Then the police released the hotel surveillance footage they had retrieved. When Zhou Xuan saw the tall foreigner staying at the hotel, he was startled. This foreigner looked very much like the figure in his image. Although it was just a blurry figure, his build and height matched the blurry figure perfectly. He guessed it was him.
Moreover, four police officers have died in his hotel room. Although we haven't seen who killed them or what weapon they were killed with, it's easy to guess who else could it be but that foreigner.
Zhou Xuan used his supernatural ability again, increasing its intensity, but the image in the image remained unchanged, and his true face was still unrecognizable. However, Zhou Xuan was basically certain that the mysterious assassin was him.
With this discovery, things became much easier. The police immediately issued an arrest warrant for the foreign man in the hotel video. Regardless of whether he was the one who did it, the whole incident was inextricably linked to him.
Zhou Xuan conducted a thorough search of the hotel, but failed to find any further clues. The police checked several entrances and exits of the hotel and basically determined the whereabouts of the foreigner. They immediately organized a search and encirclement operation.
Zhou Xuan and Ladi and the others followed along with the police. The police investigation was quite effective at this point because they had a specific target and had obtained video footage, which confirmed the suspect's identity and made the search much easier.
The assassin's every operation was flawless, with perfect accuracy and never a miss. But this time, the mission failed. Logically, it shouldn't have been possible, yet the target somehow escaped his sniping. Not only did he escape assassination, but he also managed to uncover something. The police came knocking on his door at the international hotel. Although it was supposedly a routine operation, the direction and content of the police's inquiry immediately made the assassin realize that they were looking for him, that he was the target, and that any other explanation was just an excuse. So he immediately prepared and took action, shooting and killing the four policemen with several shots. The bullets had been specially modified by him, so no clues could be found afterward.
However, the fact that no clues could be found is itself a clue, because apart from the fact that he left such methods and clues at the scene of the attack on Prince Tuluk, no other assassin has such ability.
Although Zhou Xuan couldn't find the video footage, sometimes the combined efforts of many people are much more convenient than his own. The police were also conducting their investigation openly and brazenly, so it wouldn't be too difficult for them to find the person in the video who hadn't left Rabat.
Rabat has a small total population; compared to several major cities in China, it's only the size of a large village within a major city. Furthermore, it has a relatively small floating population, making it easier to find.
After a full-scale investigation, the police located the killer within half an hour. The killer was hiding in a building in the southern suburbs of the city. The area was a residential complex stretching for several kilometers. At that time, there were very few people on the construction site, almost no one at all.
The police sealed off all the exits of the community and then dispatched ten fully armed teams to advance in from each entrance. Although they had received intelligence, the police were still very nervous because the killer's ruthlessness was well-documented, and if things went wrong, they could shoot him dead.
Zhou Xuan and his group stopped at the perimeter of the residential area. Zhou Xuan looked around and realized that the area inside was at least several kilometers wide. Even if his superpower were increased several times, he still wouldn't be able to detect it.
However, at this moment, Zhou Xuan still channeled his supernatural power to its strongest level, condensing it into a beam and searching around.
However, they were in the outer perimeter of the encirclement, and there was nothing unusual about them. Zhou Xuan didn't know whether to follow them inside, but Ladi and the others certainly wouldn't go in. Even with so many police officers around, they were still uneasy and extremely nervous. The assassin's abilities were probably not much different from Zhou Xuan's, whom they feared. If he really wanted to deal with them, as long as he saw this person, he could shoot him and who could stop him?
Zhou Xuan had no confidence that he could stop such a threat, because it was a bullet that had been fired, and he had no chance of blocking it. However, the assassin probably did not know that he was in this place, which might have an unexpected effect.
Volume 1, Chapter 490: The Hunt for the Assassins
Chapter 490 Hunting Down the Assassins
(Old Luo's daughter was born! Hehe, so exciting! I've been updating less these past few days since becoming a dad, please forgive me. I'll be back to my daily 10,000-word update speed in a few days, but I promise I will never stop updating.)
Zhou Xuan watched as countless police officers dispersed and began to surround the area. After a moment's thought, he took off his small bag and beckoned Hu Shan and several other guards to his side. He then whispered, "Listen carefully now. I'm giving each of you a few bullets that I've modified. The bullets will spread within minutes of being fired, so after you fire, collect and dispose of the spent casings. Don't leave them at the scene, so the police don't recognize our characteristics. Also, remember, don't fire recklessly. These bullets have extremely high penetrating power. If your opponent is behind cover, you just need to find the right position and shoot them. I've tested it; these bullets can penetrate two meters of concrete at a range of up to 5,000 meters."
Hu Shan and the other guards knew that Zhou Xuan had this special bullet modification technology, and they had seen it before. However, they were unaware that Zhou Xuan said his modified bullets could disappear within minutes of being fired. But couldn't that assassin also make bullets disappear?
Hu Shan suddenly became suspicious again. Did Zhou Xuan have any connection with that assassin? But Zhou Xuan had never left the Prince's Mansion from beginning to end and had always been in their sight. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any connection between them.
But the bullets Zhou Xuan gave them were very effective, as they all knew. Overjoyed, they took them and loaded them into their pistols. As guards of the prince, they had the right to use firearms.
However, the bullets Zhou Xuan gave them this time were a bit strange. They had a faint, cool feeling, but it wasn't very obvious. Moreover, the bullets were crystal clear, like white jade, glass, and ice, but upon closer inspection, they didn't resemble any of them. They were a hybrid of these elements.
It has the coolness of ice, but not the melting sensation; it has the transparency of glass, but not its brittleness; it has the crystalline feel of white jade, but not its jade-like texture. In short, it's a very strange feeling.
Because Zhou Xuan created the ice bullets using water and then infused them with supernatural energy, the ice was protected by a supernatural energy shield and wouldn't melt. However, once the supernatural energy disappeared, the ice would begin to melt, especially during high-speed movement. Zhou Xuan clearly measured that if the ice bullets were fired at high speed, the energy loss would be extremely severe, lasting for more than five seconds before the energy completely dissipated. At that point, the bullets would also melt, and naturally, no trace of the bullets would be found.
However, Hu Shan and the others were unaware of the full effectiveness of the ice bullets Zhou Xuan had given them. Previously, Zhou Xuan had only fired ordinary bullets at them, and they didn't know how he had modified them. These ice bullets were clearly different; they wondered if their effectiveness would be as strong as the bullets they had tested last time.
After preparing, the police and soldiers in this direction had already sneaked close to the target in the encirclement, but there was still no movement inside, and it was unknown whether the intelligence was accurate.
With police officers in front, Hu Shan and the others could only watch from behind. However, there was no need to fight for who was first or last in such a situation. If this person was indeed the killer, then there was a 90% chance that those who rushed to the front would be sent to their deaths as cannon fodder.
Even Zhou Xuan's special ability couldn't detect that far; it was at least a thousand meters away from the target location. He could only observe it visually. There were at least several hundred police officers and soldiers surrounding the target, so it was impossible for them to get a chance.
Zhou Xuan couldn't detect that far, but he could see clearly, with eyesight far superior to that of ordinary people. Just as the soldiers surrounded him from all sides, the soldiers at the front suddenly fell to the ground, and the others immediately fell to the ground, looking for cover to hide themselves.
When those soldiers fell, Zhou Xuan saw a flash of blood on their backs. It seemed that the bullet's powerful penetrating force had pierced through them from front to back. The bullet's penetrating power was so great that even at a distance of a thousand meters, if it were aimed at any one of them, even if they were hiding behind several meters of rock, they would still be pierced through.
Hu Shan and his group hid behind cover, but they were too far from the target to see what was inside the building. They were all holding pistols, not sniper rifles. Sniper rifles have high-precision sights, so a distance of 1,000 meters is no problem for them, but without the aid of a sight, it would be difficult to see clearly.
Zhou Xuan estimated the assassin's location from where the people had fallen, pinpointing his exact location within the building.
Next, Zhou Xuan saw a few flickers of light in the corner of a window on the second floor of the house, and then the soldiers at the front of the window collapsed to the ground.
This terrified the people next to the dead soldiers, who were hiding behind the rocks in the rock garden. It was impossible to hit them from any direction of the target house. The soldiers died from gunshot wounds, their blood splattering everywhere. What was frightening was that the bullet wounds on their chests should have been in a blind spot, making it impossible for any bullet to reach that location, or perhaps the bullets could have turned.
Hu Shan and the others were probably too far away to see clearly, but Zhou Xuan could see clearly that the bullets had penetrated the thick rock and killed the soldiers.
The soldiers and police officers who hadn't been killed and were at the forefront were extremely panicked. It seemed that nothing could guarantee their safety anymore. They and the soldiers who had been killed were all wearing super-strong bulletproof vests, but the bullets had penetrated the areas where the vests provided the strongest and best protection, rendering the vests useless.
When the report reached the leadership, it immediately caused a commotion. This situation was unexpected, and even the most skilled tactical and firearms experts were baffled. The location and angle of the shot indicated that it was impossible. Later, there were reports of soldiers and police officers being killed one after another. Finally, the highest commander present made a decision to destroy the target building with heavy weapons.
However, after the order was given, before the heavy weapons could be aimed and activated, a bullet hit the shell and caused an explosion. Several loud bangs detonated several boxes of shells, and the three soldiers on the artillery vehicle and more than ten policemen nearby were blown into the air. Those who fell down were all missing limbs.
The shells destroyed the cannons and damaged the gun carriages and gun mounts beyond recognition. Because they had received a prior warning from Prince Tuluk, the police department leaders had contacted the nearest armed forces in advance and sent 120 soldiers and a cannon.
The garrison troops heard that it was a brutal manhunt for a wanted murderer, so they sent artillery and over a hundred soldiers. This was only because the police department leaders deliberately exaggerated the situation. If they had known that the person being hunted was only one person, they would never have sent more than a hundred soldiers and artillery.
Unexpectedly, over a hundred soldiers, one cannon, and over two hundred policemen—nearly four hundred people in total—were all outnumbered and overwhelmed when they tried to capture one person. The victim was completely overwhelmed and had no chance to fight back. Moreover, they hadn't even seen where the killer was or what he looked like.
The unit commander, a lieutenant, was furious. He could see clearly through his binoculars that there was only one point of firing in the building, but incredibly, that firing point was behind a wall. The bullets seemed to be coming out of the wall itself. Trying to return fire was completely ineffective. The bullets hit the wall, kicking up a few specks of dust, but couldn't penetrate the wall, let alone kill the people inside.
Enraged, the lieutenant immediately ordered the cannons to fire, intending to blow the house to smithereens. But what was even more infuriating was that the assassin had actually destroyed the cannons as well.
It's unbelievable. How could a bullet be so precisely aimed at a shell? Especially a shell inside a cannon, surrounded by a thick steel barrel. The bullet would only hit the shell if it penetrated the barrel, and it would have to hit the propellant at the rear of the shell to explode. If it hit the tip of the shell, it wouldn't explode.
To achieve all this, at least a few conditions must be met. First, the shooter must be a super sniper with extremely accurate shooting from a kilometer away. Second, the bullet he fired must be an armor-piercing bullet or a high-powered bullet. However, armor-piercing bullets do exist in the world's known military arsenals, but due to their limitations, they can only penetrate a maximum of a dozen centimeters of steel or concrete. This is already a remarkable armor-piercing bullet. To penetrate several meters of concrete or steel, one would need an extremely powerful missile.
However, based on all the observations, the other side was using guns to fire, and it was definitely not heavy weapons such as cannons or missiles.
The cannon was destroyed, and the lieutenant was furious. He ordered his soldiers to take it down at all costs, otherwise he would have no way to go back and explain. After taking the man down, he would then negotiate with the police for compensation. He did not expect such a big loss. It did not meet the level of danger that the police had told them. They demanded more compensation. Not to mention the loss of the cannon, seven or eight soldiers had also died.
What he didn't expect was that even more police officers died. At least twenty police officers have died from gunfire, and all of them are being held down and lying on the ground, too afraid to move.