Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

The entire horse farm was plunged into darkness in an instant, with only the green light of the emergency lights flickering in the corridor like will-o'-the-wisps.

Hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor; the patrol team was hurrying back, their leather shoes clattering on the marble floor.

Liu Zhen hid behind the door of the substation, the electric arcs in his palm crackling and dazzlingly bright.

The moment the door was pushed open, Liu Zhen lunged out from the shadows and placed his hands on the chest of the first guard who rushed in.

The high-voltage current instantly penetrated the human body. The guards didn't even have time to scream before their eyes widened and they fell straight down, their skin blackened by the electric shock, emitting a burnt smell.

The second guard raised his gun, but before he could pull the trigger, an arc of electricity shot from Liu Zhen's fingertip and struck him precisely between the eyebrows.

The moment the electric current pierced his skull, the guard's body convulsed violently, the gun in his hand fell to the ground, and he collapsed.

The third, the fourth, and the fifth.

His movements were swift and ruthless, each strike carrying a deadly resolve.

The faces of his wife and children flashed through his mind, as did the severed brake line, and the image of himself crying until he fainted while touching his wife's cold hands in the morgue.

Thicker arcs of electricity crackled from his fingertips, illuminating the dimly lit corridor like blue snakes biting at every rushing guard.

Five bodies lay in the corridor outside the substation.

Liu Zhen shook the blood off his hands; the electric arc flickered on his fingertips and then went out.

He turned and walked toward the rest area, his shoes stepping over the blood on the ground, leaving dark red footprints.

On the lawn, a dozen guards were rushing toward the rest area, their guns already loaded, fingers on the triggers, their faces full of panic.

When the horse farm suddenly lost power and all communications were cut off, their first reaction was to rush to the core area to protect Wang Hongyuan, their footsteps so fast they could create a gust of wind.

Meng Zhaowen squatted in the bushes, pressing his palms firmly into the soil, the dark green light in his palms growing brighter and brighter.

"rise."

His voice was soft, yet carried immense power.

The soil on the lawn exploded instantly, and countless vines sprouted from the ground, wrapping around the guards' ankles, calves, and thighs like living creatures.

Someone tripped and fell, his face hitting the ground hard, his face covered in blood. Just as he was about to get up, vines wrapped around his neck, tightening their grip. The suffocating sensation made his eyes bulge out and his tongue stick out.

Someone fired a shot, and the bullets broke several vines. More vines grew out of the broken ends, surging up like a tide, wrapping around him so tightly that he couldn't even move his arms.

Meng Zhaowen stood up and walked out from behind the bushes.

His white hair fluttered in the wind, his face was expressionless, only the hatred in his eyes burned like fire.

He recalled the scene of his brother being pushed off the building, standing downstairs watching the pool of blood, the blood seeping into the cement floor, a glaringly red sight;

He recalled the despair he felt in the mental hospital when he was forcibly injected with tranquilizers every day. When the drugs took effect, he almost forgot who he was. Only the morning glory seeds in his pocket poked his palm, reminding him not to sleep.

He recalled the courtroom scene where the judge threw a pile of evidence as tall as a person onto the floor with a crash, scattering it everywhere. Song Mingzhang stood in the defendant's dock, smiling at him, the curve of his lips like a knife stabbing into his heart.

The light in his palm shone even brighter, and the vines grew wildly, like an inescapable net, dragging all the struggling guards into the darkness.

The lawn quickly quieted down, leaving only the rustling of vines scraping the ground and the sound of the wind blowing through the grass.

In the monitoring room, the emergency power supply started instantly, and the screen lit up again.

The staff on duty stared at four screens, which showed a peaceful lawn, patrol cars driving normally, and guards standing ramrod straight at the entrance to the rest area. Everything seemed normal.

They didn't know that what they were seeing was all an illusion implanted by Lin Shen.

Lin Shen stood in the corner of the monitoring room, his palm glowing with a faint silver light, his mental energy rapidly depleting.

Simultaneously covering the vision of four on-duty personnel and also tampering with the output signal of the monitoring screen, was a huge drain on his mental energy. His temples began to ache faintly, as if someone was gently tapping them with a small hammer.

The sniper in the guard tower shook his head. During the brief moment of power outage, his scope went black, but now it was back to normal. The lawn was empty, the wind rustling the grass blades, and there was nothing unusual.

He yawned, pressed his eyes back to the scope, and didn't notice that Liu Zhen had already come out of the substation and was walking along the corridor toward the rest area. Meng Zhaowen stood in the middle of the lawn, with vines under his feet still spreading toward the rest area.

Lin Shen gritted his teeth and spread his mental energy out again, covering the two snipers in the guard tower as well.

The silvery-white seed deep in his consciousness felt slightly warm, like the temperature of Song Yuanming's fingertips each time he handed him the calculation paper.

The teacher said that the beacon theory needs to be completed, but he hasn't finished it yet, so we can't stop here, we can't give up here.

His palm glowed with a silvery-white light, flickering in the dim light of the monitoring room, like a lamp that would never go out.

------

In the rest area, the emergency lights came on, their dim yellow light hurting people's eyes.

Wang Hongyuan suddenly stood up from the sofa, his teacup wobbling in his hand, spilling hot tea onto the back of his hand, but he didn't feel the heat at all.

"What's going on?" Zhong Lin strode in from the command room next door, holding a communicator in his hand. He pressed the call button several times, but there was only a buzzing sound of electricity, and no response.

Wang Hongyuan walked to the window and suddenly pulled back the curtains.

It was pitch black outside the window. There was no one in sight on the lawn, but the guard tower in the distance had lights that flickered like will-o'-the-wisps.

His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest; an intense fear gripped his heart, making it hard to breathe.

Finally, the voice of the monitoring room staff came through the communicator: "Committee Member Wang, the monitoring shows everything is normal. It might be a line fault; we are investigating."

Then came the sniper's voice: "The guard tower has normal visibility, and there are no abnormalities found on the lawn."

Wang Hongyuan breathed a sigh of relief and sat back on the sofa, his shirt soaked with cold sweat.

He picked up his teacup and took a sip. The tea was cold and bitter, making him frown. "A line malfunction. Tell them to fix it quickly, so as not to delay the meeting with Xiongbei Company."

Zhong Lin stood by the window, motionless.

His intuition was screaming warnings, like a needle pricking the back of his head.

On the night of the incident at Jingyuan Villa, the power went out first, then the security forces were taken down one by one, and all communications were cut off. By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late.