The news of the young heir of the Long family being attacked and injured yet again spread even wider the following day, with rumors beginning to whisper across the internet.

Hearing this first thing in the morning, the head of the Atavist Serum Organization—a man with tight ramen curls dangling over his forehead—paused in confusion. “Did our superiors make another move?”

“It doesn’t seem like it,” his subordinate replied.

The man with the ramen curls nodded. “I thought so too. It would be pointless. After all, our problem isn’t Long Jin. It’s that information broker.”

Ever since learning of Miss Hong’s downfall, he had been counting his blessings.

He was very lucky that he hadn’t been at the Atavist Genetics Control base on the day they captured Mei Yanlan. Otherwise, he would have shared her fate. In his heart, though, he knew the real reason: Miss Hong hadn’t wanted anyone from a sister organization sharing in their moment of glory, so she had sent him away on purpose.

He walked over and sat down beside a white-robed man with long hair. “Doctor, what are you looking at?”

The Doctor, his gaze fixed on the laptop before him, answered quietly, “Since the genetics branch was completely wiped out, all their remaining funds have been diverted to us.”

The man with the ramen curls gasped in delight. “Holy crap! Really? How much?”

Leaning in to look, he was so deeply moved by the figure on the screen that tears almost welled in his eyes. So much money! It was a fortune! Ever since that information broker had appeared on the scene, they had been plunged into absolute poverty. Their experiments and operations had ground to a halt for months.

Even the Doctor, who usually buried himself in research and paid no heed to finances, had been so idle lately—literally catching flies—that he had resorted to tracking their budget.

“This is perfect! Now that Miss Hong is out of the picture and our superiors are losing sleep over this mess, any breakthrough we make now will be a massive shot in the arm for them. We’ll become the greatest heroes of our grand cause, cementing our names in history!” The man with the ramen curls grew more ecstatic by the second, slamming his hand onto the table so hard it almost splintered.

The Doctor let out a cold, hissing sigh, casting a sharp glare at him.

The man shrank back, offering an apologetic grin, though he still couldn’t mask his sheer joy.

“Now that we have the cash, should we go look for the candidates we selected?” he asked.

Despite being forced to sit around doing nothing, they hadn’t been completely idle.

Some maintained a noble, almost holy image in public while secretly harboring the dark instincts of serial killers, saving patients only to reveal their monstrous nature when their victims were most grateful, leaving them to die in complete shock and despair.

Others wore no masks at all. They were notorious fugitives, currently playing a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with the police.

Admitting these people into their ranks wouldn’t guarantee they could be brainwashed into loyal devotion to their grand cause—especially since their only employee capable of mind control was currently rotting in an Atavist prison. But they had no other choice.

Their research had been stagnant for years. Ever since Zhang Simiao—their sole hope—had slipped through their fingers, their only chance at a breakthrough was to inject fresh blood. Perhaps then they could finally chart a path to creating a viable Atavist Serum that could manufacture artificial Atavists.

“Wait,” the Doctor said, his slitted, serpent-like eyes glinting with an unreadable light. “Didn’t that information broker mention he possessed intelligence on someone capable of synthesizing the Atavist Serum? Buy it from him.”

The man with the ramen curls blinked. “Really? We’re going to trust him? What if we’re just inviting a wolf into our house…”

“Every scrap of our organization’s secrets is already in his hands. For all we know, there is already an undercover agent sitting in this very room,” the Doctor chuckled. “What is there left to fear?”

Well, he had a point.

“If he could predict the Mingbo earthquake three days before it struck, I’m really curious to see whether his recommended candidate can actually create the Atavist Serum.” The Doctor parted his lips slightly, letting out another quiet hiss.

Flush with funds, they wasted no time. They drafted and sent an email to the information broker immediately.

A brief moment later, the information broker’s reply arrived.

[I’m absolutely delighted that such well-timed business has come knocking just as things are looking up. As a gesture of goodwill, I’ll give you a twenty percent discount on this information, Mr. Liu Xiao.]

The man with the ramen curls’ real name was indeed Liu Xiao, but he had adopted an alias upon joining the organization. Seeing his true name laid bare so suddenly made his nerves tighten like a wound-up spring.

The Doctor was absolutely right. The broker’s network had riddled their organization with holes like a sieve. If he wanted to destroy them, he could have sent his people at any moment. Why would he need an invitation?

“But what does he mean by those words? Is he hinting at something?”

What did he mean by “well-timed business”? What was so well-timed about it? Was a legendary broker like him ever short of cash?

…

Jing Pei had already anticipated she wouldn’t get much sleep, and indeed, she was woken up shortly after.

The Long family was in an absolute uproar. Overjoyed that their young heir had survived but furious at the attack, they had reported the incident to the Tribunal Division, demanding a thorough investigation. Because Qiu Fa took the matter very seriously, the results came back very fast.

The culprit was none other than Tang Woxue!

Normally, a mere ordinary human like Tang Woxue suffering such severe injuries would have raised immediate suspicion. However, Jing Pei had brought Tang Woxue along to save Mei Yanlan from the spacetime bubble, assigned him to perform the surgery, and made no secret of her trust in him after the first attack. Because of that, everyone had simply assumed he was trustworthy and that he had only been caught in the crossfire of Jing Pei’s troubles.

But Qiu Fa was not so easily fooled. While pursuing the mercenary couple, he had ordered a background check on Tang Woxue. The truth came to light almost right away.

His frequent communications with overseas networks, his childhood sweetheart suffering from pseudo-atavism, his past specialization in clinical drug development and surgical treatments for pseudo-atavism, his sudden self-study of Atavist medicine, and the suspicious convenience of him saving the Twelve Zodiac Academy’s doctor right after his application to the Long family was rejected…

Every single piece of evidence proved he had approached Jing Pei with ulterior motives. Furthermore, investigators discovered he had accessed an ancient text from the Great Cosmic Convergence titled “Miscellaneous Records of Strange Scriptures,” which claimed that a dragon’s horn could cure all ailments. There was no longer any doubt: Tang Woxue was the mastermind who had hired the two foreign mercenaries to harvest Jing Pei’s horn.

Long Yiming sneered, a dangerous, crocodile-like grin spreading across his face. “Excellent. A mere ordinary human actually had the audacity to plot against the Long family.”

The other members of the Long family looked equally outraged, their pride deeply offended.

“Death sentence!”

Jing Pei: …

“Xiao Jin, why are you out of bed?” Long Peici asked immediately, her voice laced with concern.

The rest of the furious family members quickly turned their attention to her.

“It was my oversight,” Jing Pei said softly.

“How could this be your fault? That man Tang was just too devious!”

“When we left last night, he was still flattering you as the ‘Dragon God’! With acting like that, he could put professional actors to shame!”

“Even we were fooled by him, which just goes to show how calculating he is.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get even for you!”

The Long family members chattered all at once. Even in their anger, a strange sense of satisfaction bubbled up; no matter how powerful their young heir was, she was still just a child, and it was up to them, her elders, to look after her.

“The hospital said Tang fled first thing this morning. But he can run, but he can’t hide forever. Since he had the guts to run, we’ll have the Tribunal Division issue a prefecture-wide warrant!”

An ordinary human plotting against the young heir of a major Atavist family was an outrage that would offend even other Atavist clans. It was an unforgivable offense—a direct challenge to their social standing. Their deep-rooted arrogance made them see the attack as an act of defiance. Even though they knew times had changed, the older generation’s way of thinking was not so easy to change.

Indeed, surrendering to the Tribunal Division would be Tang Woxue’s safest bet; falling into the hands of the Atavist families would end far worse for him.

However, the Tribunal Division of Liuyun Prefecture—Tang Woxue’s hometown—found nothing but an empty apartment. He had already fled. His dramatic, highly publicized breakup with Yan Jinhua at the hospital now looked like a calculated move to protect his lover from being implicated in his crimes.

After all, how could anyone change so much in a single day? According to the doctors and nurses, Tang Woxue’s attitude toward Yan Jinhua had been completely different before.

As a result, security was tightened across every airbase, dock, harbor, and transit station in Liuyun Prefecture. Tang Woxue’s fingerprints and iris scans were quickly uploaded into the inter-prefecture criminal database.

Hiding in his pre-arranged secret base, Tang Woxue closely monitored the situation outside. He searched for the penalties associated with hiring foreign assassins to harm Atavists, and a dull throb pulsed in his temples as he read the sheer number of prison years he faced.

He had always known this would be his end, but he hadn’t cared back then. Now, he just hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly. Fortunately, his instincts had been sharp enough to prompt a timely escape, saving him from immediate arrest.

It wasn’t that he wished to escape punishment; he just refused to waste his remaining days in a prison cell. He was no longer the indifferent man he used to be. He had goals now, and the length of his life no longer mattered to him—as long as he could achieve the breadth of life he desired, he would die without regrets.

Yet, what could he do in this situation? His crimes were set in stone, and the only path left under the sun led directly to a jail cell.

“It really feels like fate is playing a cruel joke on me, my friend,” he muttered with a bitter smile. Destiny had granted him a new lease on life, only to pave his road ahead with despair.

…

Upon hearing news of the manhunt, Liu Xiao—the man with the ramen curls from the Atavist Serum Organization—fell silent for a moment before suddenly slamming his hand onto the desk, shattering it completely.

“So that’s what that wretched information broker meant! Damn it, we’ve been swindled! No wonder he gave us a twenty percent discount. I was wondering why he was acting so generous. If we had just waited a little longer, we would have discovered this talent ourselves without paying a single cent! That information was almost a waste!”

His chest throbbed with rage. Having money was one thing, but throwing it down the drain was another. His heart bled! What a ruthless, black-hearted capitalist!

The Doctor, however, remained focused on Tang Woxue’s profile. “He really is a rare talent. Bold and crazy, but also a careful, calculating lunatic. The candidates we chose before were all cowards who only bullied the weak, taking their cruelty out on people who couldn’t fight back. Tang Woxue is nothing like them.”

His focus shifting, Liu Xiao’s anger quickly evaporated, replaced by rising excitement. “Exactly! If Qiu Fa hadn’t suddenly shown up, Tang Woxue might actually have pulled it off. I heard Long Jin’s blood soaked her entire pillow. That girl is seriously formidable; even if her successes were guided by the broker’s intel, she still possesses remarkable cunning and resolve to execute those plans. For Tang Woxue to successfully deceive her proves he’s the real deal!”

As outsiders, they didn’t know the smaller details, but judging only by the outcome, that was the only reasonable conclusion they could reach.

“Where did the broker say he’s hiding? Send our people to invite him immediately, before things complicate further.” The Doctor narrowed his serpent-like eyes. “I, too, want to see if the Atavist Serum can truly be brought to life by his hands.”