Being rejected was one thing. But after being ignored, humiliated, beaten, and tortured for so long, the girl had already become mentally fragile and terrified. At this moment, she could only keep begging.

“Please let me go… I’ll do anything you want… Please…”

Zhang Weiqiang smiled as he drank his liquor.

“What I want is for you to stay obedient.”

The girl trembled violently.

Suddenly—

The old man’s phone rang.

Zhang Weiqiang frowned impatiently and answered it.

“Who is it?”

“Is this Zhang Weiqiang?” a cold male voice came from the other side.

Zhang Weiqiang instantly became alert.

“Who are you?”

The caller ignored the question.

“Twenty years ago, at the fishing pier, was the little girl fun?”

The moment those words were spoken, Zhang Weiqiang’s expression changed drastically.

The girl in the corner also froze.

Zhang Weiqiang abruptly stood up from the bed, his face twisting viciously.

“What the fuck are you talking about?!”

The voice on the other end let out a low chuckle.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Then the line disconnected.

A chill exploded across Zhang Weiqiang’s entire body.

Impossible.

Impossible!

That incident from twenty years ago had been flawless. No one could possibly know!

No surveillance.

No witnesses.

No traces.

How could someone suddenly mention it now?!

For the first time in many years, fear surged up in Zhang Weiqiang’s heart.

Meanwhile, inside the police station, Officer Chen’s expression also changed abruptly.

Because just moments earlier, after further investigation, they had unexpectedly uncovered something horrifying—

Several of the missing women connected to Zhang Weiqiang’s volunteer searches had never officially been declared dead.

In other words—

There was a possibility they had never died at all.

Officer Chen immediately slammed the table and stood up.

“Contact the tactical unit immediately!”

“Also notify the Tribunal Division!”

“If those women are still alive, then this is no ordinary serial disappearance case anymore!”

The police station instantly erupted into chaos.

At the same time, Tao Ze sat nearby in complete shock, his mind buzzing violently.

Fishing pier.

Twenty years ago.

Little girl.

Every word from the phone call felt like a hammer smashing into his skull.

His daughter.

His daughter really hadn’t disappeared into thin air.

Someone had taken her.

Someone really had taken her!

Tao Ze’s eyes instantly turned blood red.

“Where is he?” he rasped.

Officer Chen immediately turned around.

“Old Tao, stay calm!”

But Tao Ze had already rushed toward the door like a madman.

…

At Twelve Zodiac Academy, Jing Pei lazily leaned against the railing outside the training grounds, absentmindedly watching the students sparring below.

At that moment, her watch vibrated lightly.

The corners of her lips curved upward.

Looks like the case had officially begun moving.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

She lowered her eyes and opened the latest email.

Inside was only a single sentence:

【How did you know about Zhang Weiqiang?】

Jing Pei blinked slowly.

Then she smiled.

Because she suddenly realized—

The Puzzle Intelligence Agency was becoming more and more entertaining to play.

Inside that underground space, the walls looked as though someone had once clawed at them in desperate madness. The bloodstains had darkened into deep black streaks, and large irregular black patches covered the floor as well—old accumulations of blood that no amount of scrubbing could fully erase. No one knew how long they had been there. The air reeked of rot and decay.

Zhang Weiqiang smiled.

“I’m old now. Don’t have many good years left. So I just hope you young people will keep an old man company a little longer.”

The girl’s entire body turned ice-cold, trembling even harder.

Mom… Dad… please save me…

Just then, a ringtone suddenly echoed through the underground chamber.

The old man silenced it, stood up, and left the cellar.

Above the cellar stretched a fruit orchard covering six or seven acres, growing guavas, strawberries, pears, and other fruits for customers to pick themselves before paying by weight. Young people and families often came here for outings and parent-child activities.

None of them knew how many corpses lay buried beneath the soil under their feet.

This time, the people ringing the bell were several young adults.

Two of them were women—one tall and beautiful, the other cute-looking. Their appearance made Zhang Weiqiang’s eyes light up briefly.

But very quickly, regret followed.

Even when he was younger, he had only targeted extremely lightweight girls with thin, fragile builds or very young children in order to minimize risk.

Now that he was old, that was even more true.

The two women in front of him were certainly pretty, but they were a bit too sturdy.

Not his preferred prey.

“Boss, we’d like to pick some fruit.”

“Sure, come in. Guavas are five yuan per jin, strawberries fifteen.”

After taking baskets, the young people entered the orchard and began casually selecting fruit.

Yet their eyes quietly swept across the surroundings like alert hunting dogs.

Occasionally, their gazes met briefly, as though silently exchanging information.

One of the cute-looking girls even approached Zhang Weiqiang and deliberately began chatting with him nonstop, peppering him with questions and keeping him occupied so he couldn’t leave.

Zhang Weiqiang’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

…

After lunch, Wen Yuxian brought Jing Pei to meet the friend he had arranged to tutor her.

The location was nearby, at an elementary school just two blocks away, where the woman worked as a teacher.

The moment Jing Pei saw her, one eyebrow lifted high.

At that moment, Mei Yanlan was struggling clumsily to carry an enormous stack of packages piled taller than herself. If Wen Yuxian hadn’t reacted quickly enough to steady them, the whole thing probably would have collapsed across the floor.

She wore an old-fashioned black business suit with black-framed glasses, her dark hair tied into a low ponytail behind her head.

She looked plain and awkward.

“Thank you, thank you,” she repeatedly said to Wen Yuxian.

“How do you have this many packages?” Wen Yuxian asked.

“They’re not mine,” Mei Yanlan explained. “I went to the security office to pick up my own deliveries, and my coworkers asked me to help bring theirs too, so I just carried them all together. I need to return these to the office first.”

Wen Yuxian looked at the mountain of packages, then at Mei Yanlan, his expression becoming indescribable.

“You…”

But Mei Yanlan had already turned curiously toward Jing Pei.

“So this is the little dragon baby? Compared to how you looked at the press conference, you’ve become much fairer. And even prettier too. Honestly, if I hadn’t known in advance, I probably wouldn’t have recognized you.”

“Hello, Teacher Mei,” Jing Pei greeted, reaching out to help carry several packages.

“No one here knows I’m an atavist, so don’t accidentally expose me, okay?” Mei Yanlan whispered cautiously while her eyes darted around warily beneath her glasses.

“Got it.”

Inside the office, several teachers were already chatting together.

The moment Mei Yanlan entered carrying packages, two younger female teachers immediately rushed over happily and took several deliveries away. Only then did they notice Wen Yuxian and Jing Pei standing at the doorway, surprise appearing in their eyes.

“And these two are…?”

“They’re friends of mine. They came to see me.”

“Friends from your fiancé’s side?” one carefully dressed female teacher asked, her tone carrying a trace of sour envy.

The pair standing there clearly possessed extraordinary bearing, especially the young girl. She looked like the daughter of some wealthy elite family, dressed head-to-toe in brands the teacher herself would need months to afford even a single item from.

Mei Yanlan merely smiled without answering before leading Wen Yuxian and Jing Pei away.

“She really flew onto a branch and became a phoenix,” another teacher said enviously. “Why don’t I have that kind of luck? If only one of my old high school classmates would introduce me to a rich single fiancé.”

“There’s no guarantee she’s really becoming a phoenix,” the sour-faced teacher replied even more sourly. “Every time her fiancé picks her up for dinner, that high school classmate is in the car too. The fiancé and that classmate look so perfectly matched together—handsome man, beautiful woman. Why would someone like him marry such an ordinary woman with average looks and background? There has to be something fishy going on.

“…Ah! My powder compact cracked!”

“……”

The whispered gossip behind them was crystal clear to atavist ears.

Jing Pei glanced at Mei Yanlan.

She maintained her smile without the slightest reaction.

Wen Yuxian looked at Mei Yanlan as well, his expression becoming even harder to describe.

Mei Yanlan was planning to tutor Jing Pei in her rented apartment off-campus.

After reminding Jing Pei to return to school on time after tutoring and not wander around, Wen Yuxian left first.

Just as Mei Yanlan and Jing Pei were about to head upstairs, however, a luxury car pulled up nearby.

The window rolled down, revealing a delicate and beautiful woman’s face. Sitting behind her was a handsome man in a tailored suit with an exceptional but icy demeanor, his head lowered toward a computer as he handled work matters without even glancing over.

They were Mei Yanlan’s fiancé and the high school classmate who had introduced them.

Standing near the staircase, Jing Pei watched Mei Yanlan hurry over and bend down beside the car, smiling and waving as she spoke to them.

Soon afterward, the car drove away, and Mei Yanlan returned.

“That was my fiancé and my old high school classmate. Thanks to her introducing us, otherwise I’d probably still be single now. We’re getting married next month. When the time comes, have Teacher Wen bring you along, okay?” Mei Yanlan said with a smile.

Jing Pei’s eyes curved pleasantly as well.

“Of course. Thank you, Teacher Mei.”

“To be continued. Click Next Page to Continue Reading.”

That female teacher’s guess wasn’t wrong.

Of course there was something going on between that man and woman.

The woman had observed Mei Yanlan for a very long time, confirming she was the sort of honest, easy-to-bully woman who could be manipulated at will before deciding to target her together with the man.

Unfortunately for them, they had no idea Mei Yanlan was an atavist.

And even less understanding of what kind of atavist she was.

Otherwise, the woman would probably leap out of her wheelchair on the spot and run while carrying the man on her back.

Mei Yanlan’s rented apartment had two bedrooms and a living room. It wasn’t especially large or small, but compared to other atavists of her status and standing, this place was practically a slum.

“Well then, let’s begin,” Mei Yanlan said with a smile.

At that moment, she suddenly seemed completely different from the harmless pushover she had appeared to be earlier.

…

Several young people carried baskets of strawberries and guavas out of the orchard while Zhang Weiqiang stood smiling at the entrance watching them get into their car.

“Come again next time!”

The moment the group entered the vehicle, however, their expressions instantly changed as they contacted Officer Chen.

“Captain Chen, I found a patch of soil that looked very fresh. The grass above it also seemed newly laid down, like it had been dug up not long ago. Could there be something buried underneath?”

“I think that warehouse looks suspicious too.”

“Should we come back tonight and dig around a little?”

They were plainclothes officers sent to investigate.

Although all of them found Zhang Weiqiang highly suspicious, they still had no actual evidence. They couldn’t even mention the Puzzle Intelligence Agency’s intelligence to their superiors—otherwise they’d be heavily reprimanded.

As a result, they couldn’t use proper procedures to directly detain Zhang Weiqiang or search the orchard.

For now, they could only investigate secretly.

And at this same time, Officer Chen discovered that several days earlier, another pair of parents had reported their daughter missing from a shopping mall.

But because she vanished inside a crowded mall full of people, investigators originally believed it far more likely that the teenage girl had run away from home and hidden herself on purpose.

After all, she had recently argued with her parents and was at that rebellious age.

Behavior like this wasn’t unusual.

So the case had not yet been treated as a criminal matter.

Under normal circumstances, Officer Chen would have thought the same thing—that the girl had disguised herself, colluded with friends, and deliberately run away to scare her parents.

But now…

He suddenly wondered whether Zhang Weiqiang had somehow abducted her too using some bizarre method.

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it sounded.

A bustling shopping mall.

People lined up outside the restroom waiting their turn.

The girl’s friend had been standing right outside the bathroom.

How could a living person possibly be abducted straight out of a bathroom stall?

Meanwhile, back at the orchard—

Zhang Weiqiang returned to the underground cellar and smiled at the girl.

“Do you know what kind of people came earlier?”

The girl shivered as she stared at him.

“A group of plainclothes police officers,” Zhang Weiqiang said without the slightest fear on his face.

Then his expression darkened slightly.

“I have no idea why they’d suspect me. There isn’t a single piece of evidence pointing toward me. They’ll probably come back tonight.”

The moment the girl heard this, her eyes brightened with hope.

That expression instantly enraged Zhang Weiqiang.

He grabbed a liquor bottle from the table and smashed it over her head, splitting her scalp open and knocking her onto the floor in a spray of blood.

Then he began kicking and beating her while cursing viciously:

“You think they can save you just because they came here?! Let me tell you—I’m not afraid of them! One comes, I kill one. Two come, I kill both!”

“Heh… I’ve never killed a cop before. Been wanting to try it for a while now. Once I kill them, I’ll just leave this place and move somewhere else to keep living freely.”

…

As the sun set, Jing Pei sat inside the car returning to the Long family estate. She tore open a bag of preserved plums, tossed one into her mouth, and casually browsed the internet.

Before long, she found the police announcement regarding Ying Qian’s domestic abuse retaliation case.

Many netizens in the comments said the abusive husband deserved to die and that the killing felt satisfying.

Others expressed sorrow, saying it was tragic to destroy one’s own future in order to take revenge this way.

And naturally, there were also people asking why Ying Qian didn’t simply run away instead of killing him.

The fact that news was already circulating online meant the police had officially accepted the case, and Ying Qian had already connected with Xiang Huagong.

At that point, there was nothing left to worry about.

After all, this was a lawyer blessed with the golden finger of “never losing a case.”

However, there still wasn’t any public notice regarding Zhang Weiqiang’s murder case.

Which was understandable.

A single day was far too short. Things couldn’t possibly move that quickly.

Besides—

This killer was extremely difficult to deal with.

Jing Pei sucked thoughtfully on the preserved plum. It was so large it puffed out one side of her cheek. Her expression became unusually serious, putting enough pressure on the driver in front that he hardly dared breathe.

Zhang Weiqiang.

In the novel where he originally appeared, he should have been arrested twenty years ago.

He was the culprit behind a serial murder case that had once only been briefly mentioned by other characters in passing.

Back in an era when surveillance cameras were still uncommon, he had secretly built an underground cellar beneath his orchard. He specifically abducted women and imprisoned them there to satisfy his twisted desires.

And even that eventually stopped satisfying him.

After a period of time, once he grew bored, he would begin brutally torturing his victims in unimaginably cruel ways until they died.

Then he buried them in the orchard, using their corpses as fertilizer for his fruit trees.

Over several years, more than a dozen bodies ended up buried there.

Whenever police and volunteer groups organized search efforts, he enthusiastically joined them himself—not only to gather information, but also because he enjoyed watching victims’ families cry in despair.

In the end, however, he finally went too far.

His final victim was his own niece, a child only nine years old.

The little girl suffered horrific abuse, yet somehow survived through sheer willpower and eventually found an opportunity to escape.

Only then was the monster finally caught.

That was why, the moment Tao Ze’s email mentioned that he had first taken his daughter to pick fruit at an orchard before going fishing, Jing Pei immediately thought of Zhang Weiqiang.

After searching through some information online, she confirmed that it truly was the same monster.

He hadn’t been caught twenty years ago. Instead, he had continued roaming free all this time, never even stopping his crimes, and yet he had never been discovered. From Tao Ze’s account, Jing Pei could even sense a kind of fearless arrogance in Zhang Weiqiang—absolute confidence that he would never be exposed.

To figure out why, she stayed up late searching through information online. Then she pulled out the novels and character biographies stored in her memory palace and reread every single one carefully, not skipping a word. Only then did she uncover the most likely reason why Zhang Weiqiang’s fate had changed.

This merged world created from multiple novels had become dangerous precisely because of this. Too many dangerous characters had been crammed into the same world, and combined with all sorts of other variables, it had become far easier for evil people to commit crimes.

Especially because of the existence of atavism.

Atavistic power referred to the strength inherited from the demonic bloodline within an atavist. Whenever an atavist used power beyond human capability, traces of that power would remain at the location where it was used. Those traces could linger for two or three years and could be detected by machines.

If they did not use atavistic power, however, atavists were merely humans with somewhat superior physical abilities. They could not possibly fly through the sky or vanish into the earth.

Investigators believed that if no residual atavistic power was found at a crime scene, then no atavist had been involved. But what people in this world did not know was that certain special atavists could still display abilities far beyond ordinary humans even without using atavistic power. Some could even continue helping a murderer commit crimes after death.

Zhang Weiqiang himself was not that powerful. Back then, he had managed to kill so many people because technology had been relatively primitive. Now, at his age, the reason he could still act so brazenly was because he had obtained the assistance of a treasure.

But the police had already set their sights on him.

His arrogance would not last much longer.

…

Night fell, and several vehicles quietly drove over, stopping along the roadside not far from the orchard.

The orchard was located in the suburbs, close to the main road. A little farther ahead stood Wanhua Park, filled with all kinds of flowers and popular with visitors. During the day, cars constantly passed by, and the roadside was usually packed with parked vehicles.

At night, however, Wanhua Park closed, traffic dwindled, and the surroundings became deathly quiet, even desolate.

The plainclothes officers from earlier in the day stepped out of their vehicles, carrying portable military shovels and hoes as they approached the orchard from different directions.

“The lights are off. He should be asleep, right?” They peered inside.

Officer Chen’s voice came through their wireless earpieces. “Be extremely careful. A man who’s been committing crimes for this many years without getting caught is definitely dangerous. Use everything you learned at Zodiac Academy. Treat this with the same level of caution you would use against an atavist criminal. Don’t let a few years on the job dull your instincts!”

“Understood, Captain Chen!”

Faced with such a mysterious and terrifying enemy, naturally only the best officers would be deployed. Every one of them had once been students of Zodiac Academy, graduates forged through brutally rigorous training. They were all exceptional.

They vaulted over the walls silently and efficiently. Three headed toward the small house where the orchard owner lived to inspect the doors and windows, while the other three moved toward the patch of earth they had discovered earlier that day—the one that looked recently dug up.

The house was a single-story self-built structure. According to the records, after his divorce sixty years ago, Zhang Weiqiang had moved to the orchard to live alone. He had built the house himself.

The doors and windows were tightly shut. A tall female officer put on night-vision goggles and looked inside. The first room was the living room. It was messy—TV remotes and various bottles and containers were scattered across the floor—but there was no one there. She moved to another window. This time she saw the bedroom. It too was in disarray and completely empty.

Her brows knitted together, nerves tightening. She glanced around warily and reported to her teammates, “No sign of Zhang Weiqiang in either the living room or the bedroom. The house looks ransacked, like someone packed up in a hurry. I suspect he may have sensed something and fled.”

“No one in the balcony, spare bedroom, or bathroom either. Same signs of hurried packing and escape.”

“The old bastard’s that sharp? We only came by once at noon, and he already noticed?”

“He may not have run. Xiao Guang, be careful on your side. He might be hiding somewhere in the orchard.”

The three men digging replied, “Don’t worry.”

The soil was loose. It had definitely been turned over recently. Something had to be buried underneath.

The orchard was silent. Under the dim moonlight, the scenery was only barely visible.

The female officer continued observing the house, completely unaware that Zhang Weiqiang was creeping up behind her with a knife in hand. His face, covered in age spots and wrinkles, twisted into a smile like a grinning demon.

Maybe he couldn’t torture a strong woman like this—but assassination would do just fine.

It wasn’t his first time killing people in secret. Those who came into his orchard to pick fruit yet failed to show him enough respect usually ended up dead. All he had to do was follow them, wait for an opportunity, and shove them into traffic. If luck favored him and they survived long enough to be hospitalized instead of dying on the spot, it became even easier. A tiny adjustment to the fluids in their IV drip was all it took.

Suddenly, the female officer spun around sharply to face him.

Zhang Weiqiang’s body instinctively froze in place.

Yet it was as though she couldn’t see him at all. Her gaze swept straight over him like she was looking through empty air, eyes scanning the surroundings cautiously.

The tension in his body melted away instantly. Zhang Weiqiang’s grin widened with manic excitement. Raising the knife in his hand, he lunged forward the moment she turned away again, driving the blade viciously toward her heart.

Tonight was his hunting night.

He was the hunter.

And these strong police officers were his prey.

He would slaughter every last one of them—to mock the incompetence of the government and prove his own superiority.

Just as he was about to succeed, the female officer suddenly sensed something.

Her sharp brows knit together. Her long leg snapped out like a whip, and with a spinning kick she struck—

Zhang Weiqiang was sent flying nearly two meters, slamming hard into the ground. His old bones almost fell apart as he let out a miserable howl.

“He’s here!!” the female officer shouted.

Yet her eyes swept the surroundings warily—she couldn’t see Zhang Weiqiang anywhere.

Her entire body tensed even further as she warned her teammates, “Be careful! I heard him, but I can’t see him. Is he an atavist?!”

“What? Zhang Weiqiang isn’t an atavist. If he were, and he’d committed this many crimes, the Tribunal Division would’ve taken him out ages ago. There’s no way he could’ve run rampant for this long!”

“But I really can’t see him. He can turn invisible. He was trying to kill me just now—I smelled that old-man stench the moment he got close. I kicked him away, so I don’t think he can get back on his feet right away. He’s nearby. Tiantian, Zhang Cheng, Xiao Guang—stop digging for now. Catch this old bastard first! Get over here! Captain Chen, we need backup!”

The police station had already mobilized at full speed.

From the moment the female officer mentioned invisibility, Officer Chen realized just how catastrophic it would be if this man escaped. No one knew how many more people would die.

This was likely their only chance to capture this perverted serial killer.

An invisible person who couldn’t be detected by atavist-power scanners—who else in the world could possibly catch him?

It would be like searching for a needle in the ocean.

No wonder he’d managed to commit so many crimes over the past twenty years without leaving a single trace.

No wonder he could silently snatch a child right under a father’s nose.

No wonder he could abduct a girl from a women’s restroom in a shopping mall.

He must have followed them while invisible, knocked them out, and carried them away in full view of everyone.

To be honest, if Tao Ze hadn’t desperately sought the truth behind his daughter’s disappearance and, by sheer coincidence, bought intelligence from the Puzzle Intelligence Agency—forcing them to work backward from the conclusion—they might never have uncovered this human demon even if Zhang Weiqiang died of old age.

“You are the finest officers we have. Countless innocent lives are in your hands right now. Hold your positions. You must not let him leave the orchard!”

“Yes, sir!”

Zhang Weiqiang preyed on the weak and feared the strong.

After being kicked flying, panic finally set in. He hadn’t expected that even after acquiring such a treasure, he could still be beaten by a woman.

For the first time, he realized he wasn’t invincible.

And when he heard that large numbers of police were coming to arrest him, he immediately began crawling away in terror, trying to escape.

As long as he got out of here, the sky would be wide and free—he could go wherever he wanted. No one would ever catch him!

But he underestimated these young people.

They were elite graduates specially trained for years at Twelve Zodiac Academy—strong enough to hold their own even against low‑purity atavists.

And he?

He was just an ordinary human wrapped in a stolen shell—an old man at that.

Now that they knew he could turn invisible, escaping from right under their noses was far from easy.

Soon, he accidentally stepped on a branch.

The cute-looking female officer instantly snapped her gaze toward the sound and charged like a raging bull.

Zhang Weiqiang scrambled on all fours like a dog, barely avoiding being smashed to death.

The exit was already guarded by the tall female officer.

A ladder leaning against an apple tree was cautiously pushed over.

The walls were two meters high—an old man like him wouldn’t be able to climb them, especially when officers were already stationed on all four sides, moving swiftly back and forth along the walls.

Unless he could teleport instantly up and down, he’d be discovered the moment he tried anything.

At that moment, Zhang Weiqiang truly felt like a trapped beast.

He could hardly believe it.

He was invisible. He was powerful. He held so many lives in his hands.

Yet he’d been driven into this state by a handful of ordinary humans.

Maybe he should just kill them!

But as pain continued to throb through his body, that murderous impulse gradually faded.

He didn’t dare.

No—there was still one more way!

A sharp glint flashed through Zhang Weiqiang’s eyes.

…

This case was no longer an ordinary human crime.

The police quickly escalated it to the local Tribunal Division branch.

“So that’s why the Director came here!” the branch chief exclaimed after hearing the report, finally understanding as he looked at Qiu Fa—arms crossed, sitting with reckless authority in his office chair.

Qiu Fa stood up, stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray, and strode out of the office.

His black leather-gloved hand still held the enforcement baton he almost never let go of.

That face—so striking it could make even men swoon—was cold and lethal.

Amber eyes tinged faintly with green gleamed like those of a great predatory cat, flashing with bloodthirsty intent.

The assistant, just back from the restroom, hurried after him, then turned to the branch chief and said, “You don’t need to follow. And there’s no need to mobilize anyone else. Since the Director is personally taking action… you should arrange ambulances.”

Just in case.

They still needed the suspect alive to answer many questions.

His crimes were unforgivable—death penalty at minimum—but he couldn’t die just yet.

They had been monitoring the intelligence broker closely to verify whether the information he sold was accurate, in case they were being toyed with.

Although they couldn’t locate him directly, they could lurk around his email traffic, track those who contacted him, and identify who was conducting transactions with him.

So far, they knew that the broker had refused to sell Ying Qian the corpse-disposal intelligence because he believed she couldn’t escape legal consequences—meaning he wouldn’t receive the remaining payment.

Instead, he’d referred her to a lawyer.

They investigated that lawyer.

He was, by all appearances, utterly ordinary—just a bit wild, a bit outrageous, and spectacularly bad at flirting.

That case would take a long time to go through trial, making it unsuitable for judging the accuracy of the broker’s intelligence.

Fortunately, there was a second email.

And after investigating that one, they too had discovered something deeply unsettling.

So Qiu Fa came personally.

He had never held back just because an opponent was a nobody unworthy of his status or power. This eighty-year-old bastard had murdered so many people—and was even suspected of being an atavist.

He could not tolerate that.

…

A line of police vehicles arrived with sirens blaring, red and blue lights flashing atop their roofs. They quickly reached the outskirts and surrounded the orchard on all sides.

Seeing reinforcements arrive, the few officers who had been stretched to their limits finally let out a small breath of relief.

“How is it?”

“We’re certain he’s still inside the orchard. We just don’t know where he’s hiding,” an officer stationed on the wall reported.

“No problem.” Officer Chen turned around. A member of the armed police stepped down from a vehicle, followed by a police dog with erect ears and an imposing presence.

They had brought several top-tier police dogs. In an orchard spanning six or seven acres, they refused to believe they couldn’t flush out a murderer.

The tall female officer guarding the entrance carefully swept the surroundings, confirming Zhang Weiqiang wasn’t lying in ambush nearby, before opening the gate to let them in.

Soon, armed police leading dogs went inside to retrieve Zhang Weiqiang’s clothing, while another team resumed digging and inspecting the warehouse.

Suddenly—

Boom!

A massive explosion rocked the ground.

Zhang Weiqiang’s small house had exploded.

While they were guarding the exits and perimeter to prevent his escape, he had quietly returned to the house, turned on the gas, and detonated the explosives he had prepared long ago.

The shack was blown apart, debris flying everywhere, knocking several officers to the ground.

The shockwave was so powerful that even those farther away felt a wave of heat rush past their faces. Hair singed, ears ringing.

In that instant of chaos, Zhang Weiqiang successfully passed through the gate, dashed past rows of police cars, his grin stretching wider and wider.

Hahahahaha—freedom!

These damn cops would never catch him. He could kill another five hundred people if he wanted!

“Damn it!” The tall female officer, her senses dulled by the blast, reacted half a beat too late. “He got out!”

Officer Chen’s face changed drastically.

Beyond the orchard lay a wide-open road. If Zhang Weiqiang escaped, there would be no catching him again.

Zhang Weiqiang’s feral grin froze.

A hand—solid as stone—clamped down on his head.

A tall, powerfully built figure stood there, half his body hidden behind a tree, the other half exposed. He looked down at Zhang Weiqiang from above, his eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.

Terror seized Zhang Weiqiang’s heart so violently it spasmed. His body locked up instinctively, as though facing a being he could not resist. The very idea of fleeing vanished from his mind.

He had no idea what had just happened.

Moments ago, he’d thought himself free, sprinting down the open road—then as he passed a tree, a hand reached out from behind it and clamped onto his head from above.

That hand was huge. Heavy.

The grip was light yet immovable.

And he didn’t dare struggle at all.

“What… are you?” he heard a man’s low voice ask, filled with confusion and irritation.

Qiu Fa had never encountered anything like this.

There was no trace of atavist power—everything about this thing screamed ordinary human.

And yet it could turn invisible?

“P-please… spare me…” Feeling the pressure on his head increase slightly, Zhang Weiqiang begged in terror. He felt as though that hand could crush his skull at any moment.

The police soon noticed Qiu Fa and rushed over. Those who didn’t recognize him raised their guns warily—his posture was far too suspicious, lurking in the shadows like that.

Fortunately, Officer Chen knew who he was and immediately ordered them to lower their weapons.

“Director Qiu! You came personally?” Officer Chen’s expression visibly relaxed. With Qiu Fa here, Zhang Weiqiang couldn’t possibly escape. Then he noticed what Qiu Fa seemed to be holding. “Is that… Zhang Weiqiang?!”

Qiu Fa tilted his head in puzzlement, his large hand gripping Zhang Weiqiang’s skull so firmly it nearly kneaded it off his neck, as though he were testing something.

Zhang Weiqiang trembled violently and shouted toward Officer Chen, “Officer Chen! I surrender! I surrender! Take me back to the station!”

Is he kneading my head like it’s clay?!

“So now you know fear,” Officer Chen sneered.

Qiu Fa finally confirmed what he was sensing. He narrowed his eyes and said to Zhang Weiqiang:

“Hey. Are you wearing a layer of human skin?”