Yunjin Prefecture, the slum known as Nevergone District.
Min Jing stood with a grave expression, discussing something with her companions from the mutual aid society.
The wheat-skinned girl, as nimble as a leopard cat, gazed at the dilapidated streets. A strange sense of desolation welled up inside her, bringing with it a deep unease.
And she wasn’t the only one feeling it.
After a while, Min Jing returned.
“Some people have indeed gone missing. Every single one disappeared without a sound.” Min Jing’s expression darkened.
The girl immediately thought of that cold, sinister sensation that had been haunting her lately, the one that made her skin crawl.
“I told you there was something creepy going on!”
“We suspect human traffickers,” Min Jing said instead.
Nevergone District was a place where all kinds of people gathered. Everyone here had either been abandoned by society and family, or had abandoned society and family themselves. In this place, nobody questioned your past, and by the same token, nobody cared whether you stayed or left.
As a result, the population had always been unstable. People vanishing overnight was nothing unusual.
But this time there was a pattern.
Several people were disappearing every day, and some of them were members of the mutual aid society.
Centered around Min Jing, the mutual aid society consisted of women and children supporting one another like family. They were the one group least likely to leave without saying a word.
That was why they suspected traffickers were taking people away.
Yet the girl had a powerful intuition. The disappearances were directly connected to that unsettling presence she kept sensing. A warning seemed to echo in her mind, urging her to leave.
This place was dangerous.
“Mom, I think we should…”
“Starting tonight, we’ll organize patrols and find out who’s causing trouble. Behave yourself and stop running all over the place like a stray cat.”
“Oh…”
This was where she had been born and raised. All her family and friends were here.
And her mother was strong. She surely understood more than she did. She would know what to do. She would find a solution.
Hesitating, wavering, she ultimately said nothing.
Instead, she returned to browsing the internet on her battered old computer. Before long, she came across the documentary dominating the trending charts and once again saw Jing Pei on the screen.
“It’s you again.”
She muttered under her breath. This young lady’s presence was everywhere. Every time she went online, she saw her. She really was famous.
Yet something about the scenes of atavists defending the nation in the documentary made her uncomfortable.
Why did the people of Nevergone District have to protect themselves?
Weren’t they citizens of this country too?
The airing of the documentary Great Families provided the public with fresh topics of conversation. While gossiping and procrastinating through their days, people briefly forgot their troubles and to everyone’s surprise regained a little confidence in life.
Our atavists are so powerful. If evil rises a foot, righteousness rises ten. If we just hold on a little longer, maybe these hardships will pass!
That reaction actually surprised the governments of the various prefectures.
“Maybe programs that encourage the public, like Good Morning, Hualan, could replace celebrities with personnel from the Tribunal Division?”
“That actually sounds promising.”
“But if we do that, the status of atavists might…”
While it seemed as though the whole world was discussing atavists and the documentary, Zhang Qixing, mayor of Mingbo City in Luoxing Prefecture, encountered the most difficult dilemma of his career.
Zhang Qixing was the youngest mayor in Hualan’s history. He had taken office at only thirty years old and was beloved by citizens for both his good looks and exceptional competence.
Three days later, Mingbo City’s annual Summer Fireworks Festival would begin.
Tourists from every prefecture in the country were already streaming in.
The festival represented the city’s busiest period of the year and generated its highest annual revenue. It was a critically important season for both local businesses and the municipal government, and everyone was working tirelessly to prepare for the brief harvest of prosperity.
Then, on the morning of that very day, Zhang Qixing received a strange phone call.
“Hello, Mr. Shen. This is the owner of the Puzzle Intelligence Agency. I have a piece of intelligence. Are you interested in buying it?”
A somewhat carefree male voice sounded from the other end.
Zhang Qixing frowned.
Had it been anything else, he would have dismissed it as a scam call. But he had heard of the information broker from the Puzzle Intelligence Agency.
Rumor had it that even the central government had dispatched elite information-security specialists to trace his identity. Every attempt had been thwarted, and repeated investigations had failed. To this day, nobody knew who he really was.
As a government official, engaging in transactions with someone operating in such a legal gray area was out of the question.
Yet just before hanging up, he heard the man add:
“This intelligence may concern the lives and property of several million people in Mingbo City.”
“What did you say?”
Zhang Qixing tightened his grip on his phone.
“So, are you buying it? It’s time-sensitive, so I can offer it at a discount. But as a responsible businessman, let me give you one more warning.”
The information broker chuckled.
“It takes a great deal of courage to learn what’s in this report.”
The truth was that Jing Pei had remembered this incident only after scrolling through her phone and seeing a post about Mingbo City’s famous fireworks festival three days later.
In another book, this festival had originally been the setting of a major case. After multiple worlds and stories merged together, the holiday and the city had fused with this version of Mingbo City.
From her long observations, however, events that were supposed to happen still tended to occur.
Which meant the possibility of that incident happening three days later was extremely high.
The broker’s words only tightened Zhang Qixing’s nerves further.
A time-sensitive report that would lose its value if not sold quickly. Information that threatened an entire city’s lives and property.
So it really was some kind of terrorist attack?
As for needing courage, there had been no need to remind him. A government official doing business with an information broker was already dangerous enough.
Yet as the guardian of this city and someone entrusted by its citizens, he could not ignore such a warning simply to protect his career.
So he chose to buy it.
“How much?”
“Ten thousand. Thank you for your patronage.”
The price was so low that Zhang Qixing froze for a moment.
He began wondering whether this really was a scam.
Was this actually the famous information broker? The Atavist families constantly complained that the broker was notorious for charging exorbitant fees.
Yet after he paid and received the information, cold sweat immediately appeared on his forehead.
“Is this real? Are you certain it’ll happen? And where exactly did you get information like this?”
Unable to restrain himself, he demanded answers.
The information broker replied:
“Not certain. All I can say is that the probability is very high. That’s why I said it takes tremendous courage to buy this information.”
The courage required was far greater than Zhang Qixing had imagined.
In the case that Jing Pei had written, a child witnessed his mother being murdered and identified the killer.
But while he was running to the police station to report the crime, a rare magnitude-8.6 earthquake struck.
The mother’s body was buried deep beneath collapsed buildings and could never be recovered.
Without a body, there could be no conviction.
From then on, the child was forced onto another path in pursuit of revenge.
The intelligence Jing Pei sold to Zhang Qixing was exactly this:
Three days later, an earthquake would strike the city.
The information broker had sold him an earthquake warning.
A warning issued three full days in advance.
It was absurd.
Even the Seismological Bureau could only issue alerts two hours ahead of time. Yet this broker had provided a three-day warning and had even included the earthquake’s magnitude.
If a disaster could be predicted three days in advance, evacuations could be organized early, casualties minimized, and preparations made in full.
But the source wasn’t the Seismological Bureau.
Not a single country in the world could accurately predict a natural disaster that far ahead. Even animals might not sense it three days in advance.
Yet now, an information broker operating in a gray area had placed such a prediction in his hands.
How did he know?
Would it really happen?
If Zhang Qixing believed the warning and began evacuating civilians, closing schools, halting factories, shutting down the city, and canceling the fireworks festival, only for nothing to happen three days later…
What would become of him?
Yet if he ignored the warning and the earthquake truly struck…
He would spend the rest of his life drowning in regret.
The information broker had been right.
Learning the contents of that intelligence really did require tremendous courage.
Why had she chosen Zhang Qixing instead of a higher-ranking official?
First, the world was enormous. Among the countless people within it, the number of characters actually written by Jing Pei could be counted on one hand. Politicians were even rarer.
Second, reaching higher-level officials directly was no easy task. And if she ran into someone scheming or self-serving, it would only create unnecessary complications.
After all the filtering and selection, Zhang Qixing was the only person guaranteed to believe her and who both possessed the authority and the courage to act.
In the original story, after the earthquake struck, Zhang Qixing organized rescue operations as mayor and saved countless lives.
But his wife, children, and parents all perished in the disaster.
So in a sense…
She was saving him, too.
Jing Pei turned toward Mei Yanlan, whose expression wasn’t particularly good.
The woman’s curvaceous body was pressed low against the ground as she peered through binoculars at a distant target, motionless. Her bright red lips were pressed tightly together.
Jing Pei was still working alongside Mei Yanlan.
However, since she had already achieved her objective, she had declined filming for the second episode of the documentary. As a result, no camera drones buzzed around her anymore.
Things were much quieter.
“Watch the target. Why are you looking at me?” Mei Yanlan said.
“Teacher Mei, are you in a bad mood?”
Mei Yanlan let out a strange snort and continued staring at the criminal.
“You really don’t know why I’m in a bad mood?”
Jing Pei blinked with an innocent look.
“Could it be because Teacher Wen got promoted and received a raise? But he deserved it. If he hadn’t been sharp enough to realize that dwarf might be the Black Wizard Atavist who murdered his younger brother thirty years ago and later escaped prison, who knows how many casualties there would’ve been the night before last?”
That was the explanation Wen Yuxian had submitted in his report.
It also explained how he had reviewed their planned route before the incident occurred and led Feng Yilian and Chen Mo to patrol those areas ahead of time. As a result, the three mercenaries had been forced to target a farm instead.
Mei Yanlan wanted to turn her head and look at Jing Pei, to see what expression wore that beautiful face.
But she resisted.
Her eyes needed to stay on the target.
Besides, she could already imagine it.
On the surface, pure and innocent.
Beneath that surface, unfathomable.
Gentle in appearance, dangerous in reality.
Like a veil of mist.
She had no idea what Jing Pei was really trying to do.
And she had no evidence with which to accuse her.
Earlier that day, Qiu Fa had summoned her into his office.
The moment she entered, she found him fiddling with a loudspeaker.
“We are the Trident Mercenary Corps. This is our retaliation. The dignity of the Trident Mercenary Corps cannot be insulted. If you must hate someone, hate Long Jin… Listen carefully. We are…”
Bang!
Qiu Fa slammed the loudspeaker onto the desk.
The device crackled with a burst of static.
And broke.
Like a cat startled by an insect in midair, suddenly shooting out its paw and swatting the bug dead.
Mei Yanlan: “…”
Qiu Fa threw the smashed loudspeaker into the trash, picked up the milk on his desk, and took a sip. His amber eyes fixed on her as he said, “Do you have anything to say about the matter between you and the Ling family?”
Mei Yanlan said, “No.”
Their gazes met in midair, clashing invisibly.
Qiu Fa leaned back in his chair, his sharply defined poker face imposing. His long fingers were interlaced, and the aura around him made Mei Yanlan grow faintly tense.
“You are forbidden from making contact with members of the Ling family,” Qiu Fa said.
Mei Yanlan’s eyes flickered. “Why would I contact them?”
“Good.”
Mei Yanlan realized that her relationship with the Ling family could no longer be hidden.
Why had the Ling family made clones?
Why had they made a cloned Wen Can?
Why had they made clones of Ling Song and his wife?
And why had those clones, Mei Yanlan, and the Ling family all been in the same place that night?
How had Mei Yanlan just happened to be a Succubus Atavist?
The answer was already obvious.
Someone had already begun watching her.
She could sense attention from multiple sides, hidden forces pulling against one another in the dark. Although everyone was wary of everyone else, and no one could make a move, she was very safe.
But for that very reason, she probably wouldn’t be able to get near the Ling family now, and it would be even harder to make a move against them later.
That irritated her.
And all of this was too perfectly timed, too coincidental, as if someone had carefully orchestrated it.
“Move!” Mei Yanlan rose.
Two figures split apart like bolts of lightning, one moving ahead and the other behind, closing in on the target from both sides.
Inside a small inn hidden in an alley.
Bentley had just returned with the day’s gains. The heat of Hualan had left his head muddled, and he leaned weakly against his pillow while tapping away at the keyboard.
He had chosen to stay here to avoid attracting attention, especially from that information broker. Everyone knew the broker had a vast intelligence network, but no one knew how he had set it up. So far, not a single one of his informants had been caught.
Because of that, Bentley could only assume that the broker’s people might be everywhere: on the main roads, in traffic surveillance systems, and so on. All he could do was keep as low a profile as possible.
He was working on the test the information broker had given him: investigating Mei Yanlan’s weakness.
Whatever he needed to investigate had to be something invisible to the naked eye, something unknown to others. That meant he could immediately rule out the dead people she valued and the Wen family.
With those eliminated, the remaining options should have been much simpler.
Unexpectedly, it was too simple, so simple that he actually had no idea where to begin.
Mei Yanlan had joined the Tribunal Division after Qiu Fa took office. She did not want a salary or benefits. Her only condition was that her identity could not be exposed.
Back then, she had still been very weak. She could not even enter the Special Forces. Yet after just one year, her strength had skyrocketed, and she successfully joined the Special Forces, obtained the Number 10 badge, then rose all the way to Number One within five years.
Was she impressive?
She had traded her life for it.
Judging from the results, Mei Yanlan was absolutely a workaholic with no regard for her own life.
During the day, when she worked as an elementary school teacher to flesh out her ordinary-person identity as “Mei Yanlan,” she had friends and colleagues. But apart from Wen Yuxian and Zhang Simiao, she was not close to any of them.
Bentley had confirmed this by hacking into their networks. He found that they were basically all regretting how, back when Mei Yanlan had been their colleague, they had excluded or cold-shouldered her because they thought she was ordinary and had no personality.
In that case, the possibility that these people were her weakness, or that they held knowledge of her weakness, was almost nonexistent.
How strange.
Then where was her weakness?
Since the information broker had used this as a test, he definitely already knew the answer. Mei Yanlan really did have a fatal weakness.
Where exactly was it?
Twelve Zodiac Academy.
Because of the documentary, the students were all extremely excited. If they had not been filmed and paired with that blood-pumping BGM, they would never have known they could look so cool.
And it was not just them who thought they looked cool. The juniors who had not gotten the chance to join the battle thought so too.
Since Jing Pei had refused follow-up filming, the protagonist of the second episode had become Feng Yilian, and the protagonists of the later episodes had also been reserved by members of the other Great Families.
Perhaps because they had been scolded too harshly before, the arrogant Atavist families had experienced what it felt like to be hated by everyone. Only now did they finally taste the sweetness of being admired, so they were no longer opposed to appearing on television for ordinary people to watch.
Who could see this and not say: what scumbags.
When people used to have eyes only for you, you did not take it seriously. Only after they took their love back did you discover how precious it had been.
The school infirmary was also quite lively.
Among the students who had answered the summons to help encircle and suppress the monster tide, several had been injured and were currently recuperating here.
But that was not the main reason.
“Doctor Tang, my leg hurts so much. Could you take a look at it for me?”
A girl’s sweet voice came wrapped in a faint fragrance. She lifted her leg, about to rest it on Tang Woxue’s knee.
Tang Woxue turned away, avoiding the pretty leg. Flashing his snow-white teeth, he smiled and said, “Seeing how easy you lifted your leg, I don’t think there’s any problem.”
“You haven’t even touched it. How would you know?”
“No need to touch. Visual diagnosis is enough.”
Just like in his previous workplace, Tang Woxue quickly became famous throughout Twelve Zodiac Academy. The girls came looking for Doctor Tang even when nothing was wrong, determined to find something for him to examine.
Chu Xusheng was so frightened that he hid on another doctor’s sickbed.
But he was not frightened by the students. He was frightened by Tang Woxue.
His intuition told him that although Doctor Tang was smiling, that smile was very cold.
Tang Woxue was indeed in a poor mood.
Because of this, during his break, he even emailed the information broker, demanding quality after-sales service.
After all, if not for this information broker, he would never have come looking for Jing Pei and tried every possible way to approach her.
After finally getting into Twelve Zodiac Academy, he had bought information and hired the two mercenaries recommended by the broker. In the end, the target had actually run off to assist the Tribunal Division and spent all day with Mei Yanlan.
Summer vacation was about to start too. Where were they supposed to find an opportunity to strike?
[Don’t be impatient, Mr. Tang. Your opportunity will arrive very soon.]
[I’ll trust you one last time.]
Expressionless, Tang Woxue put away his phone.
That day, in Mingbo City, Luoxing Prefecture, one emergency meeting after another was held. The office was thick with tension, like smoke from an invisible battlefield.
“Mayor Zhang, don’t you think this is absurd? For a piece of intelligence that might just be a prank, you want to shut down this city for three days? Do you know how much we’ll lose?”
“The fireworks festival is almost here. Tens of millions of tourists will come from every prefecture and from overseas, creating tens of billions in revenue for this city. And because of some information broker’s words, you want to cancel it?”
“If the earthquake really happens, none of the things you’re looking forward to will exist,” Zhang Qixing said calmly.
“The earthquake won’t happen! I’ve already called the Seismological Bureau to ask. They haven’t detected any abnormalities!”
“I want to call the governor,” Zhang Qixing insisted.
One by one, the officials in the municipal government looked at him as if he had gone insane. If Zhang Qixing’s demeanor had not looked exactly the same as usual, and if his eyes had not remained as steady, calm, and sharp as ever, they really would have wondered whether some mental illness had suddenly been triggered.
In the end, the municipal government failed to stop Zhang Qixing. He still called the governor.
The municipal officials did not leave. Instead, they gathered outside the office, staring at the man behind the soundproof glass. They watched him holding the phone, his mouth opening and closing, though they had no idea what he was saying.
In any case, he was trying to persuade the other party.
They all hoped the governor would reject Zhang Qixing’s ridiculous request.
“Do you know how much damage this will cause the people and the government if nothing happens three days from now?”
“I know.”
“Do you know what you’ll face when the time comes?”
“I know.”
“Are you certain you can bear the consequences?”
Zhang Qixing gave a bitter smile. “It still won’t be more painful than if it really happens and I did nothing.”
“…Fine. Do it. I’ll contact the central government.”
The governor had agreed.
Given the prefectural jurisdiction granted by the central government, the matter was basically settled.
Zhang Qixing immediately began preparing the evacuation plan.
Once the military, police, transportation department, medical department, and all other departments received their orders and completed their emergency deployment and preparations as quickly as possible, the city broadcast system was used to notify citizens to evacuate.
The citizens in the evacuation zones were all stunned when they received the notice, then quickly panicked.
Fortunately, the municipal government had already made preparations, and the surrounding cities responsible for receiving evacuees were also ready. Because of that, things remained more or less in order.
Airships in the sky, high-speed trains racing along the rails, and congested roads on the ground.
For a moment, the scene looked like people fleeing the apocalypse.
The news soon climbed onto the trending charts, and people from other prefectures expressed their concern and worry.
[Our country can already predict the time of an earthquake this far in advance?]
[Awesome!!]
[Doesn’t that mean humanity has conquered natural disasters?!]
[Insider info: the Seismological Bureau didn’t detect any seismic activity at all. I heard that, the mayor of Mingbo heard it from some civilian expert somewhere. Supposedly, everyone in the municipal government opposed it, but he insisted on doing this.]
[!!]
[Is that true?]
[Then what if the earthquake doesn’t happen?]
[……………As a homestay owner in Mingbo City, I just want to say that if nothing happens afterward, I’ll be really angry. This week is the peak earning period of the entire year.]
Once this news spread, the strongest reactions came from Mingbo City’s individual vendors and business owners.
The former had been prepared to make a huge profit. The latter included people whose delivery deadlines were only a few days away; they had already been working overtime to rush their goods, only to suddenly be ordered to stop operations.
Their hearts were already full of anxiety.
If there really was going to be an earthquake, then fine. Natural disasters could not be helped.
But then they suddenly saw this news.
So the reason for all of this was not that the Seismological Bureau had truly discovered an impending earthquake. It was because the mayor had believed the words of some unknown person.
For a time, curses rose from every direction.
If the roads had not been blocked, who knew how many people would have turned around and gone home in outrage.
[Has the mayor really not gone insane? How is this any different from believing some shady, uncertified miracle product can cure a terminal illness and then promoting it everywhere?]
[My god, what happened to him? He wasn’t like this before.]
[Isn’t the central government going to do anything?]
[I’m so annoyed. Does he think this makes him responsible? Is it easy for ordinary people to make a little money? Even if there’s no earthquake afterward, tourists will probably lose interest and stop coming.]
[Why are you so anxious? What if there really is an earthquake? Life is still more important.]
[I believe he wouldn’t make us evacuate based on groundless rumors.]
[I believe Mayor Zhang too.]
At the same time.
Bentley finally found the answer.
An answer that was unexpected, yet reasonable.
Mei Yanlan’s husband…
No, or rather, the child in her husband Xiao Cheng’s belly was the answer!
Those organizations and the Ling family had always wanted to capture Mei Yanlan because they could not find anyone else with Seahorse Clan genes, right?
But Xiao Cheng was pregnant.
The child in his belly must have inherited the Seahorse Clan genes.
Then why would they still need to go to so much effort to capture Mei Yanlan?
If they captured Xiao Cheng and waited for him to give birth, wouldn’t they have both an experimental subject and breeding stock?
No.
Mei Yanlan had experienced that kind of childhood herself and endured that pain. She would absolutely never allow her children to repeat her fate.
So as long as they captured Xiao Cheng, whether it meant climbing a mountain of blades or crossing a sea of fire, Mei Yanlan would definitely go.
Just like her father Ling Song had once risked his life to send her out of the Ling family.
So that was it.
This was Mei Yanlan’s fatal weakness.
It was indeed something invisible to the naked eye, a target they would overlook without thinking.
After all, they all knew Mei Yanlan did not love that man. Who would have thought that the treasure was actually hidden in his belly?
“Miss Hong, I have an interesting piece of intelligence here. Do you want it?”
Bentley picked up the new Hualan phone and SIM card he had bought and contacted Miss Hong.
