyes.
“Drop your weapons and place your hands on your heads!” a booming voice roared from above.
Fifty dark figures dropped silently from the steel catwalks forty feet overhead.
They wore matte-black tactical armor, night-vision monoculars, and shock-resistant ballistic helmets. Each man carried a heavy polycarbonate riot shield and an electrified tactical stun-baton: the elite night-watch unit of the Righteous Iron Guard!
Two mercenaries on the left frantically reached for silenced pistols holstered at their hips.
Before their fingers touched the grips, four Iron Guard veterans slammed forward. Their heavy riot shields crashed into the mercenaries’ chests with concussive force, knocking them flat on their backs. Electric stun-batons crackled with bright blue sparks, delivering forty thousand volts that locked their muscles in agonizing spasms.
Commander Tie Niu descended the central access ladder with effortless agility. He landed on the concrete deck with a heavy thud, his muscular arms folded across his chest.
Viper gritted his teeth. As an External-Martial expert who had fought in underground death-matches, he refused to surrender.
With a roar of fury, Viper twisted his pinned ankle, wrenched a ceramic combat knife from his chest sheath, and lunged toward Tie Niu’s throat!
Tie Niu did not even blink.
He stepped inside Viper’s reach with the speed of a striking cobra. His left forearm slapped Viper’s attacking wrist aside, shattering the ceramic blade against his armored gauntlet.
SNAP.
Tie Niu’s right hand clamped onto Viper’s collar like an iron claw. With a short, explosive hip twist, Tie Niu hurled the two-hundred-pound mercenary leader through the air.
BAM!
Viper crashed face-first onto the steel deck, his knife clattering away into the drainage trough.
Before Viper could push himself up, Tie Niu stepped on the mercenary’s right shoulder blade. A sharp downward pulse of internal martial qi pinned Viper to the floor like a dead beetle.
“Move an inch, and your shoulder turns to gravel,” Tie Niu said coldly.
The remaining nine mercenaries looked at the fifty leveled shock-batons and dropped their detonators onto the deck.
“We surrender!” Wolf wept, raising his hands. “We surrender! Don’t shock us!”
From the shadows of the main hoist platform, footsteps approached.
Lin Mo walked out into the bright white floodlights. He wore a warm wool overcoat and carried his stainless thermos in his right hand.
Beside him, young chief apprentice Lu Xiao carried a portable tablet linked to the site security system.
Hiring External-Martial mercenaries to plant thermite on a construction site is pathetic, Lin Mo thought deadpan. Especially when the site is protected by automated Luban bear-traps and fifty combat veterans. Lei Bao’s tactical planning belongs in a cartoon.
Lin Mo stopped three paces in front of Viper. He took a quiet sip of warm tea.
[SCANNING CAPTURED ENEMY: VIPER (LEADER OF SHADOW-FANG MERCENARY SQUAD)]
[GOODNESS SCORE: -2/100 — UNDERGROUND SABOTEUR, CONVICTED ARSONIST]
[EVIDENCE DETECTED: 12 MILITARY THERMITE CHARGES, 4K BODY-CAM RECORDINGS, BANK DEPOSIT LOGS]
[CONFESSION EXTRACTED: PAID ¥3,000,000 CASH BY BLACK-SAND BOSS LEI BAO & ZHAO CONSORTIUM TO DESTROY TAICHU CRANES]
Lin Mo looked down at the mercenary leader. “Who gave the order?”
Viper spit blood onto the steel deck. “Kill me. I won’t say a word.”
Tie Niu pressed his boot a fraction of an inch deeper.
CRACK.
Viper’s collarbone popped, and the mercenary let out an agonized scream.
“You don’t need to speak,” Lin Mo said calmly. “Your throat mic was transmitting on an unencrypted frequency. Our communications array recorded every word you spoke to Lei Bao’s dispatch operator. And your waterproof chest pouch has the deposit receipt from Zhao Commercial Bank.”
Lin Mo signaled to Lu Xiao. “Disarm the thermite charges and secure the memory cards.”
“Yes, Chairman!” Lu Xiao said, quickly packing the evidence into yellow police bags.
Lin Mo turned to Commander Tie Niu and the fifty night-watch guards.
The fifty veterans stood at rigid attention under the bright stadium lights, their armor pristine and their eyes sharp.
[TARGET GROUP: COMMANDER TIE NIU & 50 RIGHTEOUS IRON GUARD NIGHT-WATCH VETERANS]
[AVERAGE GOODNESS SCORE: 92/100 — LOYAL PROTECTORS, PREVENTED CATASTROPHIC CIVIC TERRORISM]
[MORALE: HIGH — DEDICATED TO DEFENDING TAICHU SANCTUARY SITES]
Rewarding bravery on the spot is the only way to build an unbreakable army, Lin Mo thought. A stingy general creates deserters. A generous leader creates an iron wall that no amount of dirty cartel money can breach.
Lin Mo pulled out his phone and turned to Su Wan, who had just stepped onto the deck with the mobile banking terminal.
“Su Wan, issue an immediate emergency night-combat bravery bonus,” Lin Mo ordered. “One hundred thousand yuan cash to each of the fifty guards standing on this deck.”
The fifty veterans looked at each other in stunned silence.
“One hundred thousand?” one young guard whispered, his hands trembling against his riot shield. “Just for catching twelve saboteurs?”
“You saved four heavy cranes, our foundation array, and the lives of two thousand builders who sleep in the dorms,” Lin Mo said firmly. “You earned every cent. Furthermore, allocate three million yuan to Taichu Armory to purchase fifty sets of next-generation titanium-ceramic tactical shields and active-spectrum night-vision goggles. Total expenditure: eight million yuan.”
Su Wan swiped the terminal.
BEEP.
A crisp, sweet chime echoed inside Lin Mo’s consciousness:
[Ding! Detected spending of ¥8,000,000.00 RMB on Commander Tie Niu (Goodness: 95/100) and 50 Righteous Iron Guard Night-Watch Veterans!]
[Target Integrity Verified: Courageous defense of innocent workers and public life-safety infrastructure.]
[Triggered 100x Pure Benevolence System Refund!]
[Received Cash Refund: +¥800,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Funds deposited directly into Host Personal Liquid Vault!]
[Personal Liquid Vault: ¥32,864,180,000.50 RMB!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +800,000 BMP!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 7,060 verified righteous allies (+50: veteran night-watch guards)!]
Eight hundred million cash refund, Lin Mo thought, feeling the warm, invigorating pulse in his vault. Nearly thirty-two point nine billion in liquid wealth. Spending eight million to protect a billion-dollar project and making eight hundred million profit in return. Honest defense is the most lucrative investment on the market.
The fifty guards snapped a crisp, unified salute, their boots slamming against the deck in thunderous unison.
“Thank you, Chairman Lin!” the guards shouted, their voices echoing across the river. “Taichu Iron Guard will defend this sanctuary with our lives!”
Tie Niu bowed his head with deep emotion. “Chairman, the perimeter is secure. What do we do with these twelve rats?”
“Tie them up with heavy zip-ties and leave them in the tool shed,” Lin Mo instructed. “Our chief counsel will deal with them shortly.”
***
At dawn, golden sunlight broke through the river mist, illuminating the rising steel superstructure of the Sky-Tower.
A black Audi sedan pulled up to the site gates.
Chief Counsel Shen Qiaoqiao stepped out, wearing a sharp navy-blue power suit and holding a thick leather legal portfolio. Behind her, two paralegals carried rolling aluminum briefcases filled with case files.
Shen Qiaoqiao walked up to the observation deck, where Lin Mo stood watching the morning shift of two thousand builders arrive in high spirits.
“Good morning, Chairman,” Shen Qiaoqiao said, pushing her glasses up her nose. “I heard we had late-night visitors.”
Lin Mo smiled and handed her a sealed evidence envelope.
Inside rested twelve signed confessions, six military thermite detonators, and a high-speed flash drive containing the complete audio wiretaps and 4K body-cam footage of the sabotage attempt.
“Twelve External-Martial saboteurs hired by Lei Bao and the Zhao Consortium,” Lin Mo said. “Their team leader confirmed that Patriarch Zhao Tianxiong personally authorized the three-million-yuan bounty.”
Shen Qiaoqiao opened the folder, skimming the bank deposit records and transcriptions. A brilliant, predatory smile curled her lips.
“Patriarch Zhao Tianxiong really signed his corporate seal to this wire transfer,” Shen Qiaoqiao chuckled softly. “Under national counter-terrorism statutes, attempting to detonate industrial thermite charges on a municipal high-rise construction site is classified as Category-One Public Endangerment. The statute carries a mandatory life sentence and total forfeiture of commercial assets.”
Shen Qiaoqiao checked her gold wristwatch.
“Chairman, the Jiangcheng Municipal Urban Renewal Auction begins at nine o’clock this morning at City Hall,” Shen Qiaoqiao said, her eyes flashing with excitement. “Zhao Real Estate publicly announced they intend to buy all three blocks surrounding our Sky-Tower to build waste transfer dumps and block our road access. Patriarch Zhao arranged an eight-hundred-million-yuan credit line with his cronies at Commercial Bank.”
Lin Mo set his thermos into his coat pocket and turned toward the parking lot.
“A city cannot thrive when predators treat municipal auctions as their private playground,” Lin Mo observed, stepping toward the Maybach. “Zhao Tianxiong spent forty years building a corrupt empire on bribes and shoddy construction. Today, he will learn what happens when an empire built on rotten bamboo collides with cold, hard cash.”
“The judges and the land bureau officers will love this,” Shen Qiaoqiao agreed, tapping the leather folder with her fountain pen. “Our legal team has prepared six separate asset attachment petitions. By the time the auction hammer falls, Zhao Real Estate will not own a single square foot of dirt in that district.”
“Then bring that confession tape and those bank statements directly to City Hall,” Lin Mo said with a cold, calm smile. “Patriarch Zhao thinks he will outbid us with leveraged bank loans. Let us see how he bids when the auction committee and the municipal police play this audio in the main auditorium!”