Bamboo's recognition of Zhong Yun was no surprise; she must still vividly remember seeing him in the T7 protective suit.

Zhong Yun remained silent, hunkered down behind a massive boulder in a stealth posture, like a coiled, ready-to-spring tiger. The Resonance Blade in his hand emitted a faint, low hum, clearly indicating he had cranked the power output to maximum.

"Xiao Zhu, you know him?" Third Brother, who had been about to scold Wen Zhu for appearing there, stopped short upon hearing her words, asking in astonishment.

With a whoosh, dozens of guards instinctively surrounded Wen Zhu, forming a protective cordon around her.

"Why is it you?" Under the shock, Wen Zhu's voice sounded incredibly fragile.

Zhong Yun still offered no response; anything said at this juncture would be superfluous. He was assessing the enemy's situation: they outnumbered him by at least five hundred, and the numbers were still growing.

There were over fifty masters ranked above Level Ten among the opposition, with five whose strength was comparable to his own. If they charged him without reservation, his demise was certain.

Although the sky above was open and clear, he dared not flee upward. He sensed at least fifty heavy cannons locked onto the airspace; ascending would grant them an eighty-five percent chance of blasting him into dust.

Staying within this thicket remained the safer option. Given the density of the crowd here, they wouldn't deploy heavy artillery indiscriminately.

He knew they were stalling for time, and he was doing the same; in this environment, his only hope was for the Fire Star to arrive for extraction. The question was whether he could hold out until then.

Zhong Yun gripped his Mech Key tightly. At this close range, even piloting his mech, he wasn't confident he could handle fifty Level Ten masters simultaneously.

A mech possessed immense destructive power, but ultimately, it lacked the flexibility of the human body. Engaging fifty Level Ten experts at close quarters would be grueling, let alone all at once.

Damn it. If the 'Lone Goose' still had power, he wouldn't fear them. He had the raw energy crystals now, but not the time to install them into the 'Lone Goose.'

It truly was a case of "when it rains, it pours."

Zhong Yun’s mind spun wildly, desperately searching for an escape route. He had no spare capacity to answer Wen Zhu’s questions.

Wen Zhu bit her lip hard, her voice sharp and fierce. "Zhong Yun, I know it's you! Why are you doing this?"

"Zhong Yun?" Zeng Chenyu, who had just stepped out of the residence, heard her words, his gaze flickering as he stared intensely at the figure crouched beside the stone. In the faint moonlight, that shadow was almost spectral.

"Interesting..." he chuckled softly.

Third Brother of the Ke Dong family frowned deeply. The realization struck him: Zhong Yun was precisely Xiao Zhu's date for the evening! He was a man harboring immense treacherous intent, approaching Xiao Zhu only to steal from the Ke Dong residence?

Who sent him? What was he trying to steal? Did he succeed? A flurry of questions flashed through his mind.

This Zhong Yun, so young, already possessed such terrifying power. A few more years, and who knew what he would become? Third Brother's pupils constricted; the intent to kill solidified.

He had initially planned to wait for the Mech Corps and heavy weaponry to arrive before launching an assault, but now he changed his mind.

He had to eliminate him.

Third Brother made his decision, waving a hand. Over twenty guards surged forward. Because Zhong Yun had chosen his position so cleverly, the angle of fire was extremely narrow, forcing them to advance closer to find a clear line of sight.

A streak of blue light flashed, striking the head of the guard leading the charge. The struck guard pitched backward and did not rise again.

Blue light flared one after another; with every flash, another life was extinguished. The protective suits worn by the guards seemed as fragile as paper, offering no resistance.

At such a short distance, Zhong Yun's accuracy was one hundred percent.

However, he was not unscathed. He had taken several hits, most of them courtesy of those masters lingering in the rear.

The enemy’s tactic was insidious yet effective: sending ordinary guards forward as cannon fodder to draw his fire, while the others took opportunistic potshots from the back.

Having absorbed more than a dozen impacts, Zhong Yun realized this situation would soon turn disastrous. He reached toward his waist, pulled out two spherical objects, and hurled them into the mass of people.

The surrounding guards, seeing the two dark, dull objects flying toward them, assumed they were grenades and recoiled in alarm.

One man roared, "Grenades—"

The spheres hit the ground, rolled a few times, but instead of exploding as expected, they erupted into a cloud of white smoke that swiftly enveloped everyone.

"Smoke bombs!" Eldest Brother was momentarily stunned, then sneered. Everyone here wore environmental suits equipped with automatic detectors; what did obscuring sight matter?

But he quickly discovered the smoke was not simple. The detectors had failed. Not only was his vision a milky white void, but the detector screens were also completely obscured.

His instinct took over, and he projected his Perception outward, but it traveled only two or three meters before hitting what felt like a solid wall, unable to penetrate an inch further.

A cold dread seized him. Since developing his Perception, he had never encountered anything like this.

Everyone else shared his fate: eyes, detectors, and Perception all rendered useless.

In the uniform whiteness, a chill settled in everyone’s hearts. If that killing god chose this moment to strike, the consequences would be unthinkable.

It couldn't be; Zhong Yun must be as blind as they were. The problem was, Zhong Yun was alone; he could fire indiscriminately, certain not to hit an ally. But they could not; their comrades were everywhere, and a single misstep could lead to a fratricidal massacre.

They stood on high alert, tension mounting. Some personnel began to retreat from the area shrouded in white mist.

Zhong Yun was not averse to seizing this opportunity to launch a surprise attack, but he too was unable to utilize his Perception within the fog. Charging in blindly carried too great a risk.

Amidst the chaos, he stealthily shifted to another location, extracting the Lone Goose from his Mech Key. He then located the container holding the raw crystals and extracted ten of them, slotting them into the Lone Goose.

The Lone Goose's optical sensors flickered to life as its reboot sequence initiated. Due to the extensive prior damage, the restart required a significant duration, and Zhong Yun waited beside it anxiously.

Seconds ticked by. All the guards had retreated beyond the boundary of the white fog. From the outside, the lingering mist looked like a vast, viscous ball of cotton candy.

"Let's see how long you can hide," Third Brother sneered, knowing the heavy weaponry would arrive soon. Then he would simply saturate the area with explosives; he refused to believe Zhong Yun could withstand that.

"Maintain sharp surveillance. If you spot any breakout attempt, fire immediately," he commanded everyone coldly.

Wen Zhu watched the white mass, her face ashen, her heart a turbulent mess.