Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

"Let's talk about our own stories first." Xu Suyuan leaned against the blackboard, her voice calm. "My name is Xu Suyuan. I used to be a news anchor. I was kidnapped and forced to do human experiments. My grandmother died at home because no one took care of her."

"Later, I met a comrade-in-arms named Han Xiao. We took revenge together. In the end, he died. I slept in another dimension for a month. After I woke up, I kept investigating the organization behind it, which was the Five Mountains Society."

"They have illegal laboratories in various places, where they kidnap ordinary people to conduct experiments, as well as those with superhuman abilities. Wei Donghai and Wang Hongyuan are among those they have made public."

She spoke lightly, without mentioning the inhuman torture in the laboratory, the white light that filled the sky when Han Xiao sacrificed himself, or the despair of waking up alone in the rift between dimensions.

Only the unconscious stroking of the coin at her waist revealed the turbulent emotions beneath her calm exterior—it was a technique Han Xiao had taught her, something he had left for her.

The edges of the coin were worn smooth, as if it had been touched countless times.

Meng Zhaowen looked at the coin, her fingers tightening slightly, and took out the morning glory seeds she had carried for seven years from her pocket.

The seed husk had been worn smooth and shiny, still stained with the blood that had seeped out earlier. The dark red marks were etched on the light brown shell, like the hatred that had lingered for seven years.

"My name is Meng Zhaowen, and I used to be a teacher. My brother discovered some secrets and was pushed off a building and died. I sued for seven years, but they threw all the evidence on the ground in court and even locked me up in a mental hospital and gave me sedatives for three months."

"When I came out, I awakened my ability to resonate with plants. Later, I met Liu Zhen, and together we killed Zhao Hongtu, Han Dongcheng, and Song Mingzhang." His voice was steady, except when he mentioned his brother Meng Zhaohui, his speech slowed down by half a beat. "These people were all under Wang Hongyuan."

Liu Zhen sat at the lab bench and took out the family photo, which was wrapped in plastic film, from his pocket.

The edges of the photo are worn and frayed. The woman in the photo is smiling gently, and the little boy is missing a front tooth, holding a windmill and smiling brightly.

"My name is Liu Zhen. I used to be an engineer at Longteng Power. My wife and children were killed in a car accident they caused. The case was suppressed, and I became a wanted criminal. After hiding for more than half a year, I awakened the ability to control electricity. Later, I met Lao Meng, and we have been investigating all the way to now."

He stroked the faces of his wife and children in the photo, the calluses on his fingertips rubbing against the plastic film, making a soft sound. "The authorities now have a special agency to investigate supernatural beings. They are well-equipped and act very quickly. We were targeted after the Jingyuan Villa incident. We don't know their stance yet, so we have to keep a low profile."

After the three of them finished speaking, they all fell silent.

Xu Suyuan's coin, Meng Zhaowen's morning glory seeds, and Liu Zhen's family photo—three inconspicuous little things were placed on the lab table, gleaming faintly under the dim yellow light.

They were all people crushed by the rules of this world, all lost the people they cared about most, all walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, crawled out of hell, carrying indelible blood and hatred, and even their paths of revenge pointed in the same direction, with no reason to betray each other.

"Let's form an alliance," Xu Suyuan said first, pointing to the three characters "Five Mountains Society" on the blackboard. "Let's call it 'Spark.' The principle is simple: revenge for wrongs, grievances for grievances. First, kill Wang Hongyuan, then destroy the Five Mountains Society. No one who owes us a debt will escape. We'll support each other from now on, and no one will abandon the other."

"Okay." Liu Zhen was the first to nod.

"I agree," Meng Zhaowen nodded.

The chalk made a crisp sound as it scratched on the blackboard. Meng Zhaowen listed out the capabilities of the three men one by one, and then wrote down Wang Hongyuan's public information next to it: "Wang Hongyuan is the third political commissar of Lieyang Province. He usually lives in the family compound, and his security is provided by the guards of the Political Affairs Department. Not even a fly can get in."

"But he goes horseback riding at Qingyun Horse Ranch in the suburbs every Saturday afternoon. Each time he goes, he is accompanied by at least eight bodyguards, and there are also plainclothes officers on the perimeter. The route is decided on the spot, so it is impossible to launch a frontal assault."

Xu Suyuan took the chalk and drew two lines under the four characters "Qingyun Horse Ranch": "I checked before. There are weapons and sentries targeting you in this horse ranch. Going in rashly would be suicide. We need to find out his specific itinerary and the security layout of the horse ranch. It will take at least a week of reconnaissance."

Looking at the densely packed words on the blackboard, Meng Zhaowen suddenly recalled the seed that had appeared deep within her consciousness when she awakened. She then asked, "When you awakened, did you feel a seed in your consciousness?"

"My ability is to manipulate plants, Lao Liu, you control electricity, and you used to be an electrician. Xu Suyuan, you can travel through time, which was the ability you most wanted when you were trapped in the lab, right?"

Upon hearing this, the other two were stunned.

Liu Zhen carefully recalled the scene when he awakened. At that time, he was hiding under a bridge, burning with fever and on the verge of death. His mind was filled with thoughts of avenging his wife and children and electrocuting those parasites. Deep in his consciousness, a dark blue seed lit up, and then he gained the ability to control electricity.

Xu Suyuan nodded. When she was trapped in the laboratory, her biggest wish every day was to escape through the wall. When she awakened, there was also a light blue seed in her consciousness, and its temperature was exactly the same as the warmth she felt from the other two people she had just sensed.

"It seems the seeds grow stronger with our obsession," Meng Zhaowen said thoughtfully. "When I was driven to the brink, I sacrificed my lifespan to awaken the ancient tree's roots. At that time, the seeds seemed to explode, becoming much brighter than usual. The group confinement you used at Cloud Hidden Manor last time, you probably couldn't have done that before, right?"

Xu Suyuan nodded, recalling that when she was asleep in the alternate dimension, the seed had been absorbing Han Xiao's remaining will energy. When she woke up, her abilities were indeed more than twice as strong as before.

The three exchanged a glance, each seeing the other's understanding—this seed was a gift from their desperate situation, a sprout nurtured by hatred. As long as their obsession with revenge remained, the seed would grow stronger and stronger.

It was completely dark outside the window. The wind in the woods rustled the leaves, and the ivy on the outer wall of the research institute swayed gently in the night breeze. Meng Zhaowen's delicate root system was slowly extending, locking in all the movements within a three-kilometer radius.

Liu Zhen squatted in the corner modifying an electric current alarm, the arc of electricity on his fingertips occasionally leaping, illuminating the firelight in his eyes.

Xu Suyuan leaned against the window, looking at the scattered lights of the city in the distance. The coin she was spinning reflected the light of the incandescent bulb, and the cold, hard metal seemed to be tinged with a little warmth.

After struggling in hell for so long, the three of them are finally no longer all alone.

The road to revenge is still long. Wang Hongyuan and the Five Mountains Society are still high and mighty, but as long as the three of them stand together, they dare to brave any danger, even mountains of knives and seas of fire.