Handong: Sha Li wants political achievements? I'll shut down the entire province.

Li Dakang clung tightly to the office windowsill with both hands.

The windowpanes were still damp from the rain, and were icy cold.

His finger joints were so cold that they turned a deathly grayish-white.

I looked in the direction Secretary Xiao Jin pointed.

As night fell, the entire city of Jingzhou presented an eerie, cyberpunk-like sense of fragmentation.

The provincial party committee compound and government buildings at all levels were pitch black, with not even a single streetlight on, making it look like a pile of abandoned, dilapidated graves.

In order to save the electricity quota that was tightly controlled by the Yunxiao AI system, the logistics department even physically cut off the light bulbs in the corridor.

But the Lingxiao Building in the city center, just a few kilometers away, was brightly lit.

A thick, dark golden holographic beam shot straight into the sky, illuminating half of the sky with a golden glow.

"Secretary Li...look, the plaza in front of the building is packed with people."

Xiao Jin swallowed hard, his Adam's apple scraping against his esophagus.

"No one organized it; it was all the common people who went to kowtow on their own initiative. They said that Lord Yan was a living deity who brought blessings to Handong."

Li Dakang felt a violent spasm in his stomach, followed by a fishy, ​​sour, yellowish smell.

He let go of his hand dejectedly and slumped to the ground.

The suit trousers rubbed against the dusty floor.

"A living god? Yan Qingfeng has practically drained the government's very resources to make soup, of course he's a great philanthropist."

Li Dakang closed his eyes, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

The sky over Handong has truly changed completely.

This is the scene on the streets of Jingzhou right now.

At a night market stall selling fried skewers in the old town, the air was filled with the pungent smell of chili powder and burnt mutton fat.

Two drunk, blond-haired thugs were smashing empty beer bottles on the table.

"You old geezer! Did you go deaf when I told you to add more cumin?!"

Glass shards shattered all over the floor, landing on the fried food vendor's apron.

None of the diners eating skewers around ran away, and not a single person even took out their phone to call 110.

The fried food vendor didn't waste any words.

He took his rough, oil-stained thumb and pressed hard on the black Lingxiao bracelet on his left wrist.

"Beep—Red alert has been uploaded."

A cold, mechanical sound emanated from the bracelet.

"You're calling in reinforcements, huh? I'll..."

The blond-haired man held up a half-broken, pointed beer bottle, about to stab it forward.

A piercing, high-frequency buzzing sound suddenly descended from above, and a gust of wind instantly sent the embers on the grill flying everywhere.

Thirty seconds.

A heavy, black drone hovered above the stall.

Three Lingxiao security guards, dressed in gray-black tactical vests, crashed onto the asphalt road like iron towers.

The military boots landed with a dull thud.

"Article 3 of the Lingxiao Public Security Regulations: Picking quarrels and provoking trouble."

The head security guard with the crew cut spoke in a cold, hard voice. Before the blond-haired guy could react, he took a big step forward and got close to him.

A large, fan-shaped hand grabbed the blond-haired man's wrist and twisted it sharply in the opposite direction.

"Click!"

A sharp cracking sound, enough to make one's back teeth ache, rang out clearly.

The blond-haired man let out a terrible scream, and his right arm drooped down like a limp noodle, the beer bottle falling to the ground.

The security guard kicked him in the back of the knee.

The blond-haired man fell to his knees with a thud, his face being pressed directly into a muddy puddle full of oil and grime.

The entire process took less than ten seconds, a pure physical and violent crushing defeat.

"Well done! Master Yan's men are really efficient!"

Several elderly men watching the spectacle applauded, spitting everywhere.

"What's the point of calling the police these days? Using the wristband is still the only reliable solution!"

At the same time, at Jingzhou High-speed Railway Station.

The waiting hall was filled with the smell of instant noodle seasoning and a stale, unwashed mop.

A middle-aged man wearing a baseball cap and a thick mask was sneaking towards the ticket gate.

He was a former section chief at the Municipal Planning Bureau who had just been dismissed. He had embezzled more than eight million yuan and was trying to flee during the chaos.

I just stepped into the turnstile.

A red light flashed suddenly from the holographic monitoring camera at the top.

"Beep! Cloud Sky Credit System successfully matched target, detected as a Class D Red Notice target."

The music was abruptly cut off from the loudspeaker, and mechanical speakers filled the hall.

The man trembled with fear, his scalp tingling instantly.

He wanted to run away as soon as he pulled on his leg.

Before he could take two steps, a miniature riot control drone hanging upside down from the dome of the hall locked onto the back of his neck.

"Sizzle—"

Two electric needles with thin wires shot out and pierced the flesh behind his neck.

A high-voltage microcurrent of 60,000 volts was released instantly.

The man didn't even let out a scream before his eyes rolled back and he crashed straight onto the tiled floor.

His muscles convulsed violently like a sieve, and white foam kept gushing from his mouth.

A strong smell of urine spread from the crotch of his trousers.

The smell of slightly burnt flesh from being electrocuted was so strong that several passengers nearby covered their noses and tried to avoid it.

"Drag it away and throw it to Zhao Donglai as a formality."

Two Lingxiao security guards strode over and dragged the man out by the ankles like a dead dog.

The leather shoes left a long trail of water on the smooth tiles.

This is what Handong is today.

Yan Qingfeng held no official position whatsoever, not even that of a village chief.

But the rules he set were even more crucial than official government documents.

Lingxiao Building, first floor headquarters lobby.

The marble floor was so shiny it reflected the huge crystal chandelier overhead.

The air was constantly filled with the relaxing aroma of fine cigars.

Yan Qingfeng, dressed in a pure black haute couture trench coat, stepped out of the private elevator.

The handmade leather shoes made a rhythmic "clack" sound when they stepped on the ground.

The lower-level employees and senior executives who were walking around in the lobby all seemed to be frozen in place.

Whether they're holding a coffee or carrying documents.

Everyone spontaneously stopped and turned around in unison, facing Yan Qingfeng.

He bowed at a ninety-degree angle, his waist bent so low it was almost touching the ground.

"Master Yan."

The voices of hundreds of people converged, suppressed yet revealing an undisguised fervor and awe.

At the very end of the line stood several government officials wearing jackets and carrying briefcases.

They came to reconcile accounts with the conglomerate.

Upon seeing this display of force, several officials felt their legs go weak, and cold sweat instantly soaked through the backs of their shirts.

"Quickly...quickly follow along and pray..."

The deputy director in charge was teeth chattering, and quickly lowered his head, bending over even more deeply than the conglomerate's employees.

They wanted to press their faces against the shoes.

The acid in my stomach was churning, and I didn't even dare to breathe.

Yan Qingfeng didn't even lift his eyelids.

Without lingering on these people for even a second, he walked straight through the lobby and headed towards the private elevator on the top floor.

The chairman's office on the top floor.

The wind howled outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, pounding against the bulletproof glass.

Su Jianxin pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses that had slipped down.

A holographic report was projected in front of Yan Qingfeng.

"Master Yan, the foundation of Handong is completely locked down. The authorities can't mobilize even a hair's breadth of power."

Zhou Yuan was munching on ice cubes beside him, his stubby fingers stroking his chin.

"Master Yan, all the fish in the pond are belly up. It's not very interesting to just leave our two trillion in cash in the books and earn interest."

He grinned, revealing his yellowed, smoky teeth.

"When are you taking the brothers out for some fun?"

Yan Qingfeng stood in front of the holographic world map.

He held a half-smoked Cohiba cigar between his fingers and flicked it lightly with his index finger.

A piece of silver-gray cigarette ash fell and spread out on the thick wool carpet.

His gaze swept beyond the small territory of Handong Province.

It directly locked onto a small, dark red dot in the lower right corner of the map, in the Southeast Asia region.

That's Country T, backed by old money families from Wall Street.

"That lithium mine in Country T, didn't they just sign a huge solid-state battery deal with us last week, and then try to back out last night?"

Yan Qingfeng exhaled a puff of bluish-gray smoke, his eyes as cold as if they contained shards of ice.

A savage glint appeared on his lips.

"All the turtles in the pool are dead. It's time to go deep into the sea and blast some sharks."

Yan Qingfeng picked up the chilled whiskey on the table, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp.

"Notify Lu Yuan to have our fleet set sail to collect the debts."