For that instant, the world fell utterly silent.

They stood there, dumbfounded and disbelieving, completely stunned by what they had just witnessed.

Second Master Long, Long Yiming, had his expression stiffen slightly. His refined, scholarly face was like the expensive suit Jing Pei had just thrown onto the ground and stepped on—almost as if it, too, now bore her footprints.

“You’re Second Uncle, right?” Jing Pei stood facing him. Without deliberately lifting her chin or holding herself stiffly, she naturally exuded an air of graceful composure. Her voice remained gentle and impeccably polite. “I don’t like walking on wet ground, so I borrowed your jacket for a moment. You don’t mind, do you, Second Uncle?”

The muscles on Long Yiming’s face twitched almost imperceptibly before he forced out a crocodilian smile.
“Of course not. But if you need something, Ah Jin, you can say so in advance. The servants will prepare something for you to step on—there’s no need for you to do it yourself.”

Jing Pei immediately turned toward the butler, whose face had gone deathly pale with fright, and smiled sweetly.
“Did you hear that?”

The butler froze, glanced at Second Master Long, then at Jing Pei, bent at the waist, and hurried away.

They had never imagined that the show of dominance they had carefully prepared for Jing Pei would instead turn into her giving them one. For a moment, no one dared to act rashly.

Only Long Ankang, seeing the rare sight of Long Yiming being put at a disadvantage, couldn’t stop a flash of excitement and satisfaction from showing on his face. He lifted his chin, strode forward, and began lecturing in a heavily paternal tone.
“Ah Jin, now that you’ve come back, you need to be mentally prepared to shoulder great responsibilities. But don’t worry—Dad will help you.”

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere subtly shifted.

The corner of Long Yiming’s mouth tightened just a fraction.

Long Ankang and Long Yiming were not born of the same mother. After Long Ankang returned to the Long family, the overt and covert struggles between the two brothers had never ceased, with Long Ankang consistently at a disadvantage. The appearance of his dragon atavist daughter, Long Jin, had become his greatest bargaining chip.

In the original story, Long Ankang’s career did indeed rise to a new level because of Long Jin. While he didn’t outright defeat Long Yiming, he was no longer suppressed by him and managed to claim half of the Long family’s power.

Jing Pei turned to glance at Long Ankang. At that moment, the woman beside him—dressed in a qipao and wearing an emerald jade necklace—smiled at her gently.
“Ah Jin, from now on we’re one family. Let the past stay in the past—no one minds it anymore. You even have a sister who isn’t here right now. She’s currently in a ‘Bubble,’ bringing glory to the family.”

This woman was none other than the wealthy mistress from back then. Although Jing Pei’s act of tossing the suit had made her realize this girl didn’t quite match the information they had gathered, she still tried to stick to their original plan. After all, she’d once snatched that rural woman’s fortune away—how could she possibly allow her own children to be trampled beneath that woman’s daughter now?

Yet the girl before her calmly withdrew her gaze, as though she had seen nothing but empty air and heard nothing but the wind.

“You—” Long Ankang’s face darkened when he failed to receive the reverence he had expected from his daughter.

“Second Uncle, I heard that the Long family’s business is currently under your management,” Jing Pei said, turning to Long Yiming.

Long Yiming thought to himself that this girl was trying to seize power right from the start—truly unaware of how high the heavens were.

“That’s correct.”

“Then I’ll have to trouble you in the future as well.” Jing Pei smiled lightly. “I’ve heard that atavists are supposed to take charge of the family, but I have absolutely no interest in business. At most, I’ll only know how to hold out my hand for money. If it were left to me to manage, who knows what kind of mess I’d turn it into.”

Those words made the expressions of Long Ankang and his wife turn ugly. After a brief moment of surprise, the discomfort Long Yiming felt from the suit incident vanished completely, and his crocodilian smile took on a hint of warmth.

“This is what I should be doing in the first place. If that’s what you want, I’ll naturally do my utmost.”

At that moment, a burly male servant hurried over carrying a roll of red carpet. With a swift toss and shake, the carpet unfurled from the entrance all the way into the inner courtyard, carving out a dry path across the wet ground.

Long Yiming extended his hand in a welcoming gesture. Jing Pei stepped onto the red carpet and walked out from beneath the eaves.

A cool, damp breeze brushed against her hair. Jing Pei narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly, looking languid and relaxed. Though she had just come from the countryside and her clothes were plainly unfashionable, she looked like a young master born and raised in the Long family—more than merely at ease, she carried an air as though this entire domain belonged to her.

Originally, the family had joined forces to suppress Long Jin in order to prevent her from harboring resentment and seeking revenge over the abandonment of her and her mother.

But now it was obvious—she knew the truth of the past. No one would be able to twist black into white in front of her. Still, she targeted only Long Ankang’s branch of the family. And with no interest in business, wanting only to be an idle person who took money without working, there was no longer any reason for Long Yiming’s faction to cooperate with Long Ankang’s.

There are no eternal enemies—only eternal interests.

“It looks like Long Ling is about to suffer,” the girl in the pink strappy heels muttered softly from the back. “Ah… maybe not. Who ends up making things hard for whom isn’t so certain yet.”

Although Long Jin was a dragon atavist, she had missed the best period to recruit outstanding talents and form irreplaceable bonds with powerful figures from other families. It was like possessing a peerless sword, yet missing the era in which one could win glory and achievement with it—destined to accomplish nothing great, to leave no name in history.

Meanwhile, Long Ling had almost entirely seized all of those opportunities.

…

While most ordinary people continued living lives no different from their usual routines, within the world of atavists, a war was on the verge of breaking out.

The battlefield lay within “Bubble No. 3”—a place that could also be called a pocket dimension, a remnant of the era of cosmic convergence. Like tiny bubbles clinging to the surface of a glass sphere, they existed on the margins of reality.

And depending on where they were attached, each of those bubbles had become the private property of a nation.

These pocket dimensions varied in size. However, because there was always the risk that—just like at the end of the era of cosmic convergence—they might suddenly detach from the primary timeline, the government would never use them as critical military bases. A few were even leased out to civilians.

At this moment, Bubble No. 3 had been jointly rented by two atavist families as the battlefield for their conflict.

Strictly speaking, this should have been called “a clash between two families.” But because the participants were atavists, and because of the sheer number of people involved, the scale was already close to that of a small war.

According to the Atavist Management Regulations, as long as the fighting did not spill outside the Bubble and no hot weapons were used, the government could only remain an observer and was not permitted to intervene at will.

Countless tents were pitched across the scorching yellow earth. This world resembled a barren desert—wherever one looked, there were only uneven dirt mounds and rocks, not a single trace of greenery or living creatures.

The atmosphere was just as tense and parched as the environment itself.

As several off-road vehicles arrived in a cloud of rolling yellow dust, the people who climbed out wore grim expressions, malice flickering in their eyes as they strode into the main command tent. The already taut atmosphere grew even heavier.

Under the sunshades, a group of extraordinary-looking youths lounged or squatted against reclining chairs in various casual poses, sunglasses on, sipping iced cola.

“Looks like the negotiations failed again.”

“If we’re going to fight, then hurry up and fight. This dump has no signal and no internet—I’m bored out of my mind.”

“The Huang family has really gone too far this time.”

“I’m not here because I can’t stand how the Huangs do things. I’m mainly here to rack up experience. Opportunities like this are rare.”

“Same. My mom forced me to come.”

Suddenly, someone glanced toward a girl who was carrying supplies together with the staff.

“That’s Long Ling, isn’t it? What’s she doing here as a normal person?”

“Didn’t the Long family say they weren’t getting involved this time because they don’t have any atavists?”

They called her over and asked why she was here.

Long Ling frowned slightly. “I think the Huang family has gone too far this time too. I want to do my part.”

“Tch. You’re just a normal person—what help could you possibly be? Don’t come here to throw your life away. Go back,” they said coldly.

“What I should do isn’t for you to lecture me about,” Long Ling replied calmly. She turned and went back to her work. But once she turned away, her eyes darkened as contemptuous remarks drifted in from behind—things like ‘overestimating herself’ and ‘normal people shouldn’t meddle in atavists’ affairs.’

She couldn’t help pulling out her phone. Unfortunately, there was no signal inside the Bubble. Still, Long Jin should have been brought back by now, and the family’s plan was probably progressing smoothly.

One day, she too would become an atavist—and one of the strongest at that. No one would ever dare look down on her again.

Inside the main command tent, members of the Bai family—one of the two principal forces in this war—along with representatives of allied families, were seething with rage.

“The Huang family dares to do it but won’t admit it! The hair found in that box holding the child’s finger is proof enough. Are you saying there’s a second weasel-demon atavist family in this world?!”

“There’s no point wasting words with them anymore! I’ve already had enough! Xinran is gone—my child, she…”
The man speaking wore glasses and looked mild and scholarly, but now his eyes were bloodshot and brimming with tears. His clenched fists trembled uncontrollably.

Others reached out to rest their hands on his shoulders in comfort, their own eyes burning with the same cold resolve.

That man’s child was the fuse that had ignited this war.

The Huang and Bai families had been bitter enemies for many years, a feud that could be traced back to the era of cosmic convergence. Back then, the ancestor from whom the Huang family inherited their current weasel-demon bloodline had devoured several members of the Bai family. The hatred began there—and had endured ever since.

Over the years, the two families had constantly sabotaged each other in business, both openly and in secret. There were even rumors that various car accidents and unexplained deaths within the Huang and Bai families had all been carefully orchestrated by the opposing side.

There was no concrete evidence for such claims, yet both sides seemed firmly convinced. Some even swore they had personally witnessed the other family behind certain incidents.

The hatred lodged in both families’ hearts never faded. Still, with the government and the law in place, this was no longer the chaotic age of the past. That changed not long ago, when a newborn child of the Bai family went missing. A nurse testified that she had seen someone from the Huang family take the baby.

The Huang family denied it.

Soon after, however, the Bai family began receiving packages containing the infant’s fingers, tongue, and other body parts. In one of the boxes, they unexpectedly found a strand of hair. It was immediately sent to an atavist identification institute, which confirmed the presence of weasel-demon DNA.

Legally speaking, a single strand of hair and such testimony were insufficient evidence. But for the Bai family, this was already proof beyond doubt. The Huang family’s denials meant nothing. Instead, it completely ignited the Bai family’s long-suppressed hatred, prompting them to rally major atavist families to join this war.

The Huang family’s hatred toward the Bai family seemed no less intense. They accepted the challenge and began gathering atavist families willing to stand with them in battle.

Meanwhile, Jing Pei lay comfortably soaking in a bathtub, leisurely recalling the plot.

The clan war between the Huang and Bai families lasted two weeks inside the Bubble. It was during those two weeks that Long Ling—previously unable to integrate into atavist circles because she was a normal person—captured the hearts of the elite figures at her school.

She served as a medic. Cold-faced on the surface, yet efficient and gentle as she treated wounds, she bandaged the injuries of those once-proud prodigies who had previously looked down on her, stirring more than a few heartbeats.

Those two weeks forged a special bond—intense and unbreakable—between Long Ling and them. They also laid down a barrier for Long Jin that could almost be called insurmountable.

After Long Jin enrolled at the Twelve Zodiac Academy, she should, as a dragon, have naturally been accepted into their circle. Instead, they shut her out completely, sneering at her with undisguised disdain—while welcoming Long Ling, who was merely a normal person.

Once that happened, the rest of the school followed suit. After all, how disgusting was it for an illegitimate daughter to leap over a legitimate child and become the heir? This quickly escalated into full-scale campus bullying against Long Jin, accelerating both the onset and deepening of her depression.

The war would begin tonight. This body had only just undergone atavistic awakening, and Jing Pei still couldn’t control it freely. There was no way she could immediately rush into the Bubble to take part in the fighting. Even if she did, it would be pointless—medic Long Ling would still be able to rely on her “nurse charm” to win over the wounded.

So there was only one option left.

Jing Pei picked up her phone and curved her eyes into a smile.

…

The Bai family estate.

Several doctors and nurses crowded around the woman lying on the bed—some administering injections, others murmuring words of comfort. Bai Xinran lay there staring blankly at the ceiling, her eyes empty.

As a mother who had given birth less than three months ago, she had suffered a devastating blow. Every time she closed her eyes or opened them again, all she could see were the pieces of her child’s body that had been delivered to her by courier.

“The Bubble…” she suddenly spoke, her voice so hoarse it was barely audible.

Her personal steward hurriedly leaned closer and spoke softly. “Word’s come back from the Bubble. It starts tonight. Those damned Huang family bastards—none of them will get away. We’ll settle both old grudges and new debts with them once and for all.”

“The Huang family still won’t return her to me?” Tears slid from the corners of Bai Xinran’s eyes. “Why… why? She didn’t even awaken as an atavist. She was just a normal child…”

At that moment, the phone downstairs rang. A maid answered, only to hear a clearly disguised voice on the other end.

“This is the Puzzle Intelligence Agency. We sell any information you want—fair prices, honest business. Are you interested in purchasing intelligence?”

The maid immediately assumed it was a scam and was about to hang up when the voice continued calmly:

“For example… where your baby is being hidden right now.”