In the distance, the people from the organization monitoring the scene realized something was wrong.
“Mei Yanlan really did come prepared! Those useless idiots from the Ling family probably can’t beat her. What do we do? Move in now?”
“No rush. If she wants to kill the Ling family, let her kill them.” The woman curled her lips into a smile. “Record everything. If she still has the strength to resist afterward and we can’t capture her ourselves, we’ll have the Tribunal Division and the other atavist families do it for us.”
It couldn’t have been a better piece of leverage.
Once she was saddled with the crime of exterminating an atavist family, where could Mei Yanlan possibly run?
Even if Qiu Fa managed to keep her alive, what did it matter?
After all, her life wasn’t what they wanted.
She was far more valuable alive.
“A mantis stalks the cicada, while the oriole waits behind.”
At this point, she practically hoped Mei Yanlan would wipe out the entire Ling family. They were a bunch of weaklings with little value anyway. Their organization had no shortage of followers.
The man with ramen curls felt both jealous and frustrated.
Capturing Zhang Simiao had been a nightmare. Yet capturing Mei Yanlan now seemed almost effortless. As long as Mei Yanlan killed the Ling family, getting her would be all but guaranteed.
There was no way she would receive the kind of airtight protection Zhang Simiao once had.
Their organization was going to be outshined by their sister organization yet again.
“Do you know what will happen if you do this?” the Ling Family Head asked.
His face shifted slightly as Mei Yanlan’s fingers tightened around his throat, but he quickly regained his composure.
“Your father died trying to send you away. Your little boyfriend chose to throw himself under a train so you could be free.”
A confident smile appeared on his face.
“Do you think they’d want you to do this?”
The members of the Ling family, who had been tense and ready for battle moments before, visibly relaxed.
In the original story, Mei Yanlan snapped his neck immediately after those words.
This time, however, she did not move.
Instead, her ears twitched slightly.
“Teacher Mei!”
There was no mistaking it.
That was Jing Pei’s voice.
It was coming from far away.
“Officer Mei!”
What was going on?
Whatever the answer, killing all the Ling family members was no longer realistic.
Jing Pei’s voice was rapidly drawing closer.
At the same time, Mei Yanlan felt an unusual tremor running through the ground beneath her feet.
It felt as though an enormous herd of prairie horned cattle were stampeding across the earth.
Something major had happened.
Mei Yanlan felt irritation rising within her.
The moment she lost focus, the Ling family seized the opportunity and launched a sneak attack.
Mei Yanlan was faster.
She flung the Ling Family Head aside and sprang up a towering tree in a few swift leaps. From the treetop, she looked toward the source of the commotion.
What she saw was a black tide of monsters surging her way.
Jing Pei was running at the very front.
In reality, Jing Pei was heading to guard the mouth of the funnel.
To anyone who didn’t know the situation, though, it looked as if she were being chased by the monster horde.
Perhaps it was because she liked Jing Pei.
Or perhaps it was because she had spent seven years working for the Tribunal Division since Qiu Fa became Director, developing a sense of duty that had become part of her.
Mei Yanlan’s jaw tightened.
She glanced once at the hateful members of the Ling family below.
Then she swore.
And charged toward the monsters.
She didn’t know exactly what was happening.
But from experience, she knew one thing:
Not a single monster could be allowed to escape.
Every survivor could mean the deaths of multiple ordinary people.
She couldn’t ignore it.
The murderous fury she could not vent upon her enemies exploded toward the monsters instead.
The scarlet claws of the female succubus looked delicate and elegant, like a surgeon’s scalpels. Her crimson waves billowed like living fire. Her beautiful eyes blazed with deadly intent.
She streaked across the battlefield like lightning.
Like a cannonball crashing into the monster horde.
With a single sweep of her hand, several monsters had their throats severed.
Blood erupted only after they had already been killed.
“Teacher Mei, I’ll guard the rear!”
As Jing Pei passed her, she tossed out those words and continued running toward the Ling family.
The Ling family had not expected this sudden turn of events.
They had always been looked down upon by the other atavist families.
Not just because of their low atavist purity.
But because they had long since given up trying to compete.
Convinced they could never earn honor like the other families, they devoted themselves to laziness and all manner of crooked schemes.
As a result, even their senses were duller than those of most atavists.
In the darkness, they heard Jing Pei’s voice but failed to spot her until she was practically upon them.
Seeing her approach, some even asked what was going on.
Jing Pei smiled.
“Nothing major. No need to worry. The Tribunal Division will handle it. It’s late, though. You shouldn’t be wandering around here. Head home.”
Since she sounded so casual, the Ling family didn’t think much of it.
“What the hell is that?”
The people from the organization were already annoyed that Jing Pei’s appearance had ruined their nearly completed plan.
Now they could feel the ground shaking.
The tremors were growing stronger.
“Damn it! Run!”
One of them raised night-vision binoculars.
His face immediately changed.
A vast wall of monsters was charging toward them like a storm front.
As it turned out, this location was exactly what Jing Pei had described.
The perfect slaughterhouse.
The monsters were moving fast.
They were starving.
Driven forward without pause.
Anything in their path was devoured.
An elephant that disappeared beneath the horde would be reduced to bones within seconds.
The organization members immediately fled.
They happened to be standing directly in the monsters’ path.
If they stayed any longer, the horde would run right over them.
As for the Ling family, who stood directly in the center of the route, they continued chatting after Jing Pei left.
The Ling Family Head rubbed his neck and smiled.
“She’s highly vigilant. She also seems to have strong resistance to toxins. I’d guess she’s undergone specialized poison-resistance training. Excellent. Just as expected from a member of our Ling family. She’ll surely give birth to powerful offspring.”
“Yes, but what do we do now?” the Ling family’s eldest young master asked.
“Our plan is ruined.”
“Don’t worry. We know who she is now. We know where she is. We’ll have plenty of chances to catch her.”
The eldest young master still looked concerned.
“The other families have already transferred the money. If we fail to deliver her on schedule, that could become a problem.”
A date had already been agreed upon.
Once Mei Yanlan was captured, representatives from those families would come to sleep with her.
The Ling Family Head frowned.
“We can’t capture her today. This sort of thing can’t be made public. Let’s leave first.”
The tremors had become more and more obvious.
Yet none of them were curious.
Their minds remained focused entirely on how to get their hands on Mei Yanlan.
They strolled toward the vehicles hidden in the distance.
Only when an unusual sound arose behind them did they finally turn around.
Their faces instantly drained of color.
The grotesque monsters were already only meters away.
One monster lunged forward and clamped its enormous jaws around the head of a slow Ling family member.
Although Mei Yanlan had gone all out, there were simply too many monsters.
Some still slipped through.
And those stragglers had arrived at the Ling family.
The Ling family turned and fled in panic.
They didn’t get far.
The powerful monsters quickly overtook them.
Some knocked them to the ground and trampled over them.
Others tore chunks of flesh from their bodies as they ran past, chewing while they moved.
“AAAHHH!”
Their screams vanished beneath the thunder of countless pounding feet.
The Ling Family Head immediately unleashed all of his atavist power, coating himself in protective armor.
It made little difference.
His frail, aging bones were nearly crushed to pieces.
He raised a hand to beg for help.
A monster’s foot came down and crushed it.
His eyes nearly popped from their sockets.
Then another foot struck his head.
His mouth filled with grass.
He couldn’t even scream.
Ahead of them, flecks of blood splashed across Mei Yanlan’s beautiful face.
She looked like an asura descended upon the battlefield.
Monsters collapsed wherever she passed, helpless even to struggle.
The murderous aura surrounding her terrified nearby creatures so badly that they tried to move away on instinct.
The horde split apart before her like the Red Sea before Moses.
But the suffocating force of her atavist power continued to spread.
It spread around her like countless whip-like blades.
The succubus’s eyes glowed crimson.
Her red hair moved without wind.
Golden bells rang with ominous warning.
The beautiful grim reaper swung her scythe and harvested life without mercy.
She cut through enemies in every direction.
“It’s Number One!”
“Miss Mei Yanlan!”
“She’s gone completely berserk!”
The people herding the monsters finally noticed their powerful ally.
They were stunned.
The monsters had reached the slaughterhouse.
Those maintaining the rear barriers continued preventing retreat.
Everyone else charged in to join Mei Yanlan in slaughtering monsters.
Those that managed to squeeze through the narrow canyon-like exit found Jing Pei waiting there with a cheerful smile.
Then they were sent on their way.
Far behind the battle, Director Zhang Run followed in a vehicle, controlling his camera drones from a safe distance.
His face was bright red with excitement.
This was incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
On the very first day, they’d already captured footage like this.
The first episode could practically edit itself.
On one side stood the dazzling city with its bright lights and bustling nightlife.
On the other side, hidden beyond that prosperity, was a battle both terrifying and magnificent.
This wasn’t a documentary.
This was a movie.
Fantastic.
When the atavist families had demanded the first episode within three days, he thought they were being absurd.
Did these out-of-touch atavists think filmmaking was easy?
Now he realized he’d been wrong.
Three days?
At this rate, he and his team could finish the first episode tonight.
At the Twelve Zodiac Academy, the campus had been crowded only a short while ago.
Students packed the library preparing for exams.
Now half of them were gone.
The younger students, those below the seventh year and therefore can’t participate in field operations, studied with only half their attention on their books while nursing their envy.
“I want to go on missions too.”
“This mobilization’s huge. Even the teachers got called out. What happened?”
“We’ll ask the upperclassmen when they get back.”
Standing outside the hospital, Tang Woxue had absolutely no interest in whatever crisis was unfolding elsewhere.
His thoughts were occupied by a single problem.
How exactly was he supposed to drug Jing Pei?
The thing he needed could only be obtained if she fell into a deep sleep.
At a bustling night market—
A blonde girl in an elaborate red Lolita dress and a green-eyed man in a three-piece suit drew attention everywhere they went.
The Lolita-clad girl was happily devouring lamb skewers.
“Mmm! So good! Isaac, pour me some beer!”
“You’re allergic to alcohol. Drink milk.”
“No! Food like this needs beer! I’ll just take medicine afterward!”
Isaac ignored the protest and handed her a can of Wangwang milk drink instead.
Then, when the vendor asked whether he wanted spicy seasoning, he politely replied over the girl’s outraged shouting:
“Please make mine extra, extra spicy.”
“Isaac. Lolita.”
Someone suddenly called out to them.
Turning around, they saw their glasses “programmer” teammate.
“Bentley? Why are you here?” Isaac asked.
“Not just me,” Bentley replied.
“Eric, Brian, and Jaden are here too.”
“You know why.”
“Oh! I get it now. So they were the ones who caused all that commotion, right?” Lolita said.
Not long ago, they had noticed large numbers of atavists rushing toward the same location from the rooftops. Since it didn’t look like they were coming after them, they hadn’t paid much attention. Who would have thought it was members of their own mercenary corps causing the trouble?
Bentley nodded.
“They’re probably done for already,” he said expressionlessly.
“Aha! I knew it! Those three idiots are all brawn and no brains. Trying to get revenge on what’s-her-name? They deserved it! Hahahaha…” Lolita threw her head back and laughed while holding a beef skewer, drawing plenty of curious looks from nearby pedestrians.
“But why weren’t you with them? What’s your reason for coming here?” Isaac pressed a hand against Lolita’s head and fixed Bentley with a sharp gaze.
Bentley adjusted his glasses.
“I came because I have something important to do. If you’re interested, you’re welcome to join me.”
Under the relentless pursuit of the Tribunal Division, the three mercenaries were successfully captured.
Pinned to the ground, they burned with frustration and anger.
No matter how hard they thought about it, they couldn’t understand how their operation had failed so easily. It was almost as if Hualan had known their plan from the beginning and set a trap in advance, just waiting to catch them.
But if Hualan had known all along, why not stop them sooner?
Why wait until they had turned hundreds of farm animals into monsters before moving in?
Wasn’t that completely unnecessary?
“When did you discover us?” the cantaloupe-tattooed man demanded.
“Behave yourself!”
An elite member of the Tribunal Division Special Forces punched him in the head so hard that his vision blurred.
The three mercenaries were captured.
The monsters had all been exterminated.
The air reeked of blood and rotting flesh.
Corpses littered the ground.
Nearly everyone was stained with blood, and quite a few had suffered injuries.
But the people who suffered the worst casualties were the Ling family.
Although Mei Yanlan had vented much of her anger on the monsters, she still felt dissatisfied. Then she turned around and saw the old Ling Family Head.
Every bone in his body seemed broken.
He looked as though he had one foot in the grave already.
Her mood immediately improved.
Several Ling family members had died.
Several more were seriously injured.
The stronger members had escaped major harm, but being caught completely off guard by the monster stampede had still left them bruised and battered.
The Ling family’s eldest young master, who was also Mei Yanlan’s biological uncle, even had blood streaming from his nose.
The injuries would probably heal by tomorrow.
Still, they looked pathetic.
At first, everyone else was bewildered.
Why were the Ling family members here?
After the initial confusion wore off, some of the more arrogant members of the atavist families began looking down on them.
A few openly laughed.
“For years now, whenever something happens, neither the atavist families nor the Tribunal Division bother asking your family for help. So why did you insist on sticking your noses into this?”
“Exactly. Just look at yourselves. Tsk, tsk.”
The Ling family truly lived up to its reputation as the lowest rung among the atavist families.
Humiliated and furious, the Ling family gathered their wounded and prepared to leave.
Then the Ling Family Head spotted Jing Pei.
His nearly blind eyes suddenly widened as though he wanted to devour her alive.
The eldest young master and the others glared at her with equal resentment.
Jing Pei blinked.
“Family Head Ling? What happened to you? How did you end up like this?”
“Looks like they were trampled,” someone offered.
The Ling Family Head’s eyes widened even further.
The hatred in them was almost tangible.
Jing Pei looked surprised.
“Didn’t I tell you not to linger and to head home right away?”
As she spoke, she shot them a reproachful look.
It was the sort of look one gave unruly children.
You’re grown adults. How can you be this disobedient? Look what happened. Now you’re just causing trouble for everyone else.
The Ling Family Head rolled his eyes and passed out on the spot.
The rest of the Ling family felt equally miserable.
If they accused Jing Pei of lying, they couldn’t.
She really had told them to leave.
But if she hadn’t dismissed the danger so casually, would they have wandered around without a care in the world?
Unfortunately, saying that out loud would only invite more ridicule.
After all, to powerful atavists, these monsters really were “nothing serious.”
At that moment, both the Ling family and Mei Yanlan silently chose to pretend they didn’t know each other.
As though nothing had happened between them.
Mei Yanlan looked at the departing Ling family members.
Then she turned to Jing Pei.
Now that she had calmed down, suspicion began creeping into her mind.
“When you called out to me earlier,” Mei Yanlan asked, “was it because you saw me?”
“What else would it be?”
But the distance had been enormous.
Mei Yanlan herself had needed to climb a tree and look into the distance before she spotted Jing Pei and the monster horde.
Was it because Jing Pei was a Dragon Atavist?
Or because her atavist purity was higher?
Could she simply see farther?
Mei Yanlan didn’t dwell on it.
Her eyes narrowed as she watched the Ling family leave.
This was an opportunity.
Turning to the leader of the operation, she said,
“I’ll escort them…”
“Teacher Mei.”
Jing Pei suddenly interrupted.
“Director Zhang Run said he’d like to learn more about you. Is that okay?”
Mei Yanlan turned around.
Only then did she remember the atavist families were filming a documentary as part of a public relations campaign.
“Whatever,” she replied casually.
The information Jing Pei could provide was limited anyway. At most, it would be things like her status as Number One of the Tribunal Division Special Forces.
Just as she was about to continue with her original plan, she heard Jing Pei speaking into her earpiece.
“Okay, Director Zhang. Teacher Mei says you can send a camera to follow her.”
Mei Yanlan: ???
Looking at Mei Yanlan’s stunned expression, Jing Pei blinked.
“Didn’t you say it was okay?”
“Isn’t your way of talking a little strange?” Mei Yanlan asked.
Anyone hearing that question would naturally assume Jing Pei meant sharing information about her.
How had that somehow turned into attaching a camera to her?
Was this the same verbal sleight of hand Jing Pei had used on the Ling family?
Mei Yanlan paused.
Her attention shifted away from the Ling family and settled on Jing Pei.
For the moment, her urge to chase after the Ling family and kill them faded.
The camera drone hovering over her head probably helped.
There was a difference between killing in self-defense after being attacked and hunting someone down on her own initiative.
If nobody saw it, that was one thing.
Doing it in front of a camera was another.
She wasn’t stupid.
She had no interest in being buried alongside the Ling family.
They weren’t worth it.
And the people she had loved would never be happy to see her throw her life away for that.
Jing Pei seemed not to notice Mei Yanlan’s suspicious stare at all.
She was poking at a monster’s head with one finger.
Then she looked up with an innocent expression.
“Teacher Mei, this one looks like it used to be a pig. Do you think the meat’s still edible? Would Simiao eat it?”
Wen Yuxian, who had come over to help clean up the aftermath:
“?? Thanks, but no. Please don’t feed my girlfriend weird things.”
Jing Pei lifted a gigantic “pig trotter” almost half her own height.
“What a waste. There’s so much meat on it…”
Mei Yanlan stared at her.
The suspicion in her heart deepened.
Was it really just a coincidence?
Or was she deliberately stopping me from killing the Ling family?
