Chapter 131: A “Prison at Sea”

“Aaaargh!!!”

Dao Yinping let out a bloodcurdling scream, his face contorted in agony. His hands trembled as he instinctively clutched at the source of his pain.

In barely a second, blood had soaked through his pants and was streaming out between his fingers.

“Second Brother!”

“Second Brother!”

“Holy shit!”

A group of underlings shouted in alarm, about to rush forward, but Jiang Yan had already fired four shots in quick succession—“bang! bang! bang! bang!”—each bullet finding its mark.

Every shot was a precise hit to the head or heart.

Red sprays of blood instantly splattered across both walls.

“Thud—”

“Thud—”

“...”

Watching his men fall one after another, Dao Yinping gritted his teeth against the agony in his groin, his blood-soaked hands reaching for his backpack.

Ye Qing was already moving, using the backpack strap as a makeshift rope. With a quick pull and twist, he wrenched Dao Yinping’s arms behind his back, binding them tightly despite the man’s cold sweat and writhing pain.

Then, Ye Qing raised his leg and delivered a hard kick to the back of Dao Yinping’s knee. Dao’s legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees on the spot.

In a flash, Ye Qing deftly pulled a gun from Dao Yinping’s backpack.

*Click*—the sound of a bullet being chambered.

The dark muzzle was now pressed against Dao Yinping’s head.

Jiang Yan glanced at Ye Qing’s practiced handling of the weapon, surprise flickering in her eyes before she quickly ordered, “Don’t kill him yet. He’s still useful!”

Ye Qing nodded, holding the gun in one hand as he drew a knife with the other.

Two flashes of cold steel swept through the air.

Dao Yinping let out two more anguished howls, his eyes filled with venom and the urge to fight back. But in an instant, the tendons in both his hands were severed, blood gushing out.

At that moment, the door to room 2902 was quietly turned open.

But only a crack—not all the way.

“Jiang Yan! Xiao Ye!” Sun Jingtao’s voice called from the hallway.

Along with his voice came a scattering of footsteps.

Some were coming down from upstairs, others coming up from below.

Those from above carried kitchen knives and clubs; those from below were empty-handed.

There were quite a few of them—maybe fifty or sixty in total.

Judging by the wary stares they exchanged, it was clear they belonged to two opposing groups.

Just as the door to 2902 was about to slam shut, Sun Jingtao, wielding a fire axe, rushed forward and kicked it open.

Inside, more than a dozen young men with messy hair and watermelon knives glared at Sun Jingtao, murderous intent in their eyes.

One of them, a burly guy in a red puffer jacket, was already swinging his knife at Sun Jingtao.

*Clang!*

Sun Jingtao blocked the attack with his fire axe, then pressed forward with his weight. With a swift twist of his wrist—

*Bang!*

Even through the thick puffer jacket, the young man’s arm was nearly severed.

With a cry of pain, the knife clattered to the floor. Sun Jingtao quickly kicked it behind him.

“Damn it!” The guy in the red jacket, face twisted with rage, lunged for another knife to keep attacking.

But Jiang Yan had already appeared at the door, gun in hand.

His movements froze, and the others shrank back instinctively.

Jiang Yan glanced around. The room was empty except for a bunch of makeshift beds.

Clearly, these were the leftovers from Ma Longbiao’s gang—just some worthless small fry.

Jiang Yan didn’t give them a chance to resist or even speak. She simply opened fire, one bullet for each man.

The room, already reeking, now stank even worse with the heavy scent of blood.

Outside, Su Dai saw the sudden pile of bloody corpses and hesitated to enter.

She rummaged through a pile of junk and found an old piece of clothing, which she used to cover the woman lying on the table.

Then she called over two residents who had come down from upstairs to help her move the woman off the table.

“Xiao Dai, there’s a walkie-talkie here,” a middle-aged man with curly hair said, picking one up from beside the fire.

“Okay, keep it for now,” Su Dai replied, taking it from him. Then she said, “Brother Zhang, I’ll need you and Brother Li to keep watch by the hallway window. If you see anyone coming back, let us know immediately.”

“Got it.”

The curly-haired man called over another man with a kitchen knife, and the two of them headed for the window at the end of the 29th-floor hallway.

*Crash!*

*Splash!*

Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass and a splash came from the next room.

Sun Jingtao’s brow furrowed as he rushed to the window. “Crap! Someone’s escaping!”

He shouted, then raised his fire axe and smashed it against the glass.

*Boom!*

A blast of icy wind and rain whipped into the room, making the hair on Sun Jingtao’s arms stand on end.

Sure enough, in the water below the window of 2903, a white splash appeared.

A young man, wearing two life rings, surfaced.

The impact must have been too much—one of the rings had already burst.

He didn’t hesitate or look back, just thrashed desperately away from the building.

Sun Jingtao wiped rain from his face and turned to Jiang Yan, who was reloading her pistol. He shouted to Ye Qing outside the door:

“Ye Qing, toss me the speargun with the line!”

A normal speargun has a range of five to ten meters, but the one with the line could reach up to thirty-five.

They were on the 29th floor, and the water had risen to the 22nd—about eight floors up.

That’s a vertical drop of twenty-three meters, plus the angle of the swimmer’s escape. If they moved fast, the range would be just enough.

Ye Qing, who had been dragging Dao Yinping by the collar, quickly tossed the speargun over.

Sun Jingtao caught it, took careful aim, and fired.

*Whoosh!*

The barbed spear shot through the rain and struck the swimmer in the back.

“Argh!”

The man screamed, water flooding into his mouth.

A red stain spread across the water.

Choking and wounded, the man struggled for a few seconds before passing out.

Sun Jingtao and Ye Qing quickly hauled him up.

After confirming he was dead, they called for Jiang Yan and hurried into room 2903.

This room was also filled with makeshift beds, though fewer than the last.

Jiang Yan frowned. “Where are the rest of them?”

Judging by the number of beds, there should have been around forty people—far more than she’d expected, and more than had snuck in the night the rain started.

Clearly, the enemy had more people hidden elsewhere.

Dao Yinping’s legs trembled, his eyes darting nervously.

“They… they all went out with Brother Ma. The ones who left today were his most trusted.”

“Oh? Aren’t you supposed to be his number two? And they just left you here alone?” Jiang Yan shot him a skeptical look.

“I’m only number two in name, because of seniority. They took all the rubber boats and speedboats with them. They said… they said…”

“Said what?!” Jiang Yan’s voice sharpened.

Dao Yinping gritted his teeth.

“They said that without boats or any way to travel on the water, Shallow Water Bay is like an isolated island—a prison at sea.

Even a bird couldn’t fly away.

So just me and a few brothers, with guns, would be enough.”"