Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

His hands were trembling.

For a legal scholar who has been immersed in law for forty years and regards procedural justice and human rights protection as his guiding principles, signing such a bill is tantamount to personally overturning his lifelong beliefs.

Standing to the side, the secretary, noticing the Chief Justice's pale face, couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Your Honor, do you really believe... this is correct?"

Rod slowly put down the pen, which felt as heavy as a thousand pounds. He looked up and gazed out the window.

The same image flashed through his mind, the man's final, earth-shattering roar.

"...Go burn! Go burn through this endless night! Go burn away the darkness and bring forth a bright and clear world!!!"

"I don't know if it's right," Rod's voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable firmness, "but I genuinely feel... it's right."

The secretary was stunned.

He couldn't understand how the Chief Justice, who always spoke of logic and reason, would use such an emotional word as "feeling" to endorse a bill that could overturn the foundations of the nation.

Something is quietly changing.

It bypasses logic and reason, acting directly on people's conscience and intuition.

It's like a plague of ideas, silent yet unstoppable.

The world began in chaos, and a certain anomaly was vaguely sensed.

Something is quietly spreading through "watching," the most primitive way of receiving information.

And this is just the beginning.

In many unknown corners, in the Five Mountains Alliance's global network, and in the eyes that are peering into Chenxi City, Li Rui's spark is quietly spreading like wildfire in a way that is beyond everyone's imagination.

……

Maro Federation.

When a tortured murderer, deemed "incorrigible" by the Supreme Court, was engulfed in flames on a specially made execution pillar in the square, cameras around the world focused on that cluster of orange-red flames.

That was the first time in hundreds of years that civilization openly borrowed fire from barbarism.

However, what was truly terrifying was not the burning at the stake itself, but the "fanatic" gazes of the Maro Federation's high-ranking officials during the execution.

It was as if they were burning not a body of flesh and blood, but a piece of filth that had polluted the world.

This eerie "purification sensation," carried by satellite signals, spread like an invisible virus across the globe in an instant.

Following them were Casana, Tuvalu, the Northern Republic...

Seven small countries, geographically distant and with drastically different political systems, were as if the same invisible hand had plucked the strings of a musical instrument, and within a mere forty-eight hours, they successively played the prelude to "revenge" and "burning at the stake."

This sudden and unexpected collective shift has made the international order, which has lasted for half a century, appear to be on the verge of collapse.

……

Conference room, Ministry of National Security, Star Federation.

On the huge curved screen, videos of burning at the stake around the world were being played on a loop, along with a series of new bills with strikingly similar wording.

"...Let the sinners be purified by the fire."

Shen Qingyuan, the head of foreign intelligence, repeated in a hoarse voice the words that had recently appeared frequently in public speeches by political figures from various countries.

"These are the exact words of Chief Justice Rhodes of the Commonwealth of Maryland after he signed the bill."

Shen Qingyuan slammed his hand heavily on the table: "No organization has claimed responsibility, no intelligence indicates any financial dealings between transnational conspiracy groups, and there were no abnormal communication records between the political figures of these countries before the bill was passed."

A high-ranking official seated at the end of the long table frowned and asked, "You mean, all of this was spontaneous?"

"The word 'spontaneous' is no longer sufficient to describe this terrifying synchronicity." Shen Qingyuan turned around and pointed to a set of comparative data on the screen.

"Look here, Chen Zheng of the Maro Federation, the head of the cabinet of Tuvalu, the speaker of the Northern Republic... Three weeks ago, their political leanings were all described as 'moderate and pragmatic,' and some even advocated for the complete abolition of the death penalty. But now, they have all become fanatical supporters of burning at the stake."

"It's almost like..." Shen Qingyuan paused, a hint of indescribable horror flashing in his eyes, "...like the whole world was simultaneously infected with the same mental illness. And the symptom of this illness is 'a preference for burning at the stake'."

A suppressed gasp rippled through the meeting room.

The official in charge of domestic intelligence then reported:

"Similar anomalies have also emerged domestically. The most concentrated area is Chenxi City in Lieyang Province—in the past month, the city has seen nineteen serious incidents of civil violence."

Several chilling photos switched on the screen.

A seemingly frail supermarket cashier is frantically stabbing a knife-wielding thief with a pair of scissors.

As the police took her away, the cashier kept muttering, "This kind of person is a waste of oxygen if he stays in the world; he should be burned to death..."

In another photo, a student with a childlike face is standing on the school rooftop, with several buckets of spilled gasoline at his feet, and opposite him are three school bullies who had long bullied him.

The boy clutched a lighter, his eyes vacant yet fanatical, chanting, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"These perpetrators were all classified as 'low-aggressive' in previous psychological assessments," the official in charge of domestic intelligence said gravely. "But now their behavior patterns have become collectively distorted, posing a real threat to social stability."

A high-ranking official asked in a deep voice, "Where is the security bureau? Where are they? Aren't they going to do anything about this?"

The official in charge of domestic intelligence paused, his tone becoming more complex:

……

He paused, not continuing.

But everyone in the meeting room understood the subtext: if even law enforcement officers are starting to be corrupted by this kind of thinking, who will maintain order?

This is undermining the very foundation of the state's rule.

At the end of the long table, a senior official who had been silent until now slowly spoke.

His name is Han Qiming, deputy director of the Special Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of State Security, who has led the investigation into the origins of many sensitive cases.

"These phenomena are too peculiar to be explained by conventional social psychology." Han Qiming tapped the tablet in front of him, which displayed a satellite map of Chenxi City. "I noticed a geographical coincidence—the recent outbreaks of domestic violence have all occurred in Chenxi City."

He pulled up another file: "In the past six months, several heinous cases classified as 'abnormal' have occurred in Dawn City: the public murder at the Cloud Palace, the mysterious explosion at the Nanshan Nursing Home..."

"You mean there's a connection between these phenomena?" a senior executive asked.

"There is currently no evidence to prove a connection," Han Qiming shook his head. "But as an investigator, when faced with inexplicable synchronization phenomena, the most basic task is to look at the source."

He stood up and faced the minister:

"I have applied to go to Chenxi City under the guise of a 'special investigation into the judicial system.' My tasks are: first, to ascertain the true situation regarding the violent incidents and internal problems within the security system; and second, to investigate whether these phenomena are related to any unusual events that have occurred in the past six months."