Chapter 453: Dare Threaten My Daughter? I'll Turn You Into a Dead Crow on the Spot!

The black monster bird painted with the Stars and Stripes was moving at three times the speed of sound, carving an invisible death trajectory across Earth's curvature at thirty‑kilometer altitude.

The male voice with a Russian accent coming through the intercom in the cockpit coiled around everyone's heart like a slick poisonous snake.

Threat.

Naked, unmasked threat from the abyss of hell.

Ye Ning's face froze for a moment as she looked up at Lu Qingshan.

Li Junjie felt his blood solidify instantly; he opened his mouth but no sound came, his mind a blank, only the word 'Bubble' echoing over and over.

Zhang Qianru's body trembled violently; the 'judgment' she held scattered across the floor, and the face that was always shrewd and competent now showed only pure, youthful fear. Instinctively she looked at Lu Qingshan, seeking a hint of support in his expression, but saw instead a bottomless abyss, quieter than the ink‑blue void outside the window.

Lu Qingshan did not move.

He didn't even glance at the three subordinates on the brink of collapse.

He simply sat there in silence, still holding the document from Capital City, his fingers gently turning to a new page.

His hand was as steady as a rock weathered over billions of years.

This death‑like stillness chilled more than any hysterical roar.

In the front of the cockpit, the ace pilot codenamed Ghost, John Green Major, tensed every muscle. As the United States of America Air Force's top warrior, he had faced countless life‑or‑death crises, yet never had any feel as if he were piloting a flying coffin rather than an aircraft.

An ace KGB operative managing to hack into the U. S. military's top‑secret strategic communications channel was already a disaster.

The target of his threat was the Eastern man in the rear seat, who had just with a single phone call forced the United States of America Treasury Secretary and the Pentagon to submit.

Green Major had no doubt that in the next second, the priceless 'Black Bird' would, because of a single sentence from the man in the rear, explode into a dazzling firework worthy of front‑page headlines worldwide.

In the intercom, the Crow named Victor seemed to relish this cat‑and‑mouse game.

"Mr. Lu, why so silent?" his voice dripped with mockery. "Is the little gift we sent you so astonishing you can't speak? Don't worry, we have an even more spectacular program ready. Geneva's lake is beautiful, perfect for making some… beautiful Bubbles."

Lu Qingshan finally moved.

He ignored the intercom's noise, lifted his head, and looked toward Green Major ahead.

"Green Major."

His voice was light and flat, yet like an invisible blade that instantly pierced the solidified fear in the cockpit.

Green Major's body jolted; he turned his head and saw the eyes in the rear seat.

What kind of eyes were those?

No anger, no fear, no trace of any human emotion.

It was a void.

A void absolute enough to devour all light and heat.

"Sir?" Green Major's voice sounded a bit hoarse.

"Connect to the Pentagon's strategic command center," Lu Qingshan's voice remained flat, "with top‑level encryption clearance."

Green Major was stunned.

He almost thought he'd misheard.

"Sir, this… this is a one‑way channel; I have no clearance…"

"You do," Lu Qingshan cut him off. "Tell your commander that if I don't hear a voice from Washington within thirty seconds, he can prepare to announce to the world that an SR‑71 reconnaissance aircraft over Europe has gone missing for unknown reasons."

"You…" Green Major's back was instantly drenched in cold sweat.

He understood.

This was not a request; it was an order.

An order that wagered the United States of America's national reputation and top‑secret military intelligence!

"Also," Lu Qingshan added, "tell them not to think about cutting this channel. I like having an audience."

The Crow at the other end of the intercom seemed to hear the exchange and let out a low chuckle.

"Interesting, truly interesting. Mr. Lu, are you showing me your power? Unfortunately, your power is worthless against absolute state violence. You…"

His laughter abruptly stopped.

Because Green Major, with trembling hands, had pressed another button.

After a harsh electric crack, an authoritative, urgent voice emanated from a separate speaker.

"This is Strategic Command! Green Major! Report your status! Your communication channel has been breached!"

Green Major gave no reply.

Because Lu Qingshan spoke again.

His voice, though not loud, rang clearly in both channels simultaneously.

"General, good evening."

The general on the other end of the line was clearly stunned.

"Who are you?!"

"Who I am is irrelevant," Lu Qingshan's voice, like a professor lecturing students—patient yet cold—"what matters is that you now help me deliver a line to a noisy Crow."

He paused, his gaze seeming to pierce the aircraft's hull and land on distant Moscow.

"Connect me to the Kremlin Palace and find someone who can speak."

"Tell them that the pet codenamed Crow, raised by their National Security Committee, is in Geneva, and that the list they have obtained over decades—paid for with countless agents' lives—is being offered as a gift to the Rothschild family."

"Also ask them, are the heroes of the Soviet Union now so worthless?"

This remark thundered like a nine‑heaven bolt, exploding simultaneously in the cockpit, the Pentagon's command center, and the Crow's ears at the other end of the intercom!

The leisurely, mocking tone at the other end of the intercom vanished without a trace.

In its place came a frantic, almost breath‑snatching gasp!

"You… you're spouting nonsense! This is defamation!" Victor's voice trembled for the first time with terror and a sharp, inward fear.

He could not fathom how the other side knew about the deal! It was the highest‑level secret between him and the Rothschild family!

"Defamation?" Lu Qingshan let out a light laugh, "Mr. Victor Ivanov, I not only know you are treasonous, I also know your wife and two children are not in Moscow now, but vacationing in a villa belonging to the Rothschild family at the foot of the Alps near Zurich."

"Do you think that's protection?"

"No, that's a hostage."

"You foolish Crow, from the start you were meat on their plate."

"No! Impossible! You couldn't possibly know!" Victor's roar twisted from extreme Fear.

Lu Qingshan paid him no further attention.

He issued the final order to the Pentagon channel.

"General, did you hear my words clearly?"

"…Clear." That authoritative voice now brimmed with absurdity and shock.

"Very well." Lu Qingshan leaned back in his seat, "Now you can relay my exact words to the Kremlin Palace."

"Tell them I give them one hour."

"One hour later, if this Crow can still breathe anywhere in Geneva."

"Then that list will appear on the desks of every major intelligence agency worldwide."

"Including yours, CIA."

Finishing, Lu Qingshan gave Green Major a casual command.

"Green Major."

"…Present, sir."

"Cut off communications with the Pentagon."

Green Major's finger mechanically pressed the button.

The entire cockpit fell silent again.

Only the communicator's speaker remained, where the Crow, driven by Fear and despair, emitted beast‑like, intermittent gasps.

Lu Qingshan picked up the scattered documents beside him, reorganized them, and handed them to the completely stunned Zhang Qianru beside him.

"Take it."

Then, as if remembering something, he spoke the final line to the still gasping channel in a tone almost like casual conversation, gentle and soft.

"By the way, Mr. Victor."

"I forgot to tell you."

"My daughter doesn't like 'The Little Mermaid.'"

"She prefers listening to 'Pulling the Radish.'"

"One, then another, then another. A story of pulling out all the bad things hidden in the ground."

"Guess, you filthy Crow, which number you'll be when pulled from the earth?"