With countless thunderous crashes, more than a hundred steel gates slammed down, sealing the entire Supervision Office building into an airtight steel coffin in an instant.
The whole street was cleared under emergency orders. Every Supervision Office officer evacuated the building, and the open space outside descended into chaos. Chen Miao shoved past his subordinates and came sprinting over, looking exactly like a deranged golden retriever. From a long way off, the two streams of fat noodle tears flying behind him were already visible. “Senior, it’s so good you’re not dead!! Waaaaah—”
Shen Zhuo’s right wrist was bent at a horrifying angle. He stood in front of the car, gasping hard, half-held and half-supported by Bai Sheng. On the other side, the guard captain held a satellite phone and asked shakily, “S-Supervisor, what do we do now? Both intruders have been locked inside basement level one. Should we report this to the International Supervision General Administration as an emergency?”
Shen Zhuo snapped mercilessly, “Report what? That the Shenhai City Supervision Office got base-raided by a wheelchair-bound cripple?”
The guard captain looked like he wanted to draw a blade and slit his own throat. “But... but...”
“Activate the level-one emergency plan. Evacuate nearby residents. Notify the military district that we’re conducting an exercise. Go. Now.”
The guard captain practically sprang up and ran.
Bai Sheng looked Shen Zhuo over from head to toe and immediately noticed the smear of blood below the collar at the side of his neck. His nerves went sharp at once. “Who did that? How did you get hurt? When did it happen?”
Shen Zhuo said, “Dog bite. What happened to you?”
Following his gaze, Bai Sheng looked down. The knife wound on his chest had gone clean through front to back. Thanks to the Witch’s healing ability and his own powerful S-Class constitution, the muscle had already closed, but the bloodstains still looked horrific.
Bai Sheng did not seem very concerned about himself. “I just—”
Shen Zhuo said coldly, “An S-Class gentleman can end up this pathetic too?”
“I clearly—”
“Now do you understand why you can’t get a permanent position?”
Bai Sheng: “...”
Expressionless, Bai Sheng gripped Shen Zhuo’s wrist with one hand, pointed at his own knife wound with the other, and confirmed, “You saw?”
Shen Zhuo was impatient. “Stop wasting words. I’m asking because I saw it. Otherwise how would I—”
Bai Sheng roared, “You already saw my abs, so why still won’t you marry me?!” Then he snapped his hand with lightning speed.
With a crisp crack, Shen Zhuo’s wrist joint slid back into place. The sharp gasp that burst from him was caught in Bai Sheng’s palm, which covered his mouth just in time.
After finishing his call, the guard captain hid off to the side in terror and whispered, “Is it really all right for Supervisor Shen to treat Mr. Bai like this? What if he gets angry from embarrassment...”
“It’s fine. Think bigger.” Chen Miao’s voice was numb. “Actually marrying Brother Bai is also a valid option.”
“Supervisor!” Someone from the Security Section strode over in a hurry, holding a tablet. “We’ve pulled up the internal surveillance feed. Please look!”
Expressionless, Shen Zhuo yanked his hand out of Bai Sheng’s palm, which was full of fake, syrupy distress, and took the tablet. The screen showed a live feed of basement level one.
There was no audio in the footage. They could only see Noda Shunsuke in the sealed-off corridor, panicked and terrified, speaking rapidly in Japanese. He was probably doing everything he could to persuade Rong Qi to leave at once. Rong Qi, however, only clutched his bleeding chest tightly and made a decisive gesture.
“How is he still not dead even after that?” the guard captain said in shock.
“Why would it be that easy? He survived being burned to ash.” Bai Sheng stared at the screen, thoughtful, one hand pinching his chin. “But I really didn’t expect him to take that hit rather than risk reflecting damage onto your Supervisor Shen... Wait. You predicted that, didn’t you?”
Shen Zhuo stared at the surveillance feed and ignored him.
“You deliberately shot that Rong guy to test his bottom line immediately and find out whether they were really afraid of you dying. That’s why you dared to tear his heart out afterward?” Bai Sheng slanted Shen Zhuo a look and nudged him with his shoulder, teasing. “No wonder you were so fearless. Beautiful calculation, Supervisor.”
“No,” Shen Zhuo said softly.
“What?”
Shen Zhuo lifted his chin toward the corner of the surveillance screen. “We forgot someone when we evacuated.”
Bai Sheng asked, “Who?” Then he focused and looked.
On the surveillance feed, through an open door at the far end of the corridor, a blood-red, deformed figure slowly crawled out.
It was Liu Sanji.
“Save... save me...”
“Save me...”
In the basement corridor, Noda Shunsuke sucked in a breath and stared in horror at the shocking creature on the floor.
Liu Sanji no longer looked human at all. Large patches of skin had sloughed off and rotted across his entire body. His limbs were at least twice as long as a normal person’s, his hands and feet dangling against the floor like long, thin, blood-colored tubes, dragging a long smear of blood behind him.
“Mr... Mr. Rong...” The Class A mark on the back of his hand was dazzlingly clear, but his voice was muddy and desperate. “Please...”
Noda Shunsuke instinctively backed up half a step. “This is—”
“Genetic-chain tearing.” Rong Qi leaned back in his wheelchair, one hand pressed tightly over his bleeding chest, his hoarse voice calm.
“I can make ability users undergo second evolution. I can force a Class D to leap ranks into Class A. But I cannot change their inherent genetic ceiling. Once the power I bestow exceeds the limit they can bear, it causes this horrifying consequence—neither human nor ghost.”
“Do you know what the greatest lie in this world is?” Rong Qi bent down, looked into Liu Sanji’s cloudy eyes, and said, “That all beings are equal.”
Liu Sanji’s scattered pupils widened involuntarily.
“From prokaryotic life to Dickinsonia, from Gigantopithecus blacki to modern Homo sapiens, every step of Earth’s evolution has been filled with countless unjust coincidences. Only the strongest genes by nature can carry a species forward. Evolutionists hold an absolute advantage over humans, yet the overwhelming majority within evolutionists themselves are Class C and Class D, with negligible abilities.”
“I once wanted to build an army whose every member had undergone second evolution and leapt into Class A, but no matter what I did, I could not solve the problem of genetic-chain tearing. I thought it was impossible. Until I later discovered an ordinary human.”
Rong Qi paused, then said softly, word by word, “Shen Zhuo.”
“Research that ignores ethics. Technology ahead of its time. An unknown serum that can arbitrarily break genetic ceilings while avoiding side effects to the greatest possible extent... No one knows how he did it.”
Noda Shunsuke was hearing this for the first time today as well. He was stunned.
“If we pull Shen Zhuo over to the evolutionists’ side, all of our kind can safely undergo second evolution and leap ranks.” Rong Qi looked into the vast emptiness and said softly, “We will completely eliminate the ants and rule the direction of human evolution.”
“Cough, cough... cough!” Liu Sanji choked violently on great mouthfuls of blood. With all his strength, he reached upward and let out his final wail. “Please... please!”
Rong Qi let out a breath so faint it was almost inaudible and lowered his eyes to look at him. “I can’t save you.”
“...Save me. Anything. Anything at all!...”
“But I can grant you eternal life.”
Liu Sanji froze. Disbelief seized his whole body. Then wild joy surged into his heart. “Yes, yes! Thank you, thank you, Mr. Rong—”
The next instant, Rong Qi lowered his hand and gently pressed it to the top of his head. Liu Sanji’s voice stopped abruptly.
His expression remained frozen, but his flesh and bones rapidly melted, giving off a strange, eerie meteorite-blue glow. Immediately afterward, that ghostly blue light seemed to be drawn by some uncanny suction. It surged toward Rong Qi, as if racing to return to its source. In a few short seconds, it had been completely absorbed.
Liu Sanji, who had been alive and crawling on the floor moments ago, vanished in the blink of an eye until not even flesh and blood remained.
At the same time, the bleeding in the hollow where Rong Qi’s heart had been gradually stopped. Meteorite light flashed across his entire body, then gathered at both knees.
He exhaled slowly. After a moment, he braced his hands on the wheelchair armrests and actually stood up.
Noda Shunsuke was both shocked and delighted. “Mr. Rong!”
Outside the building, everyone behind the surveillance screen changed color. “What’s happening?” “Did he... evolve again?”
When he had been sitting in the wheelchair, it had not been obvious. Only after he stood did it become clear that Rong Qi was actually quite tall, even slightly taller than Noda Shunsuke. His black shirt was tucked into matching trousers. With refined brows, bright eyes, broad shoulders, and long legs, he carried a hidden, silent pressure.
He took his first step. It was slightly stiff from unfamiliarity, but immediately afterward, all the muscles in his body seemed to adjust themselves to their peak state. His steps gradually became smooth and natural. Invisible power radiated from him and rushed violently in every direction.
“No need to thank me,” he said in a low, gentle voice, looking down at the last smear of blood left beneath his feet.
Then he swept out a palm. A massive force like a missile instantly tore through more than a dozen steel gates and blasted through the building’s outer wall.
It was like thunder cracking from flat ground. The open space outside the building fractured at once. Everyone was thrown to the ground by the deafening crash. Then Rong Qi’s nightmare-like figure appeared amid the rolling black smoke.
The power fused from Liu Sanji was only enough to let him stand. It was not enough to regenerate his heart, so his left chest cavity was still a horrifying hollow. But that grievous injury did not affect him much. Everyone could feel the power around him still rising sharply, and his dark, sunken eyes fixed straight on Shen Zhuo.
“Supervisor Shen...”
BOOM!
Bai Sheng waved a hand, and an enormous fireball swallowed Rong Qi head-on in scorching heat. At the same time, he grabbed Shen Zhuo. “Run run run run run—”
Shen Zhuo had probably never cooperated so actively in his life. Bai Sheng swept him into his arms with one hand. In the next instant, they appeared atop a utility pole, then shot dozens of yards away in the blink of an eye. Amid the gale whipping backward around them, Shen Zhuo shouted, “Where are you taking me?”
Bai Sheng snapped, “Somewhere empty so we can have a nice talk with your suitor!”
“Stop losing your mind. What do you mean, suitor? He—”
“If he’s not a suitor, why does he keep chasing you? Do you owe him money, or are there lingering feelings involved?!”
“I don’t even know this person. I—”
Before he could finish, firelight flashed. Rong Qi had appeared, wrapped in soaring black smoke, staring coldly at the two of them as he raised his hand.
Before he could launch his ultimate move, Bai Sheng wordlessly smashed another huge fireball down at him. Heat exceeding a thousand degrees burned half the sky red. Then, amid blinding light and raging flames, Bai Sheng grabbed Shen Zhuo and swept toward the outskirts of the city, raging into his ear, “Tell me! Did you date him before?”
Shen Zhuo said, “...I’ve never dated anyone. This is not the time to have an episode!”
BANG—
A tremendous crash exploded in midair, and the earth suddenly shook.
Ahead of them, a giant fireball more than ten meters tall rapidly went out. Rong Qi appeared again from the roiling smoke, looking down at them from above in silence, his gaze cold and heavy.
Thanks to that mad dash for their lives, they had finally left Shenhai’s downtown behind and reached an empty wasteland far from the highway. Looking around, there were barely any signs of human life.
Bai Sheng stopped, shoved Shen Zhuo behind himself, and no one could see that the muscles across his shoulders and back beneath his black clothes had already gone taut to the limit. Yet nothing unusual could be heard in his tone. “Get behind me. When it starts, close your eyes and don’t make a sound.”
Shen Zhuo tried to come out, but Bai Sheng’s grip was truly not something an ordinary person could shake. “Can you handle him alone?”
Bai Sheng gave a scoffing laugh. “What are you thinking, baby? I can even handle you. You think I can’t handle that cripple?”
“Bai. Sheng,” Rong Qi said coldly from not far away.
Perhaps because he had stood up, the gentle, restrained shell he had worn in the wheelchair seemed to have peeled away somewhat, revealing a sliver of his oppressive true self. “Why run all the way out here to the wilderness? Afraid people will see how you die?”
Bai Sheng exhaled a breath of scorching air and lifted his eyes toward Rong Qi. After a moment, he suddenly gave a strange smile.
“Didn’t you ask what my ultimate move was?”
Rong Qi narrowed his eyes. Bai Sheng raised one index finger on his left hand, then spread his palm. A rotating current of air surged violently in his palm.
“I don’t know how you evolved into this, but with that immortal ability of yours, any other S-Class today could have died at your hands. Given more time to evolve, maybe you could even kill your way straight to Switzerland and flatten the entire International Supervision General Administration.”
“You’re just unlucky. The first one you ran into was me.”
The corner of Bai Sheng’s bloodstained mouth curved into a smile full of killing intent. “It’s fine. Pay attention in your next life.”
A cold gleam flashed through the current of air and instantly rushed in every direction. Even the rustling mountain forest abruptly froze. The entire earth fell into a sudden graveyard silence.
Between heaven and earth, it was as if only that ghastly bright orb remained, spinning rapidly above Bai Sheng’s palm and illuminating the tiny shift that finally appeared in Rong Qi’s expression.
“So that’s it. It’s in your hands...”
“...A causal-law weapon.”
A person’s evolutionary direction was connected to their personality, subconscious, and mental state. Nielsen had a powerful urge toward dictatorship, so his evolved ability was destruction-and-suppression type. Fu Chen had a warm, gentle nature, so the upright and inverted crosses he evolved were defensive-counterattack type. Many people thought that Bai Sheng, as a carefree young second-generation heir—bright, sunny, and good-natured—was likely to evolve mainly in a psychic direction.
They had clearly been wrong.
A “bright, sunny, good-natured” person could not possibly evolve such a brutal ability.
Causal law, one of the strongest philosophy-type weapons. It could directly erase an enemy’s existence, wiping them from history completely—even erasing all identity information, kinship ties, and social value they had created since birth.
This ability, which declared itself supreme above heaven and earth, could even overpower every S-Class in one stroke if used to its fullest. It was a helium-flash-level Fatal Strike. But all things in the world had to follow the principle of balance. An excessively powerful ability was inevitably accompanied by some fatal flaw.
“Causal law. Successful activation rate: only eleven percent. Once it goes out of control, it will become an indiscriminate large-scale massacre. Everything within a three-thousand-meter radius will become a lifeless zone from this point on.”
Rong Qi stared at the terrifying, pallid orb hanging in the air and said softly, “No wonder. I was wondering why you ran to this wilderness first.”
On the elevated bridge far away, the occasional car sped past. Farther still, high-rises loomed in shadow, spreading into an enormous city beneath the sky.
People were living normal, peaceful lives, completely unaware that they had brushed past catastrophe only moments ago.
“Come to my side, Supervisor Shen.” Rong Qi’s gaze crossed Bai Sheng, and he extended a hand toward Shen Zhuo from afar. “The chance of causal law succeeding is only one in nine. Once it goes out of control, even the caster himself will barely be able to escape. He absolutely won’t risk saving anyone else. You and I will both be buried here.”
The air congealed. Dead silence pressed over the wilderness, and clear light spun violently in Bai Sheng’s palm.
“Mr. Bai came to your side with an agenda in the first place. Haven’t you realized that yet? Your being alive is the greatest obstacle to him. If you die, he can fully rule Shenhai.”
Rong Qi stared into Shen Zhuo’s eyes and opened his palm to him. “The ants of this world are not on the same side as you, Supervisor Shen. Stand with me, and I will take you to create a future where everyone is absolutely equal, without war or strife.”