Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

"What about the surveillance cameras?" Yue Sheng turned to ask the technical team member next to him.

"Everything's destroyed." The team member shook his head, his face grim. "The security cameras in the resort were either crushed by tree roots or had their circuits burned out. The storage disks were all melted, so there's no useful footage. The civilian surveillance cameras outside captured three unmarked armored vehicles leaving ten minutes ago, but the license plates were fake, so we can't trace their origin."

Yue Sheng tightened his grip on the coin, the edge of which dig painfully into his palm.

He recalled what Han Qiming had said in the communication before he set off, saying that these might be two superhumans, one who could control electricity and the other who could control plants.

But the traces at the scene now indicate that there is at least a third person here—the bodies with their hearts pierced by coins, the bullets that froze in mid-air and fell to the ground, and the mercenaries who died strangely without any signs of struggle, all point to a superhuman who has never appeared in intelligence.

The communicator suddenly crackled with static, and Han Qiming's voice came from the other end, tinged with barely perceptible tension: "Yue Sheng, how's the situation?"

Yue Sheng stood up and looked into the empty depths of the ruins, where the footprints left by the three people when they left were still faint and would soon be wet with the morning dew.

He paused for a moment before speaking, his voice low and deep: "We're too late. The person has already been rescued."

He paused, then added, "At least three. One can generate electricity, one can manipulate plants, and another... can travel between the real and the virtual. The mercenaries on site all died from having coins pierce their hearts; the range is at least two hundred meters, and no physical attack could harm her."

There was a long silence on the other end of the communicator, so long that Yue Sheng thought the signal had been lost, before Han Qiming's voice came through, several octaves deeper than usual: "Are you sure it's three?"

"Confirmed." Yue Sheng's gaze swept over the three sets of footprints of varying depths on the ground—two large sets and one smaller set, clearly belonging to a woman. "Three extraordinary individuals, all evacuated. No traces were left at the scene."

The sound of papers turning over came from Han Qiming's side, as if he was looking through some documents.

Half a minute later, his voice came again, tinged with weariness: "Call back first. Bring back all the physical evidence from the scene, not a single coin, not a single tree root, don't miss anything. The technical team will come to the scene this afternoon to do 3D modeling and replicate all the traces."

"Yes," Yue Sheng replied and hung up the call.

He stood up and looked at the winding mountain road in the distance.

The sky was already bright, and the orange-red sunrise rose from behind the mountains, dyeing half the sky a warm red. The sunlight fell on the ruins, gilding the charred rubble and cold corpses with a faint golden edge.

The wind swept the fallen leaves by, raising a cloud of dust.

He came, yet it seems he did nothing.

Those mercenaries died, Song Mingzhang died, but the avengers also ran away, and the truth is still hidden in the fog.

"Fall back!" Yue Sheng waved his hand, and the team members began to collect physical evidence in an orderly manner, put the bodies into body bags, and lift them onto the truck parked on the side of the road.

The red and blue police lights continued to spin tirelessly, their alternating red and blue light falling on the ruins, making the scattered weapons flicker.

Yue Sheng stood at the highest point of the ruins, looking at the set of footprints that disappeared in the direction of the chestnut forest, his brows still furrowed.

They were a step too late, and missed it.

I don't know when the next time will be.

------

The iron gate of the abandoned biological research institute slammed shut behind us, and the dust it kicked up swirled in the morning light that slanted into the room.

This is an old factory site left over from the 1980s in the suburbs. It is surrounded by weeds and there are no residents within three kilometers. Dark green ivy climbs all over the broken walls and ruins. From a distance, it looks no different from an ordinary abandoned factory.

In reality, it was a hidden hideout that Xu Suyuan had spent half a month scouting out – most of the water and electricity lines were still intact, the walls were thick enough, the surrounding wilderness was enough to hide in, and even the surveillance cameras had been cut off ten years ago when the city's power lines were being renovated, making it the safest haven.

Meng Zhaowen fell into a deep coma as soon as he was placed on the cement platform covered with a thin layer of dust. His white hair was stained with blood, and his aged face was completely bloodless. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest, he would have looked like he had already stopped breathing.

Liu Zhen leaned against a nearby pillar for five minutes to catch his breath before gritting his teeth and straightening up. The wound on his left shoulder was pulled, causing him to gasp in pain, but he showed no intention of stopping to rest.

A faint, eerie blue arc of electricity leaped from his fingertips, slowly traveling along his own blood vessels, precisely stimulating the damaged cells to accelerate healing—a technique he had honed through several near-death experiences, allowing external injuries to heal three times faster than those of ordinary people.

After settling the two people in, Xu Suyuan turned around and disappeared back into the dense forest outside the wall.

She avoided all the security checkpoints and patrol cars along the way, circled the nearest town three times, and only after confirming that she was not being followed did she sneak into a 24-hour pharmacy.

I bought antibiotics, hemostatic cotton, bandages, and high-concentration glucose. I also grabbed two boxes of compressed biscuits and ten bottles of mineral water from the nearby grocery store. Finally, I picked up two sets of durable work clothes and several pairs of electrician gloves from the workwear store.

When she returned, she had three freshly baked meat buns in her arms. The steam seeped out through the plastic bag and gave off a faint wheat aroma in the cool morning breeze. It was the only warmth with a touch of human touch in the midst of the fighting and killing all night.

When she returned to the research institute, Liu Zhen had already fixed the circuits for the entire building.

Fifteen years of experience as an electrical engineer were ingrained in him. Even with injuries, he reconnected the broken external power line in just forty minutes and even installed a modified current alarm on the power grid surrounding the research institute.

If any living creature touches the outer wire mesh, a slight change in current will trigger an alarm, allowing them to react immediately.

The moment the incandescent bulb was switched on, the dim, yellow light filled the empty laboratory, casting a warm glow on the scattered glass flasks and old lab benches in the corners, finally giving them a semblance of temporary shelter.

Meng Zhaowen woke up the next evening.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he smelled was disinfectant and compressed biscuits. Then he saw Liu Zhen sitting next to the lab bench, wiping his worn-out electrician's knife under the dim light.

Xu Suyuan leaned against the window, twirling a one-yuan coin between her fingers. Her profile was hard and cold under the light, and the light scar on her forehead glowed with a pale pink light.

Seeing that he was awake, Liu Zhen handed him a glass of warm glucose water, and Xu Suyuan tossed him a meat bun. None of the three spoke, but there was an unspoken understanding between them.

After Meng Zhaowen finished drinking water and eating half a bun, and recovered a little, Xu Suyuan got up and walked to the lab bench, swept the scattered test tubes and old drawings aside, and took out half a piece of chalk from her pocket.

She first wrote down the names "Song Mingzhang" and "Han Dongcheng", then crossed them out heavily. She then moved upwards and wrote down the three characters "Wang Hongyuan". After pausing for a few seconds, she wrote down the three characters "Wuyuehui". Finally, she drew a huge circle around these four characters.