After checking on Mei Yanlan, Jing Pei was about to leave the hospital when something suddenly came to mind. She paused mid-step and casually asked a doctor nearby, “Where’s Doctor Tang Woxue?”

Before the doctor could answer, a young nurse raised her hand with enthusiasm.

“I know! I know! Doctor Tang is in the lounge. I’ll take you there.”

She hurried out from behind the front desk and enthusiastically led the way.

Jing Pei raised a brow and followed, her steps dragging slightly, as though fatigue weighed heavily on her.

“So Doctor Tang is still here?”

“Yes. Since he was the one you recommended to perform Miss Mei’s surgery, the director arranged a private lounge for him. He’s resting there now.”

The Atavist hospital didn’t have many patients, but immense sums had been poured into its construction. The facilities were spacious and luxurious. Carefully designed gardens surrounded the central courtyard on all sides, providing distinguished atavist patients with the ultimate treatment experience.

After following the nurse through several turns, Jing Pei noticed that the surroundings had become eerily quiet. Not a single person was in sight.

Then the trap was sprung.

The nurse’s expression changed in a flash. A knife appeared in her hand, and she spun with lightning speed, slashing toward Jing Pei’s throat.

The blade was coated with a genetic virus specifically designed from Dragon Clan genes. As long as it managed to wound Jing Pei, the mission would be considered a success.

At that very moment, Jing Pei was in the middle of a yawn.

The blade nearly scraped across the back of her hand.

Within a span of 0.01 seconds, two dragon scales materialized and covered the spot, intercepting the razor-sharp edge.

Tiny sparks burst from the friction.

Jing Pei instantly sobered. She jumped backward and glanced at the back of her hand.

A shallow cut had broken the skin, but there was no blood. The two immature dragon scales, lacking support from the rest of her dragon armor, had been sliced slightly open.

The assassin closed in again.

The two immediately clashed in this deserted corner of the hospital.

Sparks flew without pause as dragon scales collided with steel.

Any assassin sent specifically to kill a Dragon Atavist was bound to be formidable. Unfortunately, after losing the advantage of her initial ambush, no matter how powerful her close-combat skills were, she simply couldn’t break through Jing Pei’s tightly interlocking armor.

Worse still, the girl who had looked ready to collapse from exhaustion moments ago seemed to grow more alert the longer she fought.

The assassin was already certain the mission would fail.

She just didn’t know what punishment awaited her afterward.

Fortunately, she soon felt a sensor on her body vibrate twice in a distinctive pattern.

Mission canceled.

She immediately seized an opening and fled.

Jing Pei didn’t pursue.

She had already guessed who had sent the assassin.

The corners of her lips curved upward slightly.

She’d been wondering how to find an opportunity.

The commotion quickly attracted a crowd.

---

Tang Woxue was sleeping in the lounge when someone suddenly woke him.

Only then did he learn that Jing Pei had been attacked.

“She was injured?” he asked immediately.

The nurse nodded nervously.

“Please come quickly.”

Several of the hospital’s star physicians had already surrounded Jing Pei, but the director still felt very uneasy and quickly summoned Tang Woxue as well.

If something happened to the Long family’s young heir while under the hospital’s care, he simply couldn’t afford the consequences.

Tang Woxue followed the nurse to Jing Pei’s VVIP room.

She was leaning against a luxurious hospital bed, her eyelids drooping.

Her always lively, catlike eyes had turned into complete dead-fish eyes.

“The wound still hasn’t healed. A cut this shallow should have healed before she even reached the room.”

“We need to send samples to a laboratory and identify the pathogen.”

“With a wound this minor, the virus shouldn’t have been able to breach the barrier…”

Jing Pei let out a huge yawn, squeezing a tear from the corner of her eye.

“Doesn’t look like a serious problem,” Tang Woxue said after examining the scrape on her hand.

“Right? They’re making too much of it. But even if there is a problem, if it’s Doctor Tang handling it, there won’t be any problem, right?”

Jing Pei didn’t seem to realize how easily those words could be misunderstood.

“The young lady’s trust is an honor. Leave it to me.”

Tang Woxue flashed a bright smile and naturally took control of the situation.

Turning to the other physicians, he politely but firmly said, “The young lady looks like she desperately needs sleep. Let’s not crowd the room.”

Tang Woxue wasn’t actually employed by this hospital.

However, he was the surgeon personally chosen by Jing Pei for Mei Yanlan’s operation.

Combined with Jing Pei’s earlier remarks, his familiar attitude, and the ease with which they interacted, it was easy for outsiders to assume that Tang Woxue belonged to the Long family and was therefore completely trustworthy.

Before long, he had before long become the physician in charge.

Soon afterward, Mei Yanlan arrived after hearing about the attack.

Wen Yuxian and the others, who had been preparing to leave, also rushed back.

Then came Long Yiming and the rest of the Long family.

Judging by their expressions, they’d heard an exaggerated version of events in which Jing Pei was on the verge of death. Every one of them looked shaken.

Jing Pei’s already exhausted dead-fish eyes somehow became even more lifeless.

She was the injured party.

Why did she have to stay awake and entertain visitors?

Ridiculous.

So she lay down, pulled up the blanket, and went to sleep.

As a result, everyone who came to visit could only stand outside and ask Tang Woxue about her condition instead of disturbing her.

The room gradually fell silent.

Colored light shifted across the drawn curtains as the sun moved through the sky.

Beneath the snow-white blanket, a small mound rose and fell with her steady breathing.

The mighty Dragon Atavist looked almost like a sleeping lamb.

Tang Woxue entered the room carrying a candle resembling an aromatherapy candle.

He lit it and placed it beside her bed.

A faint fragrance slowly spread through the room.

Hearing the movement, Jing Pei lazily opened her eyes a crack.

“It’s just an incense candle. It’ll help you sleep. By the time you wake up, the wound on your hand should be mostly healed.”

His deep voice carried an almost hypnotic quality.

Jing Pei closed her eyes again.

Her consciousness slowly sank into deeper darkness.

Tang Woxue watched the sleeping girl.

For a moment, a cold glint seemed to pass through his deep eyes.

Perhaps…

That information broker wasn’t a shady fraud after all.

---

At the hospital reception desk, an elderly couple slowly walked inside while supporting one another.

“Oh dear, oh dear, I feel terrible. I need to be hospitalized, I really do need hospitalized.”

The white-haired old lady held her waist as she spoke in an unusually cheerful tone.

She wore a brown dress that appeared modest at first glance but revealed many adorable details upon closer inspection.

Though advanced in age, she still seemed like a little girl at heart.

Beside her stood an elderly gentleman in glasses and a three-piece suit.

He looked refined and still handsome for his age.

“I want a premium room. I heard they have excellent acupuncture, medicinal baths, and delicious patient meals.”

The old lady’s eyes sparkled.

Everyone immediately felt she hadn’t come because she was sick at all.

She simply wanted an excuse to enjoy herself.

What a mischievous grandmother.

Fortunately, that wasn’t unusual here. Some female atavists even visited the hospital purely for beauty and skincare treatments.

That was one of the hospital’s services.

“Fine, fine. You’ll get everything you want.”

The handsome old gentleman sounded helpless.

They looked foreign, yet neither wore the mandatory wristband required for foreign atavists entering Hualan.

That meant they were likely Hualan citizens.

After verifying their insurance cards, the nurse arranged the VIP room the old lady requested.

Coincidentally, the VIP floor was directly beneath the VVIP floor.

---

The assassin returned to her organization and learned that the enraged major shareholders no longer cared whether Jing Pei lived or died.

“Miss Hong secretly contacted mercenaries to investigate the information broker. The broker found out, so he sold information to Long Jin on purpose. That’s what led to all this. Everyone’s anger is now directed at Miss Hong and the information broker. Long Jin isn’t the issue anymore.”

Just like the disaster involving the Atavist Serum Organization, none of it would have happened without the information broker.

In the end, the true threat wasn’t Long Jin.

It was the mysterious information broker who somehow knew so much about them.

Because two sister organizations had suffered devastating losses one after another, skilled personnel had become scarce. There was no point wasting another operative on someone now considered no longer a priority.

That was why the assassination had been canceled and the assassin recalled.

“I see.”

“With talent in short supply, Miss Hong probably won’t be executed, but she’ll definitely lose a few layers of skin.”

Both of them shuddered.

Originally, Miss Hong likely wouldn’t have dared launch such an investigation on her own.

But now that things had gone wrong, her superiors behaved as though she’d acted entirely on her own initiative.

“So what about the information broker now?”

“What can anyone do? I doubt anybody dares investigate anymore. Who knows what kind of person he is, or what sort of intelligence network he’s built.”

As he spoke, he cast a suspicious glance at the assassin.

The assassin looked suspiciously at others as well without thinking.

Could he… she… or even it… be one of the information broker’s sources?

That suspicion existed in everyone’s heart.

Yet even more troubling than the information broker was the fallout from the exposure of the Atavist Genetics Research Organization.

---

Inside an office, masked individuals dressed in various styles sat with tense expressions.

“Someone reported that a Green Ribbon was left behind at the Atavist genetics facility. Qiu Fa has probably seen it already.”

“What will he think?”

“Hmph. What can he think? It’s only a Green Ribbon. No matter how wild his imagination is, he couldn’t deduce our true objective from that.”

“What worries me more,” someone said anxiously, “is whether they’ll notice that matter.”

“Something that didn’t fit hidden within all the data.”

“If they discover it, they’ll realize there’s an even larger organization above these two sister organizations. Everything they’ve done, every result they’ve achieved, is merely the tip of the iceberg. Merely groundwork for our great undertaking.”

“Let’s hope they don’t!”

“It’s all that damn information broker’s fault!”

They were furious yet powerless.

The information broker hadn’t even sold all of the intelligence to Jing Pei. That alone could be considered an act of mercy.

Or perhaps a warning.

None of them dared investigate further at the risk of having their true headquarters exposed as well.

Unease spread among them.

Logically, everyone present shared the same goal.

No one should have sold information for money.

Yet if there wasn’t a traitor, then how had the information broker learned so much?

More importantly…

What if the information broker was one of the people in this very room?

---

Inside the Tribunal Division.

“We’ll ask one last time. Besides the three of you, did any other members of your mercenary corps enter Hualan?”

The interrogator stared at the foreign atavist criminals sitting opposite him.

The prisoners were the three captured members of the Trident Mercenary Corps.

All three were now one-armed.

Each came from a different country, and their governments were currently negotiating extradition with Hualan.

Under Hualan law, foreign atavist criminals were prosecuted under the same criminal code as ordinary people.

Prison terms remained prison terms.

Death sentences remained death sentences.

Their home countries, however, were another matter entirely.

The cantaloupe-tattooed man remained silent and refused to budge no matter how he was questioned.

The old man kept attempting to bargain for guarantees of extradition.

In the end, it was the Black Wizard Atavist who spoke first.

Not because he wanted to cooperate.

He simply wanted to drag others down with him.

After all, his own crimes were so vile that even extradition wouldn’t save him.

“I only know of three. Bentley, Isaac, and Lolita. I don’t know what identities they’re using in Hualan or where they are now.”

“What are they doing in Hualan?”

“No idea about Bentley. Isaac and Lolita were hired by clients. What do people hire mercenaries for? Murder, obviously.”

“Tell us about their atavist races and abilities.”

“Bentley’s not an atavist. He’s all brains and physically weak as hell. As for Isaac and Lolita…”

For once, confusion appeared in the dwarf’s usually sinister eyes.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Hmph. What do you think we are? In our line of work, today’s teammate could be tomorrow’s enemy. Of course people keep secrets.”

“But I can tell you this. Every target they take eventually commits suicide after sleeping once. Sometimes within three to five days. Sometimes after four or five months.”

“Those crafty bastards. They don’t get blood on their hands. Probably hoping they’ll survive even if they’re caught!”

The thought infuriated him.

If he was doomed, he couldn’t stand the idea of his companions escaping punishment.

The report quickly reached Qiu Fa.

“Those two mercenaries have terrifying abilities,” his assistant said. “If they set their sights on someone, how could that person defend themselves?”

A delayed suicide was especially difficult to prove.

The victim might appear to have acted entirely of their own free will, making criminal evidence almost impossible to gather.

“I wonder which unfortunate soul they’ve targeted.”

The assistant shook his head.

He doubted they could save the victim even if they identified them.

Qiu Fa stared at the Green Ribbon in his hand for a long moment before putting it away and standing.

“Where are you going?”

“Off work.”

“If you’re heading to the hospital to visit the Long family’s young heir, remember to bring a gift.”

The assistant wore an expression that said he knew exactly what was going on.

After all, Qiu Fa had never left work this on time before.

“…”

---

At the Atavist hospital, a nurse quietly passed Jing Pei’s room and peeked through the glass panel in the door.

Jing Pei was still asleep.

Doctor Tang Woxue, who was responsible for her care, was resting in the neighboring room.

Looks like they were both exhausted.

After all, rescuing people and helping destroy a criminal organization was no easy task.

Meanwhile, in the room directly beneath Jing Pei’s, the beauty-loving old lady lounged comfortably in bed.

The handsome old gentleman stood at the door speaking to a nurse.

“That’s all. Let us enjoy ourselves. Don’t disturb us unless we call for assistance.”

“Of course, of course. Just remember that the medicinal bath shouldn’t last longer than thirty minutes.”

The nurse treated the affectionate elderly couple with indulgent amusement.

Because this was an Atavist hospital, most of the staff were atavists.

Unless restrained on purpose, Atavist power naturally leaked into the surroundings.

As a result, traces of Atavist power could be found everywhere in the hospital.

And because of that…

No one noticed that an invisible battle was already underway.