Nominal: Hou Liangping blocking the door? He was slapped away!

Four heavy attack helicopters hovered above the sanatorium. The violent air currents generated by their rotors uprooted the valuable ornamental trees in the courtyard. Sand and gravel mixed in with the gale rattled against the bulletproof glass of the villa.

The surrounding streets had been completely sealed off. Several armored assault vehicles blocked all entrances and exits. The guards who were usually responsible for protecting the retired cadres had all been disarmed by the fully armed Dragon Fang team members and were being held in guardhouse. The entire Xishan area was under a state of high-pressure military control. The elderly people in the other villas hid behind heavy curtains, watching the steel behemoths outside, not daring to even breathe.

Dozens of black tactical ropes were thrown from the cabin.

Wearing night vision goggles and fully armed, the Dragon Tooth special forces members rappelled down the ropes at breakneck speed. Their tactical boots pounded heavily on the smooth lawn, crushing the carefully cultivated imported orchids and kicking aside the white marble sculptures blocking their path.

The heavily armored soldiers, assault rifles in hand, moved in perfect unison and quickly dispersed. They formed a tight tactical encirclement, completely sealing off the villa. The powerful beams of tactical flashlights crisscrossed the night, blocking all escape routes.

The villa's heavy, vermilion gate was tightly shut.

This door was once a privileged threshold that countless local officials would fight tooth and nail to cross, representing the supreme power of the inner circle. Now, however, this door has become the Zhong family's last shell.

Grandpa Zhong stood in the center of the living room, leaning on the sandalwood cane he had just picked up, his chest heaving violently. He roared angrily at the door.

"I am a meritorious contributor!"

"I shed blood on the border back then! This is a mutiny! I demand to see the highest levels! Who gave you the audacity to storm the Western Hills!"

The old man's rebuke pierced through the door, carrying the authority cultivated over decades of holding a high position. He stubbornly believed that as long as he didn't back down, no one in the world would dare to lay a finger on him. He turned and shouted at his granddaughter, who was sprawled on the sofa.

"Call Old Li! Call the Discipline Inspection Commission! Tell them to send someone over!"

Zhong Xiaoai gripped her backup phone, which had no signal, her whole body trembling, unable to even unlock the screen.

Outside the door, Zhou Weiguo strode up the steps. He raised his tactical boot and slammed it heavily against the door. The heavy solid wood door didn't budge, not even leaving a dent.

He snorted coldly, took two steps back, and raised his hand to make a tactical gesture.

Two demolition experts quickly stepped forward, precisely attached directional plastic explosives to the door hinge and latch, pulled out the fuse, and retreated to a safe distance.

"boom!"

A deafening roar ripped through the night sky. The gate, a symbol of the Zhong family's status for decades, was blasted into pieces, and huge cracks appeared in half of the load-bearing wall.

Splinters of wood mixed with metal parts flew into the living room, shattering antique porcelain all over the floor. The shockwave tore the calligraphy and paintings hanging on the walls to shreds. A priceless crystal chandelier crashed to the floor, shards of glass scattered everywhere. A multi-million dollar Persian carpet was burned, leaving large scorch marks.

Before the smoke of battle had cleared, Zhou Weiguo led his team through the gap into the living room.

The black combat suits converged into a steel torrent. Red laser sights intertwined into a net, and the dark muzzles of guns were pressed directly against the faces of Grandpa Zhong and Zhong Xiaoai.

In the corner, several plainclothes guards who usually followed the Zhong family and acted arrogantly instinctively reached for their lower backs upon seeing this.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Without any hesitation, the special forces soldiers pulled the triggers. The large-caliber bullets shattered the imported marble floor tiles at the guards' feet. Shards of stone flew and embedded themselves deep in their calves.

Several guards clutched their bleeding thighs and collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain.

Special forces soldiers charged forward, delivering a vicious knee strike to the lead guard in the abdomen, followed by a heavy blow to his back with the butt of their rifles. The men were all kicked to the ground, their hands tied behind their backs, and secured with high-strength tactical cable ties. The entire suppression operation took less than ten seconds—professional and ruthless.

10,000 meters above the ground.

Shen Zhong sat heavily in the main control position of the early warning aircraft, holding a cup of black coffee. The screen in front of him was transmitting in real time the images captured by the tactical camera on Zhou Weiguo's chest.

He leaned back in his chair, looking down at the Zhong family members on the screen—people who were usually high and mighty, but now trembling like ants. Before bullets and gunpowder, their so-called aura of power was less than a piece of waste paper.

Startled by the sudden gunshot, Zhong Xiaoai slid off the sofa. Her arrogance, honed from years in a high position, caused her to scream wildly again.

"Shen Zhong! You're a madman!"

"Following him will only lead you to your deaths! You have no legal grounds to arrest me! This is trespassing! I am the deputy director of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection! I'm going to report you to higher authorities! I'm going to put you all in a military court!"

She was still trying to use her position within the system to intimidate people, attempting to use these empty titles to block the fully armed special forces.

Without uttering a single unnecessary word, Zhou Weiguo pulled out an arrest warrant stamped with two bright red seals from his tactical vest.

He raised his hand and slapped the paper directly onto Zhong Xiaoai's proud face with a crisp "smack".

The sharp edge of the paper cut her well-maintained cheek, and a line of blood quickly seeped out.

Zhong Xiaoai completely ignored the stinging pain on her face. She stared intently at the arrest warrant. It was clearly stamped with Xu Lao's personal seal and the highest-level seal of the Central Military Commission. This wasn't some local squabble; it was a purge ordered by the central government for treason.

Those two bright red seals sealed her fate.

Old Master Zhong saw the red seal on the top-secret document. His once straight back slumped, his hand loosened, and his sandalwood cane crashed to the floor.

The old man's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the floor covered in shards of glass.

"It's over..."

"The Chung family is completely finished... Eighty years of business, all gone..."

His prized protective umbrella, the connections he thought could cover everything, were crushed under Old Xu's wrath and the military's iron fist.

Zhong Xiaoai's usual sense of superiority, her ability to treat everyone as pawns to be manipulated at will, became an utterly laughable joke in the face of these soldiers whose every move was as ruthless as killing machines. Her family background, connections, and resources, which she was so proud of, were utterly useless in the face of absolute violence.

Two special forces soldiers strode forward and grabbed Zhong Xiaoai's arms, one on each side.

Zhong Xiaoai struggled desperately, kicking wildly at the team members' tactical leg guards with her high heels, and letting out hoarse screams.

Without a shred of pity, the team member slapped her across the face, shattering her last shred of dignity. The two dragged the limp Zhong Xiaoai away from the luxurious leather sofa like a dead dog, forcibly pulling her towards the door.

Zhou Weiguo heard Shen Zhong's extremely imposing command through his tactical headset.

"take away."