Homo Sapiens

Chen Jianxiong and Domino were so clean and efficient that the Xu Clan had no time to react.

This was according to Li Qingye’s directive. He didn’t want any unnecessary complications. After all, with Yang Tianci’s recent incident in Siam, the Xu Brothers were on high alert. A failed capture attempt would have had disastrous consequences.

Besides, his primary focus was now on Luzon and Hongsawaddy, not Siam.

Since they couldn’t be controlled, it was best to let the Xu Brothers die.

Once the two brothers were dead, the entire Siam Xu Family would inevitably descend into internal strife, making it impossible for them to move against the Qingye Group.

As for whether Yang Haibo would be suspicious, Li Qingye wanted him to be. He wanted the man to be consumed by paranoia, living in constant fear.

And just as he predicted.

Back in Yangcheng, Yang Haibo had just picked up Yang Tiancheng from the airport when he received the news from Siam. The Xu Brothers had suddenly died in their home. The incident sent his mind racing.

Meanwhile, in Bangkok.

The major families of Siam secretly bolstered their defenses, while also moving to seize the Xu Clan’s assets, devouring as much as they could.

Though these people called each other brothers on a normal day, kicking a man when he was down was second nature to them.

The sudden deaths of the Xu Brothers plunged the major families of Siam into endless open conflicts and covert schemes.

This state of affairs intensified the chaos within Siam, muddying the waters and making it easier for others to fish in them.

「June 1st.」

Having stayed at the Bangkok Riverfront Hotel for over ten days, Victor found the chaos of the past week and a half to be extremely thorny.

Yang Tianci’s poisoning, coupled with the sudden deaths of the Xu Brothers, made him feel that something was deeply wrong. It had also disrupted his plans.

After all, according to the cooperation agreed upon in their last secret meeting, he needed the Xu Clan’s Meisha Pharmaceutical to produce the ”stamps.” Then, he would use a secret channel to transport the shipment to the Old Street District in Hongsawaddy. Finally, an inside man arranged by the Yang Clan would help smuggle the goods quietly into Huaguo.

But now, with the Xu Clan in complete disarray, they had no time to help him produce the ”stamps.”

Even if someone was willing to help, Victor couldn’t trust them. The Xu Clan still hadn’t settled on a new leader. If he backed someone who ended up losing the power struggle, things would get even more complicated.

Meanwhile, the Yang Clan was preoccupied with their heir’s incident and also had no time to arrange for an inside man.

’Damn it, who the hell is behind this?’ Victor wondered, standing by the window and gazing at the slowly flowing river as he contemplated how to handle the situation.

Suddenly, his phone rang.

”What is it?”

”There’s a problem on Leech’s end. It might affect the upcoming deal.”

Victor’s face darkened. ”Fuck you. Is he trying to get himself killed? Does he really think he’s safe hiding in the Golden Triangle?”

”The north might be sending people. I suggest some of our assets go dark.”

Rubbing his temples, Victor said with a sigh of resignation, ”Okay, have our people go dark.”

”Understood. We’ll minimize contact for a while.”

”Goodbye.”

Victor hung up and immediately opened a bottle of red wine to soothe his frustrations. It was clear that this string of unexpected events had paralyzed his plans.

But what could he do? He felt utterly helpless.

Meanwhile, a few cockroaches in the room recorded the entire scene, then handed off the information to a fly that came to retrieve the data.

Even an elite operative like Victor failed to notice anything unusual in the room.

Insects like cockroaches and flies were simply too inconspicuous. Who would pay any mind to a few of them?

The intelligence officer handling the data from the surveillance insects quickly learned the content of Victor’s call. They even managed to see the other person’s phone number from a screenshot of Victor’s screen.

After reviewing the intelligence report, Chen Jianxiong shook his head. ”Arrogance truly is humanity’s greatest weakness.”

He said this because Victor was far too confident, having lost the vigilance expected of an intelligence officer.

Or perhaps it was America’s dominance in chips and software that had caused their vigilance regarding communication devices to plummet.

Evidently, Victor didn’t believe anyone could hack his phone, which made him reckless.

”’Leech? Golden Triangle?’” Chen Jianxiong typed the two terms into his biological computer, and the database instantly returned over a thousand related entries.

Although the Security Department’s intelligence database wasn’t comprehensive, its information on Southeast Asia was relatively thorough.

”’So that’s it. It’s because of that incident on the Mekong River a while back...’” Chen Jianxiong’s eyes narrowed. He thought of Domino, who had gone to Chiang Mai yesterday, and realized this could be an opportunity.

However, he didn’t have the authority to act on it, so he quickly dispatched a Soldier back to Manila to deliver the message.

The thought made him deeply dissatisfied with their current communication speed. This manual method of relaying intelligence was too slow and limited. If an emergency arose, he might not have time to request instructions from the boss.

But he could only wait for the undersea fiber-optic cable to be laid. Until then, they had to rely on couriers.

The risk of leaks was too high with internet or satellite communications. For the sake of security, they had to sacrifice speed for now.

「Meanwhile.」

Having arrived in Chiang Mai, Domino secretly rendezvoused with Squad 203 of the Blood Blade Special Team.

Including the six Soldiers she brought with her, a total of 27 people were participating in this operation.

Two of the Soldiers Domino brought held Siamese citizenship. She had them buy a house locally, preferably one with a courtyard.

With enough money, that kind of house was easy enough to acquire.

The 20 Soldiers from Blood Blade, however, had not entered Siam through legal channels. They had secretly infiltrated Chiang Mai across the Hongsawaddy border and were now hiding in the nearby mountain jungles.

Fortunately, equipped with Fierce Tiger Combat Suits, the Soldiers were unaffected by the harsh rainforest environment.

They didn’t even need external supplies for food; they could be self-sufficient by relying on the plants and animals in the mountain forests.

This was because they were equipped with a piece of bio-equipment called a [Food Extraction Pouch]. This device formed a symbiotic relationship with the human body. As long as leaves, grass, insects, and animal meat were fed into it, the pouch would digest and break them down, supplying a portion of the nutrients to the host.

Thus, the Soldiers could sustain themselves by eating grass. In an environment like a tropical rainforest, with its abundance of plants, they never had to worry about food.

However, in environments like deserts or ice fields where plants and animals were scarce, the Food Extraction Pouch would be useless, unable to make a meal without ingredients.

Domino spent three days in Chiang Mai, and from a list of potential targets, she selected a particularly suitable one.

The Ring Snake Gang, which was entrenched in the border region between Siam and Hongsawaddy.

It was a mid-sized gang with over a thousand members, primarily involved in smuggling and drug trafficking. Occasionally, they would also extort tourists and poach rare wildlife.

Their main base of operations was in a small town near Chiang Mai.

Furthermore, the Ring Snake Gang had a murky relationship with the top official in Chiang Mai, making them an excellent target.

After all, Domino’s plan was to control both the underworld and the legitimate authorities; it was the best way to minimize future complications.

To ensure the operation was foolproof, she didn’t act immediately, but instead continued her in-depth investigation.