The moon hung high in the sky, its silvery light tracing tempting patterns through the sheer window curtains and into the room. The aura emanating from Dan Fa Huang was one of profound sanctity, yet overlaid with an unmistakable chill.

“Three hundred and fifty million? My apologies. That consultation rate is outdated. That was my worth two years ago.” Ilans looked coldly at Zazawei, who screamed in agony while clutching his bleeding, severed arm. A chilling, appreciative smile played on Ilans’ lips as his gaze slowly shifted to Qin Fen, who stood by the window: “Young man, my current bounty is seven hundred million!”

Pride danced frequently in Ilans’ eyes. To be the weakest of the three generals under the King of Terror, yet possess the highest bounty among them—this in itself was a form of honor.

In the world of terrorists, the bounty placed on them by the Federation was a symbol of status and glory.

Almost all major sporting activities were ranked by the Federation, such as the world number one in snooker, the top ranking in world tennis, or the world number one football team.

In the eyes of terrorists, this bounty list was the Federation’s world ranking for them.

Seven hundred million. Those simple two words represented not just a startling price tag, but blood and death. For a terrorist’s bounty to rise from three hundred and fifty million to seven hundred million could only signify one thing: he had committed another monumental crime to compel the Federation to raise his worth again.

Qin Fen’s concerned gaze rested upon Fei Xin and Fire Maiden, his aura locking onto every individual within the villa, utterly unconcerned with the terrorists who were now rushing in, brandishing metal spikes in response to the screams.

“Little girls,” Qin Fen’s hand gently stroked the hair of the two girls whose faces were streaked with tears: “It is I who have not paid enough attention to you.”

Heartbreaking sobs echoed throughout the villa. The accumulated grievances and pain Fire Maiden had suffered over the past three months could only be vented through this torrent of tears.

For these three months, the two girls had not cried. They absolutely could not cry in front of the terrorists, how could they show weakness? Now, Qin Fen had appeared; they were allowed to cry.

“What are you crying for?” Fire Maiden’s voice, almost brutally cold as ice, resonated in the room. She lightly gathered the two girls into her embrace with her heavily injured arm. The tear stains on her face, left from struggling to avoid humiliation in front of the girls, had not yet dried, yet her eyes had already regained the icy arrogance she held when she first entered: “What is there to cry about? Am I not still alive?”

Ilans suddenly felt Fire Maiden’s cold gaze was somewhat piercing; her icy aura made one feel a sense of dread.

“Wipe your tears. We cannot show cowardice before these animals,” Fire Maiden straightened her battered body, marred by abuse: “Our tears are only for our loved ones, only for the good people. Never will we shed a single drop for these beasts.”

“General, what is happening—”

The sound of gunfire erupted. Before the terrorists bursting through the door could finish their sentence, the kneecaps of both their legs were shattered by bullets, forcing them to kneel onto the ground, turning the carpet crimson, as if atoning to Fire Maiden.

Ilans stared in astonishment at the gun in Qin Fen’s hand. It must have been taken from Zazawei when his arm was severed. He had managed to seize the weapon and shoot with such precision—two shots fired without even looking, instantly bringing the first arrivals to their knees.

“Ambush!”

The sound of safety catches being released echoed down the corridor outside the door. Eight more shots followed immediately, accompanied by eight cries of agonizing pain from those hit, and the sharp clinking sound of bullets hitting the carpet and each other.

Ten shots, nine people injured, and every bullet struck a spot that inflicted agonizing pain without causing immediate unconsciousness.

Qin Fen casually tossed the gun onto the carpet and looked at the completely motionless Ilans, stating calmly, “Seven hundred million? That is your value to society’s harm, not your inherent worth. Scum has no value whatsoever, not even seven cents. You overestimate yourself.”

“You are a Martial Arts Master?” Ilans quietly observed Qin Fen: “A Martial Arts Master this young is rare in this world. Shangguan Chuanqi? Qin Fen? Or Solomon? Yang Lie? No! You are purely Eastern. Qin Fen!”

“Besides these three women in this room, the rest of you must be terrorists, correct? Very good. None of you are leaving today.”

“Qin Fen, you must have sensed it, right? I only possess fourteen-star strength, yet I have survived until today. Don’t you want to know why?”

“Little girls, don’t blink. What happens next might be very bloody, but absolutely do not close your eyes.”

The voices of the two figures in the room rose and fell, neither answering the other, as if each were simply talking to themselves.

Qin Fen raised his right hand very casually, drawing an arc from his chest diagonally downward. The instant a sharp cutting sound echoed from the wall, the terrorists hiding behind it cried out in unison. Two terrorists closest to the door painfully crawled into the room; everything below their knees was gone. That single, cleaving strike of empty-palm energy had sliced off everyone’s calves.

“General, run!”

“General—”

“Run?” Qin Fen calmly fixed his gaze on Ilans: “Do you think you still have the capacity for suicide?”

Zazawei, enduring the pain, looked up at Qin Fen in shock. The capacity for suicide? Qin Fen was too arrogant! He spoke as if the lives of everyone in the room were under his sole control—if he wanted someone dead, they died; if he didn't, they couldn't even kill themselves.

“Suicide? Qin Fen, didn't you hear what I just said? Then look at this!” Ilans fearlessly stared at Qin Fen, ripping off the last piece of cloth covering his upper body, revealing the transparent skin around his abdomen and lungs.

It was not real skin; it could be called glass, simply reinforced glass of very high durability. Beneath this glass, a bomb was installed!

Qin Fen raised an eyebrow: “A portable, single-soldier nuclear device?”

“Exactly!” Ilans held his head high: “If I wish to die, then everyone in this villa complex will accompany me to the grave. Perhaps you, as a Martial Arts Master, can survive, but what about the others? Qin Fen, this is the difference between you and me. I am the villain in your words; I do not care about my life or the lives of others. But you must care! Even if you want to kill me, you must consider the consequences.”

Ilans had previously escaped capture multiple times by relying on the single-soldier nuclear bomb in his abdomen. This time, he was just as confident. The residents of this community were all wealthy and powerful; detonating a nuclear device here would cause repercussions that even a Martial Arts Master would have to weigh carefully.

“What did you say?”

Qin Fen’s words vibrated in Ilans’ eardrums. A sharp pain suddenly seized his abdomen, immediately followed by the sound of shattering glass. The single-soldier nuclear bomb was already in Qin Fen’s hand, still smeared with bright crimson blood.

Ilans slumped onto the ground, craning his neck to look at Qin Fen, desperately trying to recall what had just happened. How did his nuclear device vanish in a blink? How were his limbs crushed? How did he accomplish it? Even for a Martial Arts Master, he shouldn't have been unable to see a single figure during a frontal confrontation!

“Does it hurt? Your four limbs have been pulverized by me, and your nuclear bomb has been taken. What capabilities do you have left?” Qin Fen turned to look at Fire Maiden: “I apologize, I came late. Right now, I don't know what more I can do. There are guns on the ground, and bullets too.”

Fire Maiden looked down at Ya Feizhuang Xin in her arms, slowly let go, and swung both arms toward Qin Fen. She crouched down to pick up the weapon capable of shooting and executing the enemy.

She slowly walked up to the paralyzed Ilans on the ground and decisively fired two shots!

The bullets passed through Ilans’ shoulder bones, leaving two bloody holes in his body. Fire Maiden turned back to Qin Fen and said calmly, “Killing him will not change the facts that have already been established. Torture, this is something you, as a soldier, are more adept at than I am. I trust you will give me a satisfactory explanation. I don’t want him to die too easily.”

Ilans’ wound twitched violently. Seeing the coldness in Qin Fen’s eyes, he instinctively shivered. Terrorists had researched countless methods for making life worse than death.

Even those most terrified of death, after enduring the tortures conceived by terrorists, would become fearless of death, their only plea being a swift end.

The moment Ilans saw Qin Fen’s eyes, he instantly recalled the eyes of the professional torturers at the terrorist base.

Qin Fen looked at the bleeding Ilans, then turned his worried gaze back to Fire Maiden. After suffering such harm, she had only fired two shots at her tormentor. Could this truly release her suffering? If she couldn't truly release it, then…

Suicide. This was not strange at all. Some people, crushed by unscrupulous merchants, would jump off buildings one after another. How much more so after suffering pain a million times worse than that? A woman, in the hands of these beasts…

Fire Maiden crossed her arms over her chest, accepting Qin Fen’s gaze, and asked coldly, “What do you mean by looking at me like that? What are you worried about? Afraid I’ll kill myself?”

Qin Fen slowly nodded, having no need to hide the fact that his thoughts had been guessed correctly. Moreover, this nod could also transmit the information to Ya Fei and Yaxin that Fire Maiden might entertain such thoughts.

“Hmph!” Fire Maiden raised her chin haughtily. Even the exhaustion wrought by months of degradation could not obscure her cold, stunning beauty: “Don’t worry, I won't do that. What? Don't believe me? Fine, I’ll tell you. Only Ya Fei and Yaxin know this secret. My relatives also died in a terrorist attack. I want revenge for them.”

Fire Maiden raised her hand to wipe away the crystalline tears shed from missing her family: “But I have no talent for martial arts. I also want to mobilize society to fight terrorism—this isn't just for revenge for my family! Talking about higher righteousness might invite ridicule, but only those who have truly experienced it know the pain of losing loved ones and how desperately one wishes no one else would endure the same agony.”

“While I was grieving my lack of martial talent, I discovered Ya Fei and Yaxin. Their music is filled with power! I lack their musical genius and their power to mobilize people! But I possess the ability to organize and publicize; I can make their power fully bloom!”

At this moment, a light called holiness bloomed on Fire Maiden’s tired face. She smiled, still radiating that sacred smile after three months in hell, and retorted to Qin Fen: “Tell me, what reason do I have to commit suicide? Because I was insulted by these scumbags? I would commit suicide? No! I am not as fragile as you imagine. Women are not as fragile as you men imagine! Please, do not, please do not judge a woman’s worth with your patriarchal viewpoint!”

Qin Fen nodded slightly with an apologetic expression. Some people may not be strong in martial arts, but that didn't mean they weren't worthy of respect!

“An explanation.” Qin Fen looked at Fire Maiden. Was the only thing he could do to give her an explanation? But as Fire Maiden said, such an explanation could not change the facts that had already occurred. If it was merely an explanation, who could guarantee how many others would suffer the same fate as Fire Maiden in the future?

“I know that in this world, there is always a group of madmen, influenced by so-called doctrines, who believe that what they worship is the true God. Under the guise of religious freedom, they plunder other people’s lives; under the guise of religious freedom, they invade other people’s culture and life,” Qin Fen looked coldly at Ilans: “This kind of bacteria can never be eradicated. Previously, I believed the government could contain the scope to the smallest possible area—”

“Heh…” Qin Fen’s laughter was ice-cold: “Perhaps when you practiced terrorism, you were too far from the people around me, and I couldn’t truly feel the harm of terrorism. But today, I have felt it. I know my previous approach was not entirely correct; I can’t use the excuse of ‘I must focus on martial arts and have no time’ to gloss over it.”

Ilans listened to Qin Fen’s words. This was the most temperate attitude compared to those who previously gritted their teeth at him, yet it brought a greater sense of crisis, a crisis that even surpassed the pain!

“Yang Lie?” Qin Fen dialed a number seemingly to himself: “Dispatch a company of troops here, take all these terrorists back. Pierce their shins with barbed wire and hang them in an open wilderness. Install landmines around them and position snipers. Then, transmit the video across the entire Federation via the network. Tell everyone that the terrorists on Saturn have been captured.”

“Qin Fen,” Yang Lie said, hesitant to speak further: “I don’t know what you encountered, but doing this, those human rights organizations will call us inhumane. Even the citizens who don't understand the situation, seeing us treat terrorists this cruelly, might instead sympathize with them.”

“I know. But what does it matter? It’s enough to be true to one’s own conscience,” Qin Fen shook his head and continued: “I know that when people haven't felt the pain firsthand, many always preach righteousness and morality. They say we should forget hatred, that there are human rights! If someone claims our treatment of these terrorists is inhumane, tell them this! When terrorists throw bombs into your homes, when terrorists rape your parents, wives, and children, will you still think it’s inhumane to them?”

Qin Fen placed his hand over his heart: “Yang Lie, haven’t we always lived by being accountable only to heaven, earth, and our own conscience?”

“Understood, you are right.” Yang Lie tapped the keyboard on his desk and continued: “Then you need to prepare. The consequences of what you are doing might invite attacks from the entire terrorist organization.”

“Let them come then,” Qin Fen shrugged his shoulders: “Finding me is better than finding little girls, isn't it?”

“Understood. I’ve already given the order. You just need to wait a moment.”

The video call ended. Qin Fen flicked his fingers lightly, and Ilans’ injuries, which had not yet recovered, worsened.

Speaking a few words, Fire Maiden’s situation wasn't about some perverted taste of mine. It was that I always found it incredible in dramas and movies—the villain, utterly depraved and driven by lust, upon capturing a beautiful female character, would merely tie her up and wait for the righteous hero to rescue her. I truly didn't understand that.

I am not challenging anyone’s moral bottom line; I simply feel this aligns more with logic and reality.

Physical chastity is indeed important, but isn't spiritual sanctity even more so? Fire Maiden is a character I deeply respect, even though her appearances are few.