After taking down the long-haired youth with the knife, Lin Jie pounced on the tattooed man who had fallen to the ground and stabbed his vital areas a few times.

The cardiac pacemaker is actually called a defibrillator.

It uses a certain amount of high-voltage electricity, ranging in the thousands of volts, to deliver a burst of energy through the patient's body, causing a large current to pass through, which can stimulate a heart that has stopped to start beating again.

For a normal person, getting shocked like this might actually cause their heart to stop.

However, this is only a possibility; in most cases, it would just cause temporary vertigo or fainting.

Even though Lin Jie had turned the defibrillator's voltage to its highest setting, the tattooed man had not moved after falling. To be safe, Lin Jie stabbed him a few more times.

After searching their bodies, Lin Jie did not find any phones on them, which left him quite disappointed.

Lin Jie picked up the military knife that the tattooed man had dropped on the ground, weighed it in his hand, and felt it was not as handy as a scalpel.

He went over to the stunned Guo Fenhan, handed her the military knife, and advised, "Take this for self-defense; hopefully, it will be of some use."

"I'm going up."

Guo Fenhan woodenly took the knife, watching Lin Jie turn to leave, and suddenly came to her senses.

She clutched Lin Jie's arm, full of dependency and pleaded, "Dr. Lin, could you stay?"

"There are definitely more bad guys up there; it's very dangerous."

Lin Jie shook his head and said, "These two came down to take us up."

"When they don't see us heading up, the people above will come down to check. The next ones won't be careless."

"If I go up now, I might still be able to take advantage of their carelessness to do something."

"You just stay here."

Seeing Guo Fenhan's face turn pale, as if she was being abandoned, Lin Jie tried to reassure her, "You have a prominent background, so these people, whether they are escaping or making a last stand, will use you as a shield."

"So, your life isn't in danger. Just stay here obediently."

Lin Jie also knew that his reassurance was rather weak.

After all, he couldn't even control his own fate, let alone protect someone else.

After that gunshot, all was silent, no announcements over a loudspeaker, which made Lin Jie seriously doubt his earlier judgment.

It didn't seem like someone had discovered this place to rescue him and Guo Fenhan.

Which meant that the bad guys still ruled here.

Lin Jie had already taken down two of them; hoping they'd let him go alive was not an option anymore.

At this point, going out, he could only hope to catch them off guard, to run if he could, and if not...

Then he'd just have to... take down a few more.

Lin Jie looked at the two long-handled scalpels in his hands.

With a flick of his pinky, the scalpel spun lightly in his palm before he grasped it firmly again.

Feeling the coolness of the handle, Lin Jie softly muttered, "I'm the best with a knife in the world!"

He made his way up the groaning wooden staircase, and with every step he took, his courage waned a bit.

Several times, he wanted to turn back and hide here with Guo Fenhan and leave things to fate.

Looking at the rectangular exit just within reach above his head, Lin Jie silently encouraged himself, "I've left things to fate once before, had good luck, but fate won't always favor me."

"I have to fight for myself, even if the outcome is failure."

Summoning his courage once more, Lin Jie hesitated no longer and poked his head out of the exit.

Pretending to be urged by someone, in a panic, Lin Jie looked around and found the room empty.

Relieved, he quickly stepped out of the basement.

Lin Jie surveyed the room; the door leading outside was ajar, left with just a crack.

On the north wall was a one-meter square high window about two meters off the ground, but it was covered by a steel bar security window.

The room was very empty; on the south side, a single air mattress lay there, with a small plastic stool next to it, surrounded by a pile of assorted junk, including a dozen beer cans.

Lin Jie listened intently for a while, and the outside room was equally quiet.

He quietly moved the small plastic stool beneath the window, climbed on it, and peered outside!

After acclimating to the light and the reflection of the glass, aided by the faint moonlight outside, Lin Jie saw nothing but dark trees.

He guessed that this building was situated in the wilderness.

Hence, they dared to fire shots without fear of being heard by others.

After testing the security window's sturdiness, Lin Jie had to give up on escaping through there.

He stepped down from the stool, listened intently once more, and after confirming there were no odd sounds beyond the door, Lin Jie gently pushed it open and entered the room he had been in since he awoke.

The room was still empty.

Lin Jie crouched and quickly moved along the wall to the southwest corner, then along the south wall towards the large window, peeking outside clandestinely.

Outside the window was a two to three-meter-wide corridor, beyond which was a level courtyard where two vehicles were parked.

An off-road vehicle and a van.

On the east side of the courtyard were two small bungalows.

The courtyard wall was low, just about one and a half meters high, and Lin Jie's gaze went over the wall, spotting faint lights far off in the distance.

This confirmed Lin Jie's judgment that the building was indeed in the wild hinterlands.

As he observed for a while, Lin Jie neither saw any figures nor heard any sounds.

Perhaps the bald man had already left with the others, leaving those two subordinates to guard himself and Guo Fenhan, making them follow from behind?

Or perhaps those subordinates were not there to guard them at all, but to silence them?

The more Lin Jie thought about it, the more he felt that silencing them was highly plausible.

An unexpected change must have occurred, prompting the bald man to no longer wait and to directly silence them and make a quick escape?

That sudden gunshot might just be proof of an unexpected occurrence.

With these thoughts, Lin Jie's heart immediately became fervent.

What a chance to escape!

Suppressing his inner excitement, Lin Jie carefully observed once more, still discovering no peculiarities.

He moved past the window, pushed open the somewhat heavy door, stepped onto the corridor outside, and prepared to run...

Suddenly, a chilling voice spoke.

"Run any further, and I'll shoot!"

This voice was like a spell, instantly freezing Lin Jie's body.

He slowly turned around and saw the bald man, whose expression was icy cold, stepping out from the northeast corner of the corridor.

At the same time, a dark gun barrel was steadily aiming at him.

The bald man stood two meters away from Lin Jie, his face grim as he asked, "Speak quickly, where are my two brothers?"

With the gun pointed at him, Lin Jie abandoned the thought of escaping.

He gripped the scalpel tightly in his hands, suppressing his panic, and said with forced composure, "It was me who came out, not them. Do you even need to ask the outcome?"

The muscles on the bald man's face twitched a few times, and the gun pointed at Lin Jie trembled slightly.

"Damn it, you go to..."

Just at this moment, a loud shout suddenly rang out, "Watch out!"

A dark figure sprang out from behind the SUV, throwing something at the bald man.

The bald man dodged quickly and fired a shot at the black shadow.

The shadow fell to the ground in response.

At that moment, the corner of the bald man's eye caught a flash coming towards him...

Using his left hand to forcefully cover his neck, deep-seated fear uncontrollably rose within the bald man's heart.

He felt like his strength was quickly dissipating, like sinking into a void.

"You... you..."

Staring at Lin Jie standing before him, the bald man struggled to raise his right hand.

He wanted to shoot Lin Jie to avenge his brothers, but the gun in his hand suddenly felt as heavy as a mountain, unable to lift.

The feeling of weakness stirred the bald man's anger, desperately gathering all his strength into his right hand.

Yet at that moment, the subtle feeling of power loss suddenly magnified a thousandfold, erupting like a volcano.

The bald man's neck suddenly spurted a fountain of blood, breaking his feeble left hand's grip, shooting several meters away.

Lin Jie had been prepared, jumping aside as the bald man's gaunt body collapsed heavily.

He picked up the gun that had fallen to the ground and ran towards the person fallen behind the off-road vehicle.

It was Guan Muhua!

Lin Jie hurriedly crouched down to check his neck and breathing!

There was breath, and his carotid artery pulsated strongly.

Lin Jie sighed with relief and dragged him to a place with light.

Good grief, Guan Muhua's luck was truly something.

There was a long gash on his left forehead, even leaving a deep mark on the skull!

It was a trace left by a bullet.

A little lower, Guan Muhua would have been shot in the head.

His current unconsciousness must have been caused by the bullet grazing his head and the resulting concussion knocking him out.

Lin Jie checked his body for other wounds.

His left arm also bore a half-centimeter deep bullet graze, along with various scrapes, and friction burns and heavy ligature marks at the wrists and ankles.

After a thorough examination, Guan Muhua was found to have relatively minor injuries.

The commotion just now was significant, yet no one else from the building had emerged, leading Lin Jie to know that, for now, there were no more evildoers here.

However, to prevent any adversaries from showing up, Lin Jie had to steel his heart.

He took out the scalpel tucked at his waistband, slicing once at Guan Muhua's armpit.

The armpit is one of the places in the body densely packed with nerve endings, making it extremely painful to cut.

Lin Jie's actions were indeed effective.

With one slice, Guan Muhua immediately opened his eyes, sprang up straight.

He first vigorously shook his head, then muttered to himself, "I didn't die?"

Soon after, glancing around, he saw the bald man lying in the corridor, then spotted Lin Jie, urgently saying, "Dr. Lin, there are four of them here."

"I took out one, including this bald man, there are two left..."

This statement made Lin Jie's heart rejoice, and he happily said, "Those two are already dead. We're safe now."

"Dead?"

Guan Muhua repeated, then looked at Lin Jie as if he was an alien, softly asking, "You killed them?"

Lin Jie nodded and said, "Yes, my luck managed to do it."

He remarked, "I've noticed that ever since I got physically better, my luck has been pretty good,"

Lin Jie noticed the wound on Guan Muhua's forehead and said, "You've been lucky too. Let's talk about your situation first."

Though Guan Muhua didn't quite believe Lin Jie, he realized now wasn't the time for questioning.

He quickly replied, "After falling unconscious, I woke up to find my hands and feet bound, thrown into a room."

"I've undergone various anti-drug trainings, and have some resistance to drugs."

"They probably didn't expect me to wake up so quickly, thus neglecting guarding me."

"I managed to break the ropes binding my hands and feet and escaped from that small house…"

Pointing to the eastern house, Guan Muhua continued, "After coming out, I intended to scout around, but got discovered. During the struggle, I got shot in the arm and fled over the yard wall."

"One person chased me, whom I managed to take down."

"I returned and had just hid in the yard, behind the car, when I saw the bald man come out from the room. I didn't dare move, and soon after spotted you coming out..."

"That's pretty much the situation."

Although he spoke calmly, Lin Jie could imagine the perilous circumstances.

He had a chance to leave but returned, and at the crucial moment just now, emerged from hiding despite personal safety...

Lin Jie silently memorized all of this.

He walked over to the bald man and said, "As the boss here, he definitely has a phone for external contact. We need to call an ambulance over..."

PS.

An oversight resulted in the incorrect chapter number for this part; it should be Chapter 707. The chapter name cannot be changed, thus noted!!

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