The information broker had agreed to meet Qiu Fa at eleven o’clock at night, but Qiu Fa arrived an hour early, his car pulling up to the designated location at ten.

Their meeting spot was a forest park not far from the Long Estate. Known as the lungs of Yunjin Prefecture, the park owed much of its fame to its proximity to the Long Family. Local rumors touted the mountain as a place bathed in the breath of a true dragon, claiming that breathing the fresh mountain air could extend life and cure a hundred ailments. During holidays, crowds flocked there to climb the trails.

Some of the more stingy Long Family members even tried to charge the local government for advertising.

By now, the forest park had long been closed. The vast mountain lay enveloped in darkness, shrouded in the quiet stillness of deep winter without even the chirp of an insect. Qiu Fa stood at the mountain peak, his gaze sweeping over the sea of city lights below until it rested on the sprawling Long Estate glowing in the distance.

“…Is that so? Alright, I understand.” Through his earpiece, Qiu Fa listened to a debriefing on everything that had transpired within the Long Family.

“Tell me, what exactly is that information broker after?” the President’s Chief of Staff asked over the phone, utterly bewildered.

Qiu Fa replied calmly, “Could she not simply be a good person?”

“Haha, Director Qiu, your sense of humor is getting sharper by the day,” the Chief of Staff chuckled.

Nobody believed that an information broker acted out of pure goodwill.

Except Qiu Fa. Judging a person by their actions rather than speculating on their motives, the vast majority of what the information broker had accomplished yielded far more good than harm. Why shouldn’t she be considered a respectable, good person?

He slipped his phone into his pocket, leaned back against his car with his hands tucked in his trousers, and stared down at the thousands of household lights shimmering at the foot of the mountain. A faint smile touched the corner of his lips, putting him in an unusually bright mood.

Having grown up in a prison before stepping into the role of a top law enforcement administrator, Qiu Fa had seen every shade of human malice. He knew better than anyone that while the word “kindness” was tossed around lightly, genuine goodness in a person was as rare as a diamond—a precious trait bought at a heavy price.

Knowing the person he cared about was truly good felt amazing.

A soft rustle came from behind him. Qiu Fa tilted his head a little, noticing it right away, but he didn’t move.

Without him even realizing it, his fierce, predatory amber eyes softened in an instant, losing their harsh edge. Like a wild beast catching the scent of the caretaker who had raised it from a cub, there was no defensive hostility or territorial aggression in his posture—only a relaxed, contented flick of an invisible tail.

When Jing Pei reached the peak, her eyes landed on Qiu Fa standing by the car, and her heart skipped a beat.

Tonight, Qiu Fa looked different. He’d swapped his tough Tribunal Division uniform for a sharp, new black suit that fit him perfectly. The cut showed off his tall, strong build without holding back. But the cold, wild vibe of a top predator still stuck to him, so no one would ever mistake him for a polished gentleman. He looked more like a dangerous outlaw than anything else.

Even standing silently against his car, doing nothing at all, his imposing silhouette radiated an overwhelming pressure that kept others at bay.

Jing Pei felt no fear whatsoever. Instead, a playful urge bubbled up inside her. Grinning, she crept forward on tiptoe like a mischievous cat preparing to pounce on a tiger’s tail.

The moment she launched her surprise attack, Qiu Fa pivoted, catching her wrist in a swift maneuver. With a nimble twist, her wrist slipped right through his grip, and her long leg swept toward him, only for her ankle to be caught mid-air.

The two sparred on the edge of the cliff without relying on Atavist power—a pure test of martial technique. Yet there was neither killer intent nor genuine aggression in their movements.

Close combat meant you were really close—feeling the other person’s scent, body heat, muscles, skin, breath, and even their heartbeat.

Qiu Fa had never fought a match like this in his life. Since the age of five, every battle he fought carried severe stakes: lose, and the price was broken limbs at best, or death at worst. He had never enjoyed a single fight, approaching each with numb, icy detachment.

Now, however, his heart felt lighter than air, lifting his very soul. Every collision of their limbs felt like an invisible spark brushing against his senses, pouring a sweet, intoxicating warmth into every pore of his skin.

Then, in a brief moment of misjudged force—

It was like a huge tiger getting a little annoyed by a playful kitten, quickly pinning the small one down with a heavy, furry paw.

“Ah!” Jing Pei immediately let out a dramatic, pained cry.

As if struck by lightning, Qiu Fa instantly let go and pulled her back to her feet, offering a flustered defense with very little confidence. “You… you attacked first.”

Jing Pei thumped his shoulder in annoyance. “Just because I attacked first gives you the right to hit me? Couldn’t you tell I was just playing around?”

The light punch made Qiu Fa’s muscles instantly tense up, his expression going stiff. “I didn’t hit you. I just… held you down.”

“Pinning me to the ground so the dirt and gravel could attack me! You have a black heart!”

Qiu Fa: “…”

He swallowed hard, his voice dropping softly. “…Sorry. I’ve never met anyone I needed to be delicate with before. It won’t happen again.”

Jing Pei froze for a second. The annoyed scowl melted off her face, replaced by a radiant, breathtaking smile that bloomed like a peony—vibrant, stunning, and deeply captivating. “Are you saying… I’m someone you need to treat with delicate care?”

“…Hmph, don’t be so full of yourself,” Qiu Fa muttered gruffly, turning his head away. Yet a second later, his gaze drifted right back to her face, his eyes fixed on her as his palms began to sweat.

“Well, when people describe me as someone who ‘sinks fish and drops geese, eclipses the moon and shames flowers,’ it’s pretty hard not to be full of myself,” Jing Pei teased playfully, tossing out a flirtatious remark.

“People say I’m handsome too,” Qiu Fa countered smoothly, tossing the banter right back.

“Then feel free to be full of yourself too,” Jing Pei parried with a grin.

Qiu Fa conceded defeat, his heart pounding wildly against his ribs while his tail thrashed in secret excitement.

Just as he was about to say something more, Jing Pei casually shifted the topic with a smile. “Have you been waiting long?”

“No.” Qiu Fa tore his eyes away from her face, somewhat awkward opening the car door to retrieve a wrapped gift, handing it to her.

“Is this a bribe to butter me up for my meeting with the President?” Jing Pei asked with a chuckle as she accepted it.

“Ahem. No.”

Jing Pei raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to elaborate.

Qiu Fa fell silent instead, averting his gaze as he steered the conversation away. “I heard the Atavist clans over at the Long Family finished their leadership turnover. The Atavist circles in Hualan should be much quieter from now on.”

“Indeed.”

“Hualan owes you its thanks.”

“No need. I’m not some saint doing charity without expecting anything back,” Jing Pei said casually. “Besides… this isn’t over yet.””Besides… this isn’t over yet.”

Qiu Fa’s brows knitted together. Not over yet? He had just received word that Liu Yin and the representatives of the other Atavist clans had already begun leaving the Long Estate.

“Come with me,” Jing Pei said, leading Qiu Fa toward the far side of the forest park.

---

“The Atavist signature of the Cyborg Clan is extremely close to machinery. For short periods, it can even fool Atavist detection devices built by humans,” Black Iron said slowly, watching the road conditions down below. “However, not every Cyborg Clan member possesses the ability to disassemble and reassemble the human body like you do.”

Beside him, a man whose hands had morphed into monkey paws spoke up nervously, “Hey, you’d better be able to swap my hands and eyes back intact later! Otherwise, get ready to assemble your own body like a jigsaw puzzle!”

The man dressed in black with a single gold earring remained silent.

BANG!

The monkey perched in the trees pulled the trigger. The vehicle carrying Tao Ying and Liu Yin was instantly blown apart by a heavy sniper round.

However, conventional thermal weaponry was far from enough to take down Atavists. The driver was a Tao Family retainer and an Atavist himself; thus, all three occupants survived the explosion without fatal injuries.

The real threat lay elsewhere.

“Hold… hold your breath! Xiao Tao!” The moment Liu Yin inhaled his first breath, his expression shifted drastically. While ingested poisons struggled to kill his reinforced body, airborne toxins were a different story entirely.

The bacterial nerve gas was insanely potent, seeping through his broken wounds directly into his bloodstream. A wave of intense dizziness washed over him instantly.

Tao Ying had no open wounds. Though the blast made her stagger, her condition was relatively stable.

The driver, however, collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Black Iron and his men swarmed out from their hiding places, snatching the dizzy Liu Yin. Tao Ying let out a sharp gasp, her face turning pale as she immediately bolted after them.

At that moment, several vehicles belonging to other Atavist clans pulled up, catching the tail end of the scene.

“This…”

“Who… who set up an ambush?” They stared in utter bewilderment.

“Does this mean our plan hasn’t failed after all?” someone stammered. But at this point, what purpose did continuing the plan even serve?

A young clan head leapt out of a trailing car, swearing loudly as he gave chase. “What the hell are you all standing around for?! Are you blind?! Chase them!!”

Because their clans had just undergone a sudden shift in leadership, everyone was still adapting. Under normal circumstances, the new clan head would have been in the lead car, preventing this crucial delay.

Those few lost seconds cost them any visual on Tao Ying and Liu Yin.

“Dammit! Which way did they go?!”

“They aren’t our people! Who pulled the trigger?!”

“Could it be that organization again?!”

By now, everyone knew that both the Atavist Serum Organization and the Atavist Genetics Control Organization were subsidiary branches under one massive syndicate. Law enforcement and military forces worldwide were hunting the mastermind, yet they had failed to capture a single core figure. Every captured shareholder had their brain locked under a mental suggestion; the moment they were caught, all information regarding the organization’s goals and structure was completely wiped out, leaving governments largely in the dark.

No, it’s not them, Jiang Qing thought, his heart sinking. The organization’s operation had already failed, and they hadn’t prepared any backup plan here. This wasn’t orchestrated by the organization at all!

“Oh no… Tao Ying…” Wu Ying’s face looked terrible.

Tang Qiaoqiao turned pale. “She went after them alone?! Won’t she get killed?!”

“No… I’m not worried about that,” Wu Ying muttered with an increasingly grim expression.

Tang Qiaoqiao: “???” Wait, if you’re not worried about that at a time like this, what else is there to worry about?!

Tao Ying and Liu Yin were usually extremely quiet, either sleeping or glued to each other’s side. Although the others had grown up around them, their understanding of Tao Ying was just as limited as their understanding of Liu Yin.

However, the Wu Family Head was a known mole among the Atavist clans—a covert supporter of the government. Because Liu Yin was on good terms with the Wu Family Head, Tao Ying had often been brought along to play with Wu Ying during their childhood, giving Wu Ying far deeper insight into her true nature.

Cold sweat broke out on Wu Ying’s forehead. “We have to find Xiao Tao fast… otherwise things are going to get out of hand.”

Dappled tree shadows blurred past on both sides of the forest path. Black Iron and his crew glanced back, catching sight of Tao Ying pursuing them relentlessly.

That girl is quite the romantic, chasing after us all by herself, one squad member communicated telepathically.

Look at her expression—she looks furious. A cute girl looks even cuter when she’s angry. I’d love to peel off that pretty face and keep it as a souvenir.

They paid the young girl little mind, but Black Iron, ever cautious, ordered: Go finish her off.

All of us? Feiren and I are more than enough. Do we really need seven people to deal with one girl? the member who wanted her skin complained.

Idiot. The captain doesn’t want her making a scene and drawing the other Atavist clans over.

As expected of the captain! So thorough!

Their silent exchange concluded. The fast-moving team split up as seven members slowed their pace, dropping behind. Only Black Iron, carrying the unconscious Liu Yin, continued forward alongside the mysterious man in black.

The mysterious man glanced back once without asking a single question, maintaining his stride.

The seven squad members formed a semi-circle across the path, blocking Tao Ying’s way with relaxed postures and sinister grins, looking like wolves preparing to pounce on a helpless lamb.

Tao Ying kept her round, peach-like face tense. Her large, round eyes were now shot through with a web of blood-red veins. She possessed a serene, plant-like temperament and rarely experienced drastic emotional outbursts. But tonight was different.

First, she had been told she was merely a reincarnation or a substitute for Tao Yuan; then her lover was attacked right in front of her while she was held back, helpless to intervene. Her anger had built up bit by bit, suppressed beneath the surface. Had they left the Long Estate peacefully, a good night’s sleep would have dissipated the rage. But now, all the accumulated resentment and new fury exploded all at once.

This time, neither Liu Yin nor Wu Ying was there to stop her.

Even with seven roadblocks ahead, she didn’t slow down at all. Her voice stayed soft, calm, and harmless.

“This world… has no need for bandits like you.”

The seven men chuckled. “Ha! What are you—”

Tao Ying was already upon them. The moment she closed the distance, her body underwent a rapid transformation. Her feet sank into the earth, her body twisting and growing upward into a tree. In that instant, she looked like a transforming spirit—ethereal, beautiful, and surreal.

Yet no one lived to admire the moment.

It happened in the time it took a butterfly to flap its wings. Their voices cut off abruptly; before their eyes could even register what was happening, their bodies were impaled, tightly bound by strange, supple tree branches that wrapped around them like demonic vines.

The blood in their veins was violently drained—and not just blood, but every drop of moisture in their bodies.

Their faces paled at a visible rate as their pupils dilated in an instant, their eye sockets collapsing inward. Their lifeless, terrified eyes stared blankly into the void before shriveling up entirely…

Atavists had amazing stamina; even a big hole in their torso or damaged organs didn’t always kill them. But just like regular people, if they lost a lot of blood quickly without time to recover, it was deadly. And like humans, about seventy percent of their body was water.

Drained of blood and water within seconds, even the most powerful Atavist could only slump helplessly into the embrace of death.

The peach tree that had sprouted so abruptly was not particularly tall, yet it radiated an eerie, demonic beauty. Within its bark, vessel-like lines pulsed as if greedily swallowing nourishment. After draining the enemies in an instant, the branches glowed with an unholy crimson light.

Seven mummified corpses hung from the branches, swaying gently in the cold winter wind.

The ancestral origin of the Tao Family was no ordinary plant—it was a Blood Peach. Far more than sunlight or soil nutrients, the blood and moisture of living beings were its primary source of power.

Shaking the dried corpses off her branches, Tao Ying shrank back into human form. Her body tottered slightly, the red veins in her eyes burning an even deeper crimson.

She set off in pursuit once more.

Ah-Yin… Ah-Yin cannot be hurt.

---

On the western side of the forest park stood a hot spring lodge.

This was the original location the organization had designated for dissecting Liu Yin. The resort happened to be a commercial property under the organization’s umbrella. For tonight’s operation, it had been closed under the guise of maintenance, replacing its usual staff with researchers and armed guards from the institute.

“What a pity the operation failed. I was really looking forward to dissecting a Cyborg Clan member with my own hands. A body combining machinery and human biology is fascinating,” a researcher said disappointment. “I really envy the scientists from a thousand years ago.”

“Tell me about it. And a royal member of the Cyborg Clan, no less! Even scientists a thousand years ago might not have had the chance to dissect one.”

“Alright, pack up the gear. We’re heading back.”

They gathered their prepared instruments with low spirits.

Suddenly, the front desk phone kept ringing nonstop. Annoyed, a guard picked it up, ready to snap, but froze when he heard the unfamiliar voice. His eyes lit up right away. “What?! Liu Yin got captured?! The plan’s back on?! Awesome!”

He rushed off to notify the research staff, setting off a wave of cheers as the newly packed mechanical equipment was hurriedly brought back out.

Only after hanging up did the guard belatedly wonder who had called the landline instead of their mobile phones.

Ah, whatever, probably not important. Dismissing the thought, he waited in high spirits for Liu Yin to be delivered.

---

Black Iron carried Liu Yin on his shoulder as he sped toward the hot spring lodge alongside Jin Ji. Suddenly, Black Iron’s brow furrowed tightly.

The voices inside his head had abruptly fallen dead silent.

Where are you? Feiren? Wuren? Wushang? He called out several squad members’ names telepathically, but his voice fell like a drop of water into a vast ocean, yielding no response whatsoever.

This was utterly bizarre. To ensure maximum efficiency, stealth, and absolute loyalty, Black Iron had implanted control chips into the brains of every squad member. It was one of his core abilities, allowing him to monitor and communicate with them instantly regardless of distance, bypassing network signals entirely.

The only downside was how noisy it got. His members had active inner thoughts, constantly chattering inside his head, though he had learned to filter out the noise over time.

But now, all those voices were gone—every single one, at the same time.

Could they have been wiped out all at once? So fast that not even a single sound could be uttered?

Cold sweat broke out on Black Iron’s forehead. Was that young girl really far stronger than she appeared?

To prevent Tao Ying from tracking them, he turned to the mysterious man beside him. “This way!”

Though his squad members were dead, Black Iron had received a crucial warning. Changing his route was a smart move; since he, the mysterious man, and Liu Yin were all part of the Cyborg Clan, their Atavist signatures were nearly identical to machinery, making them extremely difficult to track or pinpoint.

This brought Black Iron a small sense of relief. He refused to let the prize slip through his fingers now—especially when the prize was Liu Yin.

He glanced at Liu Yin, a wave of dark satisfaction washing over him at the thought of what awaited the man. He wished he could sprint faster to the hot spring lodge to watch him get disassembled with his own eyes.

“Brother, what’s your name?” Black Iron asked the mysterious man. Without his guidance, they likely wouldn’t have captured Liu Yin tonight. For that alone, Black Iron was ready to treat this fellow cyborg as a brother.

The gold earring glinted subtly under the moonlight. A raspy voice echoed from beneath the hood. “Da Jinzi.”

Black Iron: “???”

“Your name is ‘Big Gold’?”

Jin Ji nodded with a stone-cold expression. He was naturally an honest man, but serving under an information broker who spouted lies with a straight face had rubbed off on him. He could now lie through his teeth without batting an eye.

“…That name of yours is a bit tacky, but surprisingly lucky,” Black Iron said. “Are you part of the Squads of Ten Evils, or are you new around here?”

Cyborg Clan Atavists were rare, and members of the same race usually kept tabs on one another. Black Iron was certain he had never heard the name “Da Jinzi” through any channel.

Jin Ji gave no reply.

At that moment, the chip inside Black Iron’s brain vibrated with an incoming transmission notification. Reading the message as he ran, his pupils shrank to the size of needle points.

The message came directly from The Moderator, its tone sharp and laced with fury: [The plan failed, and you ran off with your team too?! Get back here and report immediately!]

Plan failed… plan failed… plan failed…

If the plan failed… then what was he doing right now?!

Exercising caution, Black Iron maintained his pace and subtly replied: [Didn’t you send Da Jinzi over to assist us?]

A reply arrived almost instantly: [You didn’t complete the mission and you still want gold?!]

The hairs on his neck stood on end.

Black Iron violently lashed out at Jin Ji without warning! But Jin Ji had been prepared for it all along.

After a brief, fierce clash of fists, the two sprang apart. The “brothers” who had been running side-by-side a moment ago now stood facing each other as hostile enemies, alertness burning in their eyes.

Black Iron was terrified of making too much noise and drawing the terrifying girl who was hunting them. But this damn “Da Jinzi”—whoever he really was—had trapped him in an impossible spot, with wolves ahead and tigers behind.

To make matters worse, Black Iron felt the breathing and heartbeat of the man on his shoulder shift.

Liu Yin was waking up.