Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

The most alarming discovery occurred during the biological testing phase.

"Professor Qin! We've made a discovery here!"

A player used an ATP fluorescence detector on a piece of ground in the core area that had been turned into charcoal.

A strong purple signal suddenly burst onto the screen.

Qin En walked over quickly, squatted down, and carefully dipped a cotton swab into some grayish-white powder.

He operated the portable analyzer for a moment, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

"How is it?" Zhao Jianguo asked.

"A large amount of residual human biomass signal has been detected." Qin En looked up, his eyes filled with a sense of absurdity. "Judging from the signal strength, there were people here... at least eight to ten people. But..."

"But what?"

"But we can't extract any cellular structure. No bone fragments, no teeth, no hair." Qin En pointed to the pool of grayish-white powder. "They've completely become inorganic. Director Zhao, this dust is from those people. They weren't burned to death; they directly transformed from living beings into... into this inorganic dust, and then settled evenly on the floor."

"Vacuumification?" Lei exclaimed in shock.

"More thorough than vaporization." Qin En stared at the center of the spiraling scorch. "I've only seen this kind of thing in data simulating the effects of a nuclear explosion, but a nuclear explosion would destroy an entire city block, while here..."

He glanced around at the experimental chambers and pipes that had been "selectively spared," and his voice lowered: "Only what was intended to be burned was destroyed."

Qin En paused, then uttered the word that everyone had thought of but was unwilling to say: "...It's 'abnormal beings'."

silence.

A deathly silence spread through the basement.

Lei Zhen and Zhou Ming exchanged a glance, and they both saw the fear in each other's eyes.

If there really is a force in this world that can "selectively erase" humans, then what is the point of the firearms and bulletproof vests that these law enforcement officers uphold?

"Director Zhao, we have made a new discovery."

Zhou Ming ran over from a half-collapsed archive room on the outskirts, carrying a transparent sealed bag in his hand.

Inside the bag was a half-burnt employee badge, with the words "Huiguang Pharmaceutical" faintly visible.

"We recovered some damaged data fragments from the incompletely carbonized server," Zhou Ming said rapidly. "Experimental records, financial statements... This place is codenamed 'Starlight Lab.' Owner—Zhang Zhaoqing."

"Zhang Zhaoqing?" Lei Zhen frowned. "That name sounds familiar..."

"Chairman of Huiguang Pharmaceuticals," Zhou Ming added, "whose main business is psychotropic drugs, and the 'Ning Shen series' is one of their products."

Zhao Jianguo took the charred work badge and examined it closely. "First, confirm Zhang Zhaoqing's location. We need to see him alive or dead...and find traces of him."

Twenty minutes later, the message from the external verification team came back.

"Zhang Zhaoqing has gone missing." Zhou Ming walked over quickly with a tablet in hand. "No one is home, no one is at the company, and the last cell phone signal appeared at 6:34 PM tonight—the base station location is in this industrial park."

Lei Zhen glanced at the time: "It's been over three hours since 6:30. If he were in the fire..."

He didn't finish speaking, but everyone understood.

"So, what's the next step in the investigation?" Lei Zhen asked.

Zhao Jianguo looked at Zhou Ming: "Make a list of Zhang Zhaoqing's social connections. Business partners, competitors, recent conflicts—especially personal grudges. This scale of destruction cannot be accomplished through mere business maneuvering."

Zhou Ming nodded and quickly started operating on the tablet.

A few minutes later, he looked up, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

"Director Zhao, there's a line we can't avoid."

"explain."

"Zhang Zhaoqing's son is named Zhang Ziqian." Zhou Ming paused. "Zhang Ziqian is suspected of murdering a woman named Su Xiao. Su Xiao's husband is Li Rui, the deputy captain of the First Criminal Investigation Brigade."

Lei Zhen paused for a moment, then blurted out, "That case where the mentally ill person was exonerated?"

"Yes." Zhou Ming nodded. "Zhang Ziqian had a previous murder case, but he escaped criminal responsibility through a mental evaluation of 'intermittent violent disorder' and was placed under compulsory medical treatment. After the Su Xiao case, the police applied to lift the compulsory medical treatment, but it was rejected by the city court—the judge who rejected it was named Zhou Shouzheng."

Zhao Jianguo's brows gradually furrowed.

Zhou Ming continued, "Then, Zhang Ziqian disappeared during the transport. The hospital director Sun Weimin and the driver Sun Qiang, who were in the same vehicle, also disappeared. Zhou Shouzheng disappeared at home."

"Missing?" Fang Weiguo walked over from the side. "It seems somewhat similar to those disappearances in this laboratory that 'left nothing behind'."

Zhao Jianguo didn't respond; he quickly pieced together the scattered pieces of information in his mind:

Chang Chao-ching – Chairman of Hui-kuang Pharmaceuticals; his son, Chang Tzu-chien, is the murderer in the Su Hsiao case.

Zhang Ziqian murdered Su Xiao, was exonerated through a psychiatric evaluation, and was later subjected to compulsory medical treatment.

Sun Weimin and Sun Qiang—those who assisted Zhang Ziqian in escaping punishment and transferring, disappeared along with Zhang Ziqian.

Chou Shou-cheng, the judge who rejected the police's application to lift the compulsory medical treatment order, has recently gone missing.

"Zhang Ziqian disappeared → Sun Weimin and Sun Qiang disappeared → Zhou Shouzhen disappeared → Today, Zhang Zhaoqing and his laboratory were destroyed." Zhao Jianguo slowly began, "This is a clear chain of revenge. Everyone related to the Su Xiao case has recently 'disappeared'."

"He was just suspended from his duties this afternoon," Zhou Ming added, "because of the report in the Zhou Shouzheng disappearance case—someone reported that he was related to the Zhou Shouzheng case, and the Inspectorate suspended him from his duties to be investigated."

"Zhang Zhaoqing died the night he was suspended," Zhao Jianguo repeated in a low voice. "The timeline matches up."

The two clues converge at this moment.

One aspect is the social relationship chain: all the victims are related to the Su Xiao case and have direct or indirect grudges against Li Rui. Li Rui had the strongest motive.

Another anomaly is the scene itself: this fire requires no fuel, is not bound by the laws of physics, can precisely select its target, and can completely erase people from existence—something that ordinary people cannot do.

If Li Rui is involved in the case, he doesn't possess ordinary weapons, but rather... extraordinary abilities.

……

The on-site command center was set up in an office in an abandoned factory building on the outskirts of the park.

The core team of the Special Investigations Bureau sat around a long table on both sides.

In the center of the long table, Li Rui's personal file was spread out, along with a newly pieced-together "revenge relationship diagram".

"No need to go around in circles anymore."

The newly arrived Special Investigations Bureau Administrative Coordinator, Wu Yong, pointed to the photo of the spiral-shaped charred marks and said, "This kind of 'selective combustion' and 'precise energy control' at the scene is definitely not a natural fire, but a new kind of extraordinary phenomenon."

He glanced around, his gaze lingering for a second on Zhao Jianguo's grim face. "Combining the victim list: Zhang Ziqian, Sun Weimin, Zhou Shouzhen, plus Zhang Zhaoqing tonight. All the clues have closed. The murderer is Li Rui. Moreover, he has awakened."

As the word "awakening" was uttered, the temperature inside the room seemed to drop even further.

"I suggest we initiate the arrest procedure immediately." Wu Yong's tone was firm. "An aberrant individual with fire abilities who has committed multiple crimes is at greater risk of going out of control every day he roams outside."