The sharp alarm rang through the building.
In the monitoring room, the operators on duty shot to their feet. “Wh-what is that?!”
On the surveillance screen, the scene inside the elevator was clearly displayed. Noda Shunsuke had a knife pressed against Shen Zhuo’s throat from behind. He even smiled at the camera, and that smile was enough to make anyone’s hair stand on end.
An operator quickly picked up the phone. “Level-one alert! Elevator No. 3 on the tenth floor! The Supervisor has been invaded and taken hostage by an ability user!”
Urgent footsteps came from all over the building. Even the ceiling overhead trembled. That was the Supervision Office’s internal armed guard team.
“—I don’t like killing people, especially my own kind.” Rong Qi withdrew his gaze, his voice gentle and steady. “So today, aside from Mr. Bai, I’ll give everyone present two choices.”
Shui Ronghua and Chen Miao were blocked in the corridor, one in front and one behind. They exchanged a glance, both uncertain and alarmed.
“First, stand aside. I guarantee that no matter what happens next, I will not harm either of you in the slightest. Second, insist on staying, and in a moment, you will be buried here together with Mr. Bai.”
Rong Qi spread his hands.
His ten fingers were long and powerful. It was a very elegant gesture, without the slightest hint of bloodthirst. “Now you may begin choosing.”
Chen Miao found it simply absurd and could not help stepping forward. “What nonsense are you talking about? You—”
“Stand down,” Bai Sheng interrupted him.
“But Brother Bai—”
“The guard team isn’t coming for us. That means Shen Zhuo has already fallen into their hands. Stand down!”
The faintly unserious air that always lingered around Bai Sheng had completely vanished. The outline of his profile was dark and sharp, carrying an unquestionable tension.
“...” Chen Miao realized something. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he said quietly, “Be careful, Brother Bai.” Then he and Shui Ronghua retreated cautiously together, their wary gazes locked on Rong Qi in the wheelchair as they withdrew step by step to the far end of the corridor.
Only after they had gone out of sight did Bai Sheng turn his head to look at Rong Qi. A black long blade silently appeared in his palm.
“What exactly are you?”
Rong Qi casually pointed toward the biochemical room. “See that?”
—Inside the biochemical room was the wire bed brought back from Quanshan County Health Center. It had been sealed according to level-one contaminant standards, and the human-shaped charcoal mark on it was extremely clear.
“That is me. Or rather, that was me three years ago.” Rong Qi asked, “Any other questions? You may raise them before you die, and I’ll answer them all together.”
The abandoned ward was terrifyingly quiet.
Bai Sheng stared motionlessly at Rong Qi. After a long while, the corner of his mouth suddenly lifted. In the shadows, there was a trace of viciousness in his handsome features. “Although I do indeed have a lot of questions...”
Only a blur flashed through the air. Bai Sheng moved so fast he seemed to vanish from where he stood. When he appeared again, he was already in front of the wheelchair.
“I don’t like giving villains time for monologues.”
Blood sprayed with a wet rip.
Bai Sheng’s blade pierced straight through Rong Qi’s chest, the tip even punching through the back of the wheelchair.
Blood splashed across the floor with a rush, scattering far away.
The air froze.
Rong Qi lowered his head, his expression hidden in shadow. A long time passed before his shoulders began to tremble slightly.
—He was actually laughing.
Chen Miao blurted, “Not good.”
Rong Qi grabbed the blade with one hand, looked up, and asked with a smile, “Is this all you can do?”
Bai Sheng’s expression changed instantly, but it was already too late.
In the next second, Rong Qi suddenly exerted force and flung him back several steps, man and blade together. Bai Sheng did not even have time to react before terrible pain tore through his chest, and blood sprayed wildly from him.
An invisible force had pierced through his chest out of thin air.
Thud.
Bai Sheng dropped to one knee, one hand pressed over his chest. Blue veins stood out on the back of his hand amid the blood.
He clenched his teeth and looked toward the wheelchair. The knife wound in Rong Qi’s chest was rapidly healing at a visible speed. In just a few short seconds, it had vanished completely, as if everything that had just happened had never occurred.
“—Damage backlash. A type of immortal ability.”
Rong Qi looked down at Bai Sheng from above, seeming a little regretful, and pointed at his own throat. “If you had stabbed here just now, I wouldn’t even need to trouble myself with killing you again.”
·
With a ding, the elevator opened.
Noda Shunsuke walked out with Shen Zhuo hostage. Ahead of them, countless muzzles densely aimed at them at the same time.
“Don’t move!”
“Hands up!”
“Release the hostage!”
Everyone was facing a formidable enemy. The air was stretched tight to the extreme. One spark would instantly detonate the entire scene.
“Tell them to stand down.” Noda Shunsuke pressed against Shen Zhuo from behind, speaking softly beside his ear. “You don’t want your subordinates to see me do anything disrespectful to you in public, do you, beautiful?”
“...” Shen Zhuo’s head was forced slightly upward. He waved a hand toward the front.
The Shenhai City Supervision Office’s armed guard team was a true high-level, high-firepower combat elite unit. Their weapons were all special rounds designed specifically to target ability users, absolutely not ordinary firearms available on the market. Under normal circumstances, this kind of armed force would be more than enough to deal with Noda Shunsuke. Even if an S-Class came, he would have to shed a layer of skin.
But right now, no one dared make the slightest move. They had no choice but to retreat step by step.
With the blade against his neck, Shen Zhuo was forced to walk forward one step at a time. Although he was under another’s control, his voice remained light and mocking. “What, are you planning to make me walk back to your lair on foot, then lure Bai Sheng over and kill him?”
Noda Shunsuke gave a derisive laugh. “No need for that. Mr. Rong said that since we failed to invite Supervisor Shen back last time, it must have been because we weren’t respectful and sincere enough. So he decided to change methods this time...”
His steps turned, bringing them to the stairwell. Down below was the basement level.
“—Kill the most troublesome one, and he can personally welcome you.”
·
“Imm... immortal ability?” At the far end of the basement corridor, Chen Miao murmured in disbelief.
Revival-type evolutionists were indeed very difficult to deal with, because as long as a suitable amount of cells remained, they might possibly revive. But that and complete immortality were two different things, let alone such an unimaginable backlash ability.
How could a person possibly evolve into something like this? There was simply no way to deal with him!
“I’ve never been able to see through you, Mr. Bai.” Rong Qi leaned back against the chair, looking at Bai Sheng on the ground, blood pouring from him, and said flatly.
“There are twenty S-Classes in the world. Every one of them has a strongest ability unique to himself. Only you don’t. If evolution were a large-scale game, then you would be a player who fought all the way to the final stage with basic attacks alone. No ultimate move, never a finishing blow. Every possible conflict in your past life was resolved through smooth methods and enormous wealth.”
Bai Sheng panted, the corners of his blood-covered lips lifting. “Thank you. Please call it personal charm.”
Rong Qi gave a soft scoff. “Perhaps. But that doesn’t change your ending today.”
He leaned back against the chair and raised his eyes toward Shui Ronghua in the distance. Suddenly, he called out loudly, “—Witch of Italdo!”
There was an irresistible power in his voice.
Shui Ronghua immediately sensed that something was wrong, but it was already too late.
The restraints Shen Zhuo had set were easily torn open. Before the female doctor could even struggle once, the Witch of Italdo broke free and instantly occupied the body.
“...” The Witch lowered her head and looked at her own hands, unable to believe she had been summoned out just like that.
“You were never a creature that belonged here, yet you fell to this Earth together with the meteorites and were suppressed inside a human body by Shen Zhuo. Even your power was sealed to its limit...”
Rong Qi raised a hand and snapped his fingers. With a crack, the metal ring around the Witch’s neck popped open and fell to the ground.
“Go kill Bai Sheng.” Rong Qi’s voice was very gentle, yet carried an irresistible meaning. “Dig out Bai Sheng’s heart, and I will free you. I will fully restore your true, original power.”
The Witch of Italdo’s pupils dilated slightly. Across the distance, her gaze met Bai Sheng’s.
A moment later, a subtle change came over her eyes. Something like excitement and malice seemed to mingle in them as she lifted her foot and walked forward.
“No... don’t.” Chen Miao’s voice almost cracked. “Don’t act recklessly! Don’t!”
With a swish, the Witch spread her five fingers. Her fingertips were sharp as blades. “You can truly free me?”
Rong Qi said with a smile, “I can.”
A smile appeared at the Witch’s blood-red lips. Her steps grew faster and faster, more and more excited. No one saw that when she passed in front of the corridor window, Shui Ronghua’s figure appeared reflected in the glass. The female doctor’s phantom hovered in midair, opened both arms, and embraced the Witch against her soft chest. Then she lowered her head and kissed the hideous, terrifying right half of the Witch’s face.
“Italdo, you promised me,” the female doctor murmured gently beside her ear. “You promised you would never betray Shen Zhuo.”
The Witch stopped and looked at Rong Qi, smiling seductively. “Then I’ll believe you for now.”
As the final word fell, she hurled herself through the air toward Bai Sheng. Chen Miao cried out from afar, “Stop—”
At the same instant.
A burst of healing white light exploded from the Witch’s sharp fingertips and was thrown violently toward Bai Sheng. As if he had expected it long ago, Bai Sheng caught it in one hand and directly pressed it into his chest. The fountain-like flow of blood instantly stopped.
At the same time, the Witch abruptly reversed course. Faster than a meteor, she reached one hand toward Rong Qi’s face.
That instant was more than fast as lightning. Yet Rong Qi silently sighed and raised his hand to snap his fingers.
With a tremendous boom, the Witch smashed heavily through the wall.
“Don’t move.” Rong Qi raised one finger, stopping Bai Sheng, who had shot to his feet.
“Doctor Shui stopped you from doing anything disadvantageous to Shen Zhuo, didn’t she?” Smoke drifted from the shattered wall. Rong Qi looked at the Witch, half of whose body had twisted out of shape, and shook his head with a sigh. “The tacit understanding between you two is deeper than I imagined.”
“You @#$^%^&&, I’ll fuck your @#￥%（&*#￥...” The Witch instantly burst into a string of curses no one could understand. Judging by the pitch, they might have come from her distant homeworld. “Where the hell did a character like you jump out from, talking so big?!”
Rong Qi actually laughed. At that moment, however, a chaos of footsteps came from the distant stairwell.
Everyone looked over at the same time.
Noda Shunsuke was retreating down the stairs step by step. He had someone held in front of him with a knife.
It was Shen Zhuo.
The scene was so absurd it was terrifying.
One was the dignified Chief Supervisor of Shenhai City. The other was a globally rare S-Class. This combination should have possessed crushing strength wherever they went. Yet right now, one had been taken hostage and the other had been stabbed through. If this were told aloud, no one would dare believe it.
“...We meet again.” There was an almost imperceptible sigh in Rong Qi’s trailing tone. “Supervisor Shen.”
With the knife pressed against him, Shen Zhuo was forced forward. He passed by Bai Sheng, his gaze flicking across the terrible wound that pierced straight through Bai Sheng’s chest.
Their eyes met. For an instant, Bai Sheng thought that with Shen Zhuo’s usual sharp tongue, he would mock him a little—something like, “Even an S-Class can end up this pathetic?” or “Now do you know why you couldn’t get an official position?”
Who knew Shen Zhuo would say nothing. In the next moment, he withdrew his gaze and looked toward Rong Qi, saying coldly:
“Sorry, have we met? I don’t remember meeting such an oversized cripple.”
“Apologies. My evolution is still just a little short of completion, and I was truly eager to meet you.” Unexpectedly, Rong Qi did not get angry even at that. His deep black eyes looked at Shen Zhuo, and he said calmly, “But it doesn’t matter. Very soon, you’ll be able to see the state of my final, complete evolution.”
As he spoke, he waved casually. Noda Shunsuke understood and released Shen Zhuo, then shoved him forward.
Shen Zhuo stumbled half a step and, without the slightest hesitation, drew a gun from the small of his back and aimed it at Rong Qi.
No one present had expected such a fierce reaction from him. Chen Miao cried out, “Senior, don’t!”
Bai Sheng shot to his feet. “—Stop! Attacking him will backlash!”
Bang!
The gunshot rang out. At the same time, Noda Shunsuke struck like lightning and snapped Shen Zhuo’s wrist with a crack. The bullet grazed Rong Qi’s face and shot into the wall.
Bai Sheng burst out with a curse. His blade slashed toward Noda Shunsuke. In haste, the latter drew his katana.
Clang—
But the katana was cut in two by Bai Sheng’s furious strike. The broken blade flew out and collapsed half the wall.
Shen Zhuo clutched his broken right wrist with one hand. In the intense pain, he pitched downward and was caught by Rong Qi reaching out from the wheelchair.
“Please don’t make yourself suffer, Supervisor Shen. I only want to ask you for a favor. I don’t want to kill you. I can even guarantee your absolute safety by my side... Can we sit down and discuss this properly?”
Rong Qi’s words could even be called gentle. But Shen Zhuo lifted his eyes and glanced at him. His face, soaked in cold sweat, was pale as ice and snow, and his eyes carried clear mockery. “You don’t want to kill me?”
Rong Qi said, “Yes. I really only want to—”
“No one goes to all this trouble to capture a Chief Supervisor for the sake of killing him. But there are things in this world more terrifying than death.” Shen Zhuo’s mouth suddenly curved, carrying a faint, strange cruelty. “Do you know what the United Nations’ ten permanent Supervisors receive first when they take office?”
Rong Qi narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“A Supervisor bears both honor and disgrace and holds classified secrets. He may be killed, but he may not be captured. To leave Supervisors their final dignity, when we are appointed, we have a highly toxic capsule embedded in our teeth...”
Rong Qi’s expression changed drastically. He reached out to pry open Shen Zhuo’s jaw, but Shen Zhuo abruptly leaned back with unconcealed mockery.
“I don’t talk to idiots.”
Immediately afterward, his back teeth moved as if biting through something. Black blood instantly overflowed from the corner of his mouth, and he collapsed backward.
Chen Miao cried out, “Senior!!”
In that instant, everyone’s mind went blank. Even Noda Shunsuke froze in place, simply unable to believe his own eyes. Rong Qi leaned forward and pressed Shen Zhuo’s neck. There was no pulse at all.
Dead?
One of the world’s ten permanent Supervisors. The final hope of the HRG Plan. The Sword of Damocles hanging over one hundred thousand evolutionists’ heads—dead just like that?
After a brief dead silence, it was as if a spark had fallen into hot oil. The entire scene exploded.
Everyone was roaring. Everyone was shouting. In the distance, the guard team rushed forward like mad. Bai Sheng’s face had gone cold to the extreme. He rose and reached one hand toward Shen Zhuo. Noda Shunsuke still tried to rush over to block him, only to be kicked flying by Bai Sheng, who was furious to the limit, and smashed through the wall.
Amid the tremendous crash and seething chaos, Rong Qi stared motionlessly at Shen Zhuo. Looking closely, one would see his pupils had constricted to their limit. Suddenly, he cut open his own palm with one finger, leaned forward from the wheelchair, and tried to force the blood flashing with the ghostly blue halo of meteorite light into Shen Zhuo’s mouth.
Right at that moment.
Shen Zhuo’s eyes opened.
With a wet rip of tearing flesh, one of his hands stabbed into Rong Qi’s defenseless chest. Clean, efficient, accurate, and ruthless, he directly tore out the bloody heart.
Blood sprayed wildly. The air instantly went still. Everyone was stunned.
“...” Rong Qi lowered his head in shock to look at Shen Zhuo and met those clear, sharp eyes.
Then came a wet squelch.
Without the slightest mercy, Shen Zhuo crushed that heart into bloody pulp in his fist.
“You didn’t actually think I was going to kill myself, did you, idiot?” he said with a panting cold laugh.
Thud!
Rong Qi fell backward in the wheelchair, blood spraying wildly from the cavity in his chest. Noda Shunsuke staggered forward. “Mr. Rong!”
Bai Sheng struck like lightning, forcibly knocking Noda Shunsuke aside, and barked at Shen Zhuo, “Get over here!”
With agility entirely unlike his usual self, Shen Zhuo rolled up from the ground, then rushed straight toward Bai Sheng without another word. Bai Sheng pulled him behind himself in a flash and wiped the black blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, his voice unsteady. “You... what the hell is going on with you?!”
“Fake-death paralytic!” Shen Zhuo wiped the blood away without caring and grabbed Bai Sheng’s arm, striding rapidly for the exit. “Issued by the General Administration, specially for Supervisors to fake death. Don’t ask. Evacuate first!”
“............” Bai Sheng’s feelings at that moment could not be described in words. “What happened to Supervisors preferring death over humiliation?!”
Shen Zhuo looked impatient. “We’re all just coming out to work. How much salary do you think Nielsen gives us? Why are you the only one taking this so seriously?”
Bai Sheng: “...”