Wang Yan in the car had already died, and outside the car still stood members of the Secret Council and city guards, waiting for the door to open, which was bound to cause a stir.
But Li Ming wasn’t panicked. He surveyed the cabin, which was clearly modified. Originally the "Zhongdi-R6" model stretch hovercar, it was equipped with a full suite of features like holographic projection and fully immersive virtual imagery.
He leaned forward to the front seat, pried open the central control panel, and produced his own intelligence terminal. He pulled out a data cable from the side, connected it to the control panel, and began to operate.
He soon acquired the highest level of access, deftly copying down the most recent surveillance videos for later use.
After that, he used an ion sword to cut open the control panel and located the hard drive.
More precisely, it was a chip, no larger than a thumbnail, its copper contacts on the backside tarnished—after all, it was just an in-car intelligence, not requiring extensive storage.
A tangerine flame ignited in his hand, and the storage chip quickly made crackling sounds, finally turning into a pool of brownish burnt liquid, tiny copper dots still faintly visible, casually sprinkled on the ground.
He placed Wang Yan’s body at his feet, making the wound on his forehead look unrecognizable, at least superficially so.
"The battery should be located here..." Li Ning said, holding an ion sword and estimating the location on the car.
Then, he plunged the sword down forcefully, the ion sword completely buried into the chassis.
Outside the car, in broad daylight, the atmosphere was tense. There were many people present but almost no one spoke. The lab’s security personnel, led by Xu Pinghu, formed a human wall.
They stood face to face with the Secret Council’s men, eyes blazing with anger, neither side giving ground.
Luo Chuan’s brow was tightly furrowed, glancing occasionally at the hovercar Li Ming had boarded, which remained quiet.
But in his heart, an ominous premonition lingered, even feeling some regret for having agreed to follow Li Ming there.
"It’s been fifteen minutes already, what are they discussing?" Luo Chuan couldn’t contain himself and was about to step forward, but a member of the Secret Council blocked his path.
One move, and everyone moved, others gathering noisily around.
"Out of the way!" Luo Chuan said coldly, spitting out two words, but the members of the Secret Council also had their livelihoods to consider and could only forcefully respond:
"Without Assistant Wang’s orders, no one is allowed to disturb."
"Ah, ah, Mr. Luo..." Meng Wankui’s eyelid twitched, and he hurriedly stepped forward, standing between the two groups, repeatedly gesturing with his hands.
"They are just chatting, nothing bad will happen, you don’t need to worry," Meng Wankui tried to reassure, but Luo Chuan swept him with a scornful glance and scoffed:
"Nothing will happen? If something does happen, will you personally explain it to my teacher?"
Meng Wankui complained in his heart, but being caught in the middle, he could not retreat, and could only stiffly say, "If something really happens, I’ll be responsible."
He didn’t think anything would happen. With so many eyes watching, with so many professors here, what could Wang Yan do?
However, just as his words fell, the hovercar nearby suddenly burst into a loud boom, intense flames erupting from beneath the car, launching the vehicle from the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust and ash.
Luo Chuan’s face changed dramatically. The moment the explosion happened, he vanished from where he stood.
Suddenly, the expressions of a few professors present turned cold.
Meng Wankui’s face turned ashen, feeling the world spin around. If it weren’t for his subordinates supporting him, he would have already fallen to the ground.
The ground cracked, Luo Chuan holding the still flaming body of the car as it landed.
The car body melted from the center, and with molten metal, a figure dropped out from within, hitting the ground without any movement.
"Junior brother!" Overwhelmed by concern, Luo Chuan’s heart raced as he cried out.
Before leaving, the teacher had instructed him a thousand times to take good care of Li Ming. If something truly went wrong, he didn’t know how he’d face his teacher.
The rage rising in his heart scorched his reason, turning his pupils gradually bloodshot.
"Senior brother?" The familiar voice made Luo Chuan snap back to reality. Looking up, he saw Li Ming, his face smeared with soot, clinging to the vehicle and jumping down.
Luo Chuan hastily tossed the car body aside, almost hitting Meng Wankui, who went pale with shock but dared not show anger. Instead, he appeared deeply concerned.
"Are you alright?" Luo Chuan came over to check, turning Li Ming around and swiftly arranging for someone to bring over life-sign monitoring equipment.
"I’m fine," Li Ming shook his head, indicating he was unharmed, his clothes only slightly singed and his skin somewhat reddened.
"Just..." He glanced down at the charred body on the ground, lying desolated.
"Assistant Wang!" Several people from the Secret Council flipped the body over, shouting in disbelief.
Meng Wankui felt an immense dread, hurrying over for a look. The man was beyond dead, as Wang Yan’s front skin had carbonized. Although the facial features were barely discernible, metal fragments were lodged in his forehead.
Wang Yan was really dead!?
His heart sank with despair, knowing that getting involved with these matters only brought trouble.
But even he could not have predicted that Wang Yan would end up dead , especially since he was one of Fu Zongchen’s closest assistants.
Should it trigger a chain reaction, a violent conflict on the scene, who could bear the responsibility?
"What on earth happened! How could Assistant Wang die inside the car!" A man from the Secret Council shouted, apparently of no low rank, as he had just been by Wang Yan’s side, a national scholar with an upright disposition.
"I was about to ask you the same!" Luo Chuan’s face was grim. Li Ming stepped forward and said softly, "Senior brother, I should explain this."
"There’s no need to explain to them," Luo Chuan said with a heavy voice.
"No, Assistant Wang just sacrificed himself to save me, I owe them an explanation," Li Ming said solemnly. He could clearly see Luo Chuan’s eyes, mixed with rage, freeze for a moment.