Liang Qian, whose eyes could no longer keep up with Pei Yan's speed, heard Wang Wenze's question and sighed after a long while, "If it comes to a fight, I can't beat him, but if it's a life-and-death battle, I can take him down with me, or at the very least, seriously injure him." After saying this, Liang Qian turned his gaze towards Ye Jiumu.

"I can't beat him, but he shouldn't think he can hurt me either." Feeling Liang Qian's gaze, Ye Jiumu braced himself and said, then facing Wang Wenze's disdainful look, he sheepishly added, "If I really had to fight, in the end, he might be lightly injured while I'd be dead!"

Qi Hua, meeting Ye Jiumu's gaze, chuckled softly, "Why are you looking at me? In our team, your group's combat prowess is the highest. Kong Lin and I, even if we sparred, would only be better than those Divine Desire criminals." He then shifted his gaze to the arena and sighed, "My ears have been filled with rumors about this Pei Yan for a long time. Seeing is believing; he really is the new favorite of the bureau!"

He begrudgingly added, "If Jiang Feiyang from our team made ample preparations in advance, he could give it a shot, might even wear him down. Peng Lang? No way! He can't do it! If Xue Buli were in the right environment, a sneak attack might give him a thirty percent chance of winning, but if he faced Pei Yan head-on, he'd have no chance of victory with Pei Yan closing in directly."

After he finished speaking, all eyes turned to Xia Yu. Xia Yu scanned the crowd, sighed, and said, "In pure hand-to-hand combat, among second-level Awakened, I'm seventy percent confident I can beat him. If he goes all out, I'm sure to lose within the second level. As for activating third-level abilities, I'm confident I can kill him in one strike, but this can only succeed if he doesn't know about my abilities. If he knows how to counter my third-level abilities, then it'll depend on how things play out on the spot."

"Have you all forgotten that Pei Yan hasn't even reached second-level awakening?" Zhao Yuanhu, who had been silent in the arena, softly reminded.

Hearing this, Wang Wenze smacked his lips in envy and lamented, "His fusion ability is too strong! Isn't Pei Yan like the novels say, invincible at the same level?"

"No, at least I know two people who can suppress Pei Yan at the same level! One is in the army, and the other one you all know!"

Shangxing's reminder made everyone simultaneously blurt out, "Ye Ruozai!"

Hearing this name, Ye Jiumu had a complicated feeling. More than anyone, he had thought of him first. As a younger brother, whether in studies or awakening abilities, he had always lived in the shadow of his brother's radiance.

Long past his rebellious age, he wouldn't lash out or hate his brother for it; he was proud of his brother's honor. Yet being compared to him all the time inevitably stirred some feelings of estrangement and loss.

However, Shangxing now couldn't care less about Ye Jiumu's little thoughts. Staring at Pei Yan in the arena, he frowned deeply, muttering to himself, "His aggressiveness is getting heavier!"

Just now, Pei Yan seized a mistake made by a Divine Desire criminal, dodging over ten dart guns shot from inside the opponent's body. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from his original spot. The only female criminal in the team behind him was so scared by the sudden dart guns that she stood frozen, unable to move. The Ice Qi Group, ready for a sneak attack, hadn't had time to retreat, and the dozen or so dart guns embedded with internal energy pierced through them mercilessly.

Immediately after, Pei Yan coldly watched as the murderer, who had accidentally killed the woman, howled to the sky, madly throwing dart guns all around. Without caring, he dealt with the other two criminals, then, taking advantage of the murderer's exhaustion and gasping for breath, quietly circled behind him and mercilessly snapped his neck.

Watching Pei Yan kill people now like picking vegetables in a market, leisurely choosing his target, and thinking back to just six months ago when the same person was anxious after killing someone, Shangxing's tightly furrowed brow gradually relaxed. It seemed that in the group of people he was allowed to hate, there was another opponent giving them a headache.

Pei Yan bent down to pick up the head at his feet, not because he had grown savage enough to need to sever heads for intimidation, but because the person was too unlucky. Having already lost the will to fight, he crawled, rolling and scrambling towards the already surrendered Liu Ling, yet was decapitated by the circular saw Pei Yan casually knocked off, with the head rolling right to Pei Yan's feet.

Casually tossing the head he was holding at the five remaining individuals' feet, then flicking away the blood on his hands, his puzzled gaze landed on Han Lihu, who was surrounded by the five. From the start of the battle, this person had stood silently in place, indifferent even when his subordinates were slaughtered by Pei Yan.

Pei Yan remained cautious of Han Lihu. The intel mentioned he was a fourth-level Awakened, the same level as Captain Hu and Shangxing, but why hadn't he taken action? Did he really think he could break through the Investigation Bureau's encirclement by himself?

Li Haifei, seeing the head rolling to his feet, was scared to tears. It was his circular saw that Pei Yan had deflected, accidentally killing this person.

He kicked the head far away fearfully, turned around, and whimpered, "Brother Deng! Brother Han! What should we do now!"

Deng Shufa, facing the desperate gazes of the other three, watched Pei Yan circling them like a predator, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. His peripheral vision glimpsed the members of the Investigation Bureau on the other side, sighing deeply.

Today they wouldn't escape. He had never imagined the Investigation Bureau members would be so powerful! Even if they could finally kill this mechanical killer, what would it matter? There still stood eight more people there; who knew what kind of monsters they would be!

"Brother Han! Should we fight or surrender? It's up to you. You're the one who brought everyone out! We'll follow your lead till the end!" Deng Shufa looked sadly at Han Lihu, who stood silent beside him, and asked.

As one of Han Lihu's trusted aides, Deng Shufa knew what had happened that day on Nine Immortals Island. He always felt it was unwise and had tried to advise against it, but Han Lihu had become blinded by power and listened to no one.

The day it all happened, Han Lihu had sent Deng Shufa to an out-of-town mission transporting goods, and by the time he returned, everything had changed. Several henchmen who had been Han Lihu's closest aides, just like him, had vanished. Han Lihu himself lost his former charisma, becoming reclusive, dull, and temperamental. Even when Deng Shufa, his confidant, tried to speak a few words with him to find out what had happened that day, he was scolded and chased out of the room.

At first, he thought Han Lihu was simply frustrated over losing power within the organization. But from these past days to these unexpected actions, witnessing a completely changed Han Lihu, he increasingly felt that something was severely off.