Ding Qing was still shaken, gasping for breath, the wound on his arm still bleeding, and a stab wound in his abdomen, but he still nodded.
Johnny supported him, aimed his Pistol at the elevator, and fired again!
Puff, puff, puff!
He headshotted the three men below him, their blood splattering gruesomely inside the elevator car. The surrounding thugs attempting to close in were also deterred by Johnny's sudden appearance and ruthless marksmanship, not daring to approach too closely for a while.
"Go!"
Johnny roared, no longer bothering with the small fry around them, and covered Ding Qing as they quickly retreated towards another exit of the parking lot.
Behind them, the elevator doors, having been open for too long, emitted a piercing alarm and slowly began to close.
On the parking lot floor, only a scene of chaos remained: overturned vehicles, wounded men and corpses lying about, and the lingering smell of blood and gunpowder.
Ding Qing's second fatal crisis was once again resolved by the timely arrival of Johnny, in the most professional and ruthless manner.
It must be said that this time it was indeed a close call; if not for Johnny's timely arrival, Ding Qing would have been finished.
Meanwhile, on the first floor of the Goldmoon Building.
The elevator made a crisp "ding" sound, which was particularly jarring in the silent and tense first-floor lobby.
A team of South Korean special police, already on high alert, immediately raised their K1A carbines and K5 Pistols, aiming their muzzles firmly at the slowly opening elevator doors.
They had received an anonymous report of a large-scale violent incident at the Goldmoon Group building and had rushed to the scene.
However, after the doors fully opened, the expected desperate resistance or chaotic scene did not appear.
What met their eyes was a scene like a hellish painting.
The inner walls of the car were splattered and streaked with dark red blood, not yet fully congealed, emitting a strong, metallic odor.
Seven male bodies lay within in various twisted postures, their deaths gruesome. Most critically, all fatal wounds were to the head! Temples, foreheads, back of the heads... bullet holes were clearly visible.
Even the experienced special police officers felt a chill run down their spines at this sight.
This was not the indiscriminate gunfire common in gang clashes, but extremely professional, calm, and efficient execution-style marksmanship!
Every shot went straight for the vital points, without the slightest hesitation or waste.
"Clear!"
A team member quickly confirmed that there were no survivors or threats inside the car, but his tone was filled with disbelief.
The team commander reported in a low voice via radio: "Command Center, target elevator, seven male bodies found, all killed by headshots. Target individual Ding Qing or his bodyguard not found. Repeat, target not found."
The team members looked at each other, their eyes filled with confusion and shock. They had sealed off the building, reacting incredibly quickly, yet the target had seemingly vanished.
Who was it?
In such a short time, who had eliminated so many armed individuals with such ruthless methods and quietly left with the injured Ding Qing?
Jiang Chenghao held the phone, listening to the on-site commander's report, his brows tightly furrowed, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the table.
"Seven people... all headshots... Ding Qing is gone..." He repeated the key information in a low voice, his face turning extremely grim.
His meticulously designed trap, link by link.
He used Lee Joong-ku's madness to pressure Ding Qing, deliberately leaked information for Lee Joong-ku's men to intercept him in the parking lot, calculated that Ding Qing's most likely escape route after being attacked would be that elevator, and laid a true killing blow inside the elevator.
He even arranged for the police to "just happen" to appear at the peak of the conflict, both to clean up the mess and to use the chaos to incriminate Ding Qing or create an accident.
This should have been a perfect 'fisherman reaps the profit from the snipe and clam fighting' scenario.
However, the only, and most fatal, variable in the plan appeared—that killer named Night Owl!
"It's him again..."
Jiang Chenghao's voice carried a sense of gravity and apprehension, "The deadly trap in the elevator... was he able to forcibly break through that too? And in this manner..."
He could almost reconstruct the scene in his mind: in an extremely chaotic and disadvantageous environment, that killer, with absolute calm and terrifyingly precise marksmanship, instantly reversed the situation, brutally tearing open a path to survival from a death trap.
This kind of ability far exceeded the scope of ordinary gang thugs or even typical assassins.
Jiang Chenghao finally realized that he had severely underestimated the strength of this external aid and his importance to Ding Qing.
Ding Qing hadn't found an ordinary knife, but a fanged beast capable of reversing life and death!
"Night Owl..."
He looked at the seemingly ordinary name on the file, his eyes becoming incredibly sharp, "It seems, to deal with Ding Qing, I must first remove you, this thorn."
His plan needed adjustment.
The news reached Lee Joong-ku's ears through covert channels.
"What?! Seven people all dead?! Ding Qing escaped?! Leo is gone?! Siba! Useless! A bunch of useless trash!"
Lee Joong-ku was in a rage in his solitary confinement cell, slamming his fist hard against the wall, his knuckles instantly red and swollen.
He had paid a huge price, used hidden forces, and even exposed some of his trump cards, thinking his foolproof assassination plan was finally set, yet it had failed again!
"Night Owl... It's that Night Owl again!"
Lee Joong-ku gasped for breath, his eyes bloodshot and filled with mad hatred. He remembered the name; Secretary Han had mentioned it, a top-tier expert Ding Qing had found from who knows where.
"No matter who you are... no matter how good you are at fighting..."
Lee Joong-ku's voice was like a beast's growl, "I will make sure you die! I will make sure Ding Qing dies!"
But he was currently imprisoned, filled with towering rage, yet feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.
The repeated failures of the operations outside meant that his prestige and control within the group were rapidly eroding.
In an inconspicuous hotel room somewhere in the city.
Ding Qing slumped in a chair, his face pale. The stab wound in his abdomen and the cut on his arm had been given preliminary treatment and bandaged by Johnny using a first-aid kit.
Although it couldn't heal him, the emergency treatment could keep him alive; the rest naturally depended on his body's endurance. However, Ding Qing's physique was indeed far beyond what ordinary people could compare to.
Despite such severe injuries, he was still largely fine, and of course, he also had to be grateful that the stab hadn't hit a vital organ.
The pain made cold sweat seep from his forehead, but what chilled him even more were the continuous assassinations and betrayals.
"Big Brother, have some water."
A loyal subordinate who had managed to follow them handed him a bottle of water.
Ding Qing took it but didn't drink, only looking at Johnny, who stood by the window, pulling back a corner of the curtain to cautiously observe outside.
"Mr. Zhang, once again... thank you."
Ding Qing's voice was a bit hoarse, carrying the fatigue of surviving a disaster and sincere gratitude.
Without Johnny, he would have surely died today, and twice at that.
Johnny lowered the curtain and turned around, his face still expressionless: "It's my duty. We can't stay here long. The police and Lee Joong-ku's men are both looking for us. We need to move to a safer place as soon as possible."
Ding Qing nodded, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes: "I know. Lee Joong-ku... Jiang Chenghao... they think they can bring me down like this?"
He struggled to sit upright, the pain making him grimace, but his eyes once again gathered the sharp aura of a formidable figure: "It seems it's time to let them see what true 'fish dies, net breaks' means."
Johnny said nothing.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"