The shock baton crackled and sparked.

Watching Xu Yun's sickly smile, Pan Hua couldn't hold back. "Xu Yun, what exactly are you planning to do!"

"What am I planning?" Xu Yun laughed. "Curing you, of course. Electroshock therapy. Nothing wrong with that."

Pan Hua steeled himself. "For the sake of what we once had — just kill me."

Xu Yun waggled the baton. "Killing you is easy. But it's no fun. By rights, you should either be sobbing and begging for your life right now, or putting on a hard face and shouting 'eighteen years from now I'll be a hero again.' But your reaction's strange — not hard enough, and not weepy enough either."

He turned to Bruce. "Have I not been intimidating enough?"

Bruce chuckled. "Mr. President, you're far too merciful."

"That's it. I'm too merciful. This end times doesn't need mercy." Xu Yun nodded, deeply convinced, then turned his gaze to Hu Yan. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Tight leather jacket, tight leather pants — sexy. Honestly, I've slept with plenty of women, but never one of these beast-people yet."

Pan Hua ripped his blade free. "Xu Yun, don't push me!"

But before the blade cleared its sheath, a pair of hands had already clamped around his throat — Xu Yun's, the sole five-core Bug Warrior in the entire Ji-Mou-Dai region.

Before Xu Yun, Pan Hua had no capacity to resist at all.

Seeing Pan Hua's throat seized, Hu Yan let out a low roar and lunged to save him — only to meet Xu Yun's boot, kicked clean aside, and then several Bug Warriors pinned her down.

"Resistance is futile," Xu Yun said, looking down from on high.

Before absolute strength, that was simply the truth.

"You—" Pan Hua, throat clamped, face flushing red, managed to force out one word.

Xu Yun tightened his grip a touch more, then kicked Pan Hua away, sending him sprawling to be seized by the Bug Warriors. Checking his watch, Xu Yun said, "No point wasting time. Implant Pan Hua with a pseudo-bug-core. Lots of interesting things happening around here lately —…