Pinching his nose, he picked up the shoes that Jiang Feiyang had taken off. The military boots, emitting a foul stench and a charred smell, had their soles melted by the high temperature, revealing a big hole. Looking at Jiang Feiyang's feet, which had mostly recovered but were still swollen and red, Pei Yan couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Laugh, laugh, you bastard laugh! What's going on here?!" Jiang Feiyang rubbed his feet, glaring at Pei Yan, who couldn't stop chuckling. He grabbed a burnt sock full of holes and threw it over. Just now, when he entered Jiezhi Space, he was scalded by the high temperature under his feet, yelling in pain, thinking he was under attack; he only dared to come in after determining his location for the second time.

Shangxing, who issued a warning at the first sign of trouble, looked at this disobedient subordinate with a mix of anger and relief but had to keep a stern face as he scolded, "Didn't I just notify you not to enter Jiezhi Space yet? Why didn't you follow orders!"

"Captain, you know, when I hear an order like that, I have to come in and see for myself. I was fully prepared when I came!" Jiang Feiyang grinned foolishly, pulling out a sock from his storage ring while putting it on and turning to the others, asking, "What's going on with you guys?!"

Pei Yan, removing his helmet, crouched down, lighting the cigar in his hand from the ground heat, muttering to himself as he recalled the earlier scene, "Han Lihu self-destructed?"

"Self-destructed?" Jiang Feiyang and the others all asked in unison, equally confused.

Clamping the cigar in his mouth, Pei Yan sat down next to Jiang Feiyang, nodded, and continued, "Yes, self-destructed! I can't think of any other word to describe his actions!"

"Self-destructed, how did he self-destruct? Did he use his ability to ignite himself? But it shouldn't be that powerful!" Wang Wenze looked at the still steaming ground with lingering fear and asked.

"It's hard to describe; let me show you the footage, and you'll understand!" Pei Yan said, and with that, a projector automatically rose from his shoulder, projecting an image into the air.

In this footage, although the camera was shaking violently, it was still clear that Han Lihu, trapped in the scene by Pei Yan, was continuously moving his hands without pause, but his face was twisted in pain and struggle. It didn't last long before he took out a syringe from his storage ring and forcefully stabbed it into his shoulder.

After the injection, Han Lihu seemed relieved as the ferocious expression on his face gradually faded and returned to calm. However, he began to emit a large amount of dark red objects wrapped from within. Just as these dark red objects were about to envelop Han Lihu entirely, everyone could clearly see that Han Lihu's body had started to inflate like a balloon.

The video ended there, then automatically replayed from the beginning.

"Was there something wrong with that injection?" Jiang Feiyang stared at the screen, rubbing his foot, and asked.

"Yes! Not only me, but even Captain noticed that after he injected that serum, the internal energy in his body swelled at an unbelievable rate!" Pei Yan recalled his shock when the Mechanical Eye analyzed and transmitted the data to him, noting that Han Lihu's internal energy expanded fivefold in just over ten seconds and was still expanding. In the eyes of the Mechanical Eye, he was no longer human but an inflatable doll filled with internal energy.

"I'm beginning to believe what he said!" After hearing Pei Yan's account, Ye Jiumu looked down at Deng Shufa, who was lying beside them, his life status unknown, and muttered to himself.

Tilting his head and staring at the screen playing in loops, Zhao Yuanhu softly remarked, "Did you guys see that Han Lihu seemed to be shouting something at the end?"

Hearing this, Pei Yan squinted his eyes, gazing at the screen while puffing clouds from his cigar. Hmm! It seemed Zhao Yuanhu was right; Han Lihu was indeed shouting something at the top of his lungs before being completely engulfed by the dark red energy.

Unfortunately, Pei Yan's rapid-fire metallic storm created such noise that Han Lihu's shout was completely inaudible. After replaying the video a few times, Pei Yan licked his lips and wondered, "Based on my system's analysis of his lip movements, he was shouting, 'Su Xiang, even in death, I won't let you go!' Whether that's accurate would need a language expert to confirm. So, who is Su Xiang?"

Facing Pei Yan's question, everyone shook their heads in the same bewilderment, when Shangxing's voice rose, "Alright, no matter who he is, it has nothing to do with us. Pei Yan, remember to hand this footage over to Intelligence. The rest is their issue."

"Understood!"

Shangxing turned to Jiang Feiyang and asked, "What's the situation outside? You didn't cause too much environmental damage, did you?"

"Two dead, one captured alive! Quite a few trees were blown away but no fire was started, Peng Lang is outside, handling the situation!" Jiang Feiyang responded, putting on his shoes and stomping his foot twice with a grin.

"Good! Notify the department to send someone to handle the scene!"

"Yes!"

Watching the others either busy cleaning the scene or stepping out of Jiezhi Space for some air, Shangxing approached the silent Pei Yan, who was sitting on the side smoking, and said, "Gu Shenghui said I've developed in you a bad habit of smoking a cigar every time you kill someone."

"He's talking nonsense; I just like having one after completing a mission, not necessarily after a kill!" Pei Yan dismissed it with a snort of disdain.

"Not confused anymore? Or have you started to enjoy this feeling of killing?"

Raising his head, Pei Yan frowned and said, "Not exactly enjoy, but I won't be troubled by killing this scum either! Captain, you're not here to preach to me, are you?"

"I'm someone who's indulged in it myself; what sense would it make for me to preach about reason to you!" As Shangxing spoke, he sat down too, looking at the shattered, burnt, and distorted corpses in the arena, and mocked himself, "For these idiots, I have less patience than you do. If it weren't necessary to abide by the rules set by you humans to survive in this world, I'd love to send them all to hell myself!"

Hearing Shangxing's words, Pei Yan chuckled in agreement.

"I don't have much to say about killing; you know the rules and the limits. The next thing I say, you might think of as platitudes, but it's my advice to you as someone who's been through it: Remember, you're human; it is you controlling your powers, not your powers controlling you. Killing is guided by your true heart, not by powers tempting and pushing you towards destruction!"

Saying this, Shangxing looked at the others walking back and forth in front of him, "It's not just you; both I and Xia Yu have gone through such a phase, lost in rapidly growing powers, indulging in the pleasure of combat. There's nothing wrong in that; it's an innate animal instinct, but eventually, we all have to move past this phase. Only by learning to control our emotions can we better master power rather than indulging solely in killing and becoming slaves to our abilities."

"Got it!"