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Yunyin Xiaozhu, a secluded cottage in the suburbs of Jiangbei.

The afternoon wind was hot and dry, sweeping over the wall and rustling the leaves.

The courtyard gate was half open, and the ground paved with blue bricks was swept quite clean, with several bamboo chairs scattered under the grape trellis.

In the corner, there were two metal barbecue grills covered with a thin layer of dust, and a few metal skewers were scattered on the tray, indicating that they had not been lit for a long time.

Li Dingjian stood at the door, a half-burnt cigarette between his two fingers.

His usual carefree and nonchalant expression was now as if covered by a layer of frost.

He squinted slightly, his gaze passing through the billowing smoke as he stared at the winding dirt road in the distance, as if waiting for something.

In the corridor of the main room, Fat Tiger, Flying Shadow, Xu Kuan and others were either standing or sitting.

Because the Jinshui Fish Market, which serves as the headquarters, is still undergoing intensive renovations, the newly recruited members have been staying in this secluded farmhouse guesthouse for the past two months.

This place naturally became a temporary meeting place for the Illuminati.

However, despite the large number of people gathered in the courtyard today, it was unusually quiet.

It felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on everyone's chests, making even their breathing heavy.

"These bastards, do they really think the Illuminati is made of clay?"

Fat Tiger exhaled a heavy breath from his nostrils, clenched his fist, which was as big as a palm leaf fan, and slammed it into a wooden pillar in the corridor.

Bang! The dust on the roof was knocked down in a flurry.

Feiying didn't reply, but leaned against the wall, his thumb slowly pushing along the blade of the short sword in his hand.

As a soft, trembling sound echoed in the air, a cold light shone from those slender eyes.

In the center of the main room, Lin Chuqiao examined several pages of newly delivered intelligence reports, her slender fingers pinching creases along the edges of the papers.

The professor sat on the bamboo chair opposite him and raised his hand to push up his black-rimmed glasses.

He frowned slightly, as if he was quickly devising a countermeasure in his mind.

In the corner behind the professor, the little girl Douzi buried her head deep in her knees, her eyes fixed on the ground.

The white mouse named "Xiaobai" sensed its owner's unease and crawled in and out of her sleeve, occasionally standing up and making anxious "squeak" sounds.

A strong smell of blood emanated from the guest room, which was separated by only one wall.

Bailing carried a basin mixed with blood and quickly walked outside. With a splash, she poured the blood into the water trough in the yard.

She hastily shook the water off her hands, turned around, filled a basin with clean water, and hurriedly carried it back into the house.

A young man was lying on a hospital bed inside the room.

His shirt had been cut open, and his bare chest and arms were covered with deep and shallow cuts, the flesh torn and rolled up, a horrifying sight.

Even though several vital areas had been tightly bound with gauze, blood was still seeping out faintly along the edges of the fabric.

Jiang Yun was bending over to treat her wound, her forehead covered in fine sweat.

Bai Ling and Xiao Ya assisted, handing over scissors and cleaning up the bloodstains, appearing extremely busy.

"Li Ran, find me a few more rolls of bandage. Oh, and it would be best to buy a professional hemostat. I need to be quick."

Jiang Yun turned her head and gave instructions to a woman in black standing at the foot of the bed.

The woman said "Oh" and hurriedly wiped her red and swollen eyes.

His eyes were glistening with tears, as if he had just been crying.

She immediately turned around and started rummaging through the shelves next to her.

"The medicine is here! The medicine is here!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Sa, carrying a large, multi-layered medical kit, quickly squeezed into the group of women.

As he deftly opened the hidden compartment of the medicine box and took out hemostats, bandages, and high-concentration alcohol, he said:
"Sister Jiang, use this. In our line of work, there's always the risk of getting injured and bleeding. I've already stocked these first-aid kits and medicines in my car."

Jiang Yun didn't stand on ceremony and immediately reached out to take the hemostat.

She was originally a nurse and took the initiative to take on the job of saving lives.

With a flick of the wrist, the movements were extremely swift; cutting open the bloodstained clothing, cleaning the wound, applying medicine and bandaging—the entire process exuded professionalism and efficiency.

Just then, the faint hum of a car engine could be heard outside the courtyard gate.

"coming!"

Li Dingjian's eyes sharpened, he flicked the cigarette butt into the mud with his finger, extinguished it with his toe, and turned to look in the direction of the highway.

Hearing the noise, Fat Tiger perked up and immediately released the pillar. Hiei also sheathed his sword and stood up straight.

The professor in the main room quickly stood up and straightened his clothes.

Lin Chuqiao stepped out of the threshold first, walking briskly toward the courtyard gate.

A black Land Rover SUV rolled over the gravel on the ground and came to a steady stop in front of the yard.

With a click, the car door opened, and Fang Cheng stepped out.

"Acheng."

Li Dingjian was the first to step forward and greet them.

"uncle."

Fang Cheng responded, then turned his gaze to Lin Chuqiao, who was walking quickly towards him.

"Brother Cheng, you're here so fast."

Seeing the familiar figure, Lin Chuqiao's tense face relaxed slightly, and she let out a long breath.

"There were few cars on the road, so it didn't cause much of a delay."

Fang Cheng replied casually, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the courtyard, before getting straight to the point:

"What exactly happened?"

That's right.

Upon hearing this, Lin Chuqiao took a deep breath, tucked the stray hairs from her forehead behind her ear, and quickly went through the situation:
"Didn't the professor just recruit three new people last week?"

Fang Cheng nodded slightly; the professor had reported this matter to him before.

The three men were named Li Jie, Li Fei, and Li Ran.

They are said to have a solid foundation and are extremely skilled in stealth and close-quarters assassination, which can make up for the Illuminati's current lack of elite assault and intelligence infiltration personnel.

Lin Chuqiao continued:

"They originally belonged to an underground assassin organization that was hiding in the shadows. This time, they were determined to break away from the quagmire and join us, but their defection was leaked."

"The person in charge was extremely vicious. He deliberately set a trap to lure Li Jie and Li Fei to the rendezvous point. As a result, they fell into an ambush as soon as they arrived. In order to cover Li Fei's escape, Li Jie risked his life to cover the rear and was captured on the spot. His fate is now unknown. Although Li Fei fought his way out of the encirclement and escaped, he was seriously injured."

As they spoke, the two continued walking and stepped into the courtyard.

Fat Tiger immediately stepped forward, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked, and he said in a gruff voice:

"President, those bastards are going too far! They actually dared to hurt our new brothers. Ah Jie and Ah Fei are just my type; they even drank with me the day before yesterday."

"Now, with just one word from you, we'll take up arms and destroy their stronghold, letting them know whose territory Dongdu is!"

Clearly, during this period he had fully integrated into the organizational life of the Illuminati, and regarded himself as an old comrade.

She gets along particularly well with the new members and is very protective of them.

Feiying, who was standing to the side, did not speak, but he slightly shifted his feet and his gaze was unusually sharp.

The two men moved swiftly, exuding an uncontrollable aura of menace.

The injuries sustained at the Silver Wing Building have clearly healed, with no trace of the previous injuries visible.

Even Xu Kuan, who was usually honest and unassuming, picked up a heavy steel wrench from his toolbox, his eyes filled with a sense of shared hatred for the enemy.

Fang Cheng nodded slightly to them and said in a calm tone:
"We'll talk about fighting later. Where are our injured brothers?"

"In that guest room."

Lin Chuqiao raised her hand and pointed to the room on the west side of the first-floor corridor.

Upon hearing this, Fang Cheng stepped forward.

The crowd instinctively made way for him and then crowded around him as he walked inside.

The moment Fang Cheng appeared, his aura, as steady as a pillar of strength, radiated outwards. The anxiety and unease that had filled the courtyard vanished instantly.

Fang Cheng lifted the curtain and entered the room.

The room wasn't large, but it was crowded with people.

The ceiling fan whirred, but it couldn't dispel the stench of blood.

Looking past Xiao Sa and the others, Fang Cheng saw the man lying on the bed.

His face was ashen, and his chest and arms were covered with deep cuts, the flesh turned inside out.

Even after being bandaged, blood was still seeping out.

What's even more striking are his exposed face, neck, and arms.

The blood vessels, which were originally normal, now appeared to be a strange bluish-black color.

Like tiny, venomous insects, they wriggled and bulged slightly, slowly extending along the side of his neck towards his head.

"This is……"

Fang Cheng's eyes narrowed slightly, and a slight ripple stirred within him.

He stepped forward, his sharp eyes scrutinizing Li Fei's neck.

I could vaguely see countless tiny, thread-like things moving rapidly beneath that thin skin, constantly poking the skin and creating bumps.

It seemed as if some living thing was about to break free of its cocoon at any moment, tearing through its skin and flesh to emerge.

"President, you've arrived?"

Xiao Sa had just applied medicine powder to a wound when he turned around and saw Fang Cheng. He quickly took a half step back and respectfully lowered his head.

Jiang Yun, Bai Ling, and Xiao Ya also stopped what they were doing and softly called out, "President."

The woman in black standing at the foot of the bed turned around.

She wasn't injured, but her body was covered in other people's blood, her hair was disheveled, and her eyes were red and swollen.

How are the injuries?

Fang Cheng asked Jiang Yun.

Jiang Yun wiped the blood from her hands, her brows furrowed, and replied:

"The external injuries look scary, but none of them damaged the major arteries, and I have already treated them."

"The problem is internal injury; his pulse is very erratic, and his muscles are spasming uncontrollably."

"Not only will the high fever not go down, but even sedatives won't work. It's like something has crawled into my body?"

"It must be a parasite!"

The professor walked out from the back of the crowd and added in a deep voice:
"This is a method used by assassin organizations to control defectors, similar to the Gu poison of Miao ethnic group, where parasites are planted in the target's body."

"In the underground world, this evil thing is called the 'Three Corpse Brain God Pill'. Once it takes effect, the worms will travel directly along the blood vessels and eventually climb up to the brain to eat away at the nerve tissue."

"People poisoned by this poison will be tortured to death by extreme pain and itching. If they don't take the antidote in time, they probably won't last a day."

Upon hearing this, the woman in black turned pale, her legs went weak, and she knelt down in front of Fang Cheng.

"President, please, save my second senior brother!"

She looked up, her voice trembling with despair:
"And my senior brother Li Jie... He was trapped there alone while protecting us as we escaped. Please have mercy and save them!"

The woman's name was Li Ran. She, along with Li Fei and Li Jie, were members recently recruited by the professor.

Fang Cheng had seen them several times, so he naturally recognized them.

His gaze swept over Li Fei on the bed, and he said in a calm and unhurried tone:

"Get up first, I have a way to cure his poison."

Upon hearing this, Li Ran froze on the spot.

Her tear-filled eyes widened slightly, and she even paused her sobbing for a moment, as if she couldn't believe her ears.

A hint of surprise flashed in Lin Chuqiao's eyes as she stood to the side.

The professor adjusted his glasses, his eyes revealing a mixture of curiosity and anticipation.

Fat Tiger outside the door stared wide-eyed, his mouth slightly agape.

Obviously, no one expected that in addition to being good at kung fu and having a strong fist, the chairman also knew how to heal the sick and save lives.

Fang Cheng ignored the crowd's surprise.

He then stepped forward, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to expel the poison.

He lowered his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together, and placed them firmly on Li Fei's Baihui acupoint on the top of his head.

The moment my fingertips touched it, I felt a burning sensation under my scalp.

That was a pathogenic heat caused by poisonous insects entering the brain.

Li Fei let out a muffled hiss, his neck muscles tensed like a block of iron, and his eyes rolled upwards repeatedly.

Inside the room, the blades of the electric fan whirred and cut through the sweltering air.

Fang Cheng lowered his eyelids slightly, and the mysterious rhythm he had captured in the back mountain that morning floated into his mind.

The Qi in the Dantian was churning.

A surge of powerful true energy flowed along the meridians of his arm to his fingertips, but the moment it emerged from his body, it was instantly restrained by his formidable mental strength.

In an extremely subtle perception, that violent true energy transformed into countless fine golden threads.

They easily penetrated the skull barrier and burrowed directly into the depths of Li Fei's brain.

Inside the brain, more than a dozen translucent nematodes were wandering around, greedily gnawing at the fragile brain nerves.

"Disperse."

A thought suddenly arose in Fang Cheng's mind.

The true energy threads circulating in the brain quickly intertwined, transforming into countless tiny golden nets.

These nets precisely avoided the delicate brain tissue, trapping all the wriggling worms.

Immediately following, the Qi mechanism oscillates at high frequency.

There was no outward leakage of energy that damaged the brain; only extremely minor damage occurred beneath the skin and flesh.

The surging true energy, like an invisible blade, instantly destroyed the parasite's body, reducing it to nothing but a pile of rubble.

"Uh……"

Li Fei, lying on the bed, suddenly let out a long breath, and his previously stiff back finally relaxed.

However, the bluish-black blood vessels on his face and neck were swollen and even more horrifying due to the accumulation of toxins and insect corpses.

Once the most dangerous brain parasite is eliminated, the remaining torso will naturally be easy to deal with.

Fang Cheng flipped his wrist, and with two fingers, he traced a path down the back of Li Fei's neck, pressing on major acupoints such as Dazhui and Zhiyang. At each point, a fine stream of true energy flowed into the body. This circulating true energy, following the same method, quickly crushed and pulverized the Gu worms that clung to the spine, blood vessels, and internal organs.

Having confirmed that all living things inside the body were dead, Fang Cheng withdrew his hand and glanced at the first-aid kit beside him:
"Do you have any emetics? Give them to him."

"Have."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Sa immediately rummaged through the medicine box and pulled out a bottle of emetic mixed with hypertonic saline.

Fang Cheng grabbed Li Fei's jawbone with both hands and forcefully pried open his tightly clenched teeth.

Xiao Sa casually uncorked the glass bottle and poured most of the emetic down his throat.

The moment the medicine entered Li Fei's throat, Fang Cheng slapped Li Fei's stomach with his left palm.

A wisp of domineering true energy penetrated through his skin, suddenly pulling him upwards and forcefully stimulating the churning of his intestines.

Li Fei's eyes bulged outwards, and his chest heaved violently.

He rolled to his side on the edge of the bed, his right hand gripping the wooden frame tightly, his mouth wide open.

"Wow--"

A gushing stream of foul-smelling blood spurted out, pouring into the basin that Xiaosai had swiftly handed over. (End of Chapter)