Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Yue Sheng, the captain of the Sharp Blade Brigade, stood against the wall without saying a word. His arms were crossed over his chest, and the old scars on his face glowed a pale pink in the cold light.

Seeing Gu Mingyuan sit down, he lowered his arm, walked to the table, picked up Shen Qinghou's file that Gu Mingyuan had pushed to the center of the table, and opened it.

The page with the on-site photos was facing up. In the corridor of the old building, Fang Heming was sitting against the wall, bleeding from all seven orifices, his eyes still open, and a look of astonishment frozen on his face.

Yue Sheng glanced at it for a few seconds, then closed the file and put it back on the desktop.

"The special operations team that Fang Heming led, twenty-three men, all of them are dead," Yue Sheng said slowly. "I'm a soldier. Soldiers aren't afraid of dying, but they are afraid of dying without meaning."

He walked to the side of the long table, stood facing everyone, and his eyes swept across the faces of every official present: "Director Han, Commissioner Gu, the things you were just arguing about—whether the superhumans should be granted amnesty, whether vigilante justice can be recognized, whether they are victims or predators—are not for me to judge. I will only speak of what I know."

"Since its establishment, the Sharp Blade Squad has carried out three missions. At Cloud Hidden Manor, the battle was over when we arrived, with seventy-two corpses and the target missing. At Azure Cloud Horse Ranch, the blockade was breached from the front, the target's entire force retreated, and we lost three brothers and were wounded seventeen."

In the old town, the entire special operations team was wiped out. When we arrived, we only managed to recover twenty-three bodies. Three missions, three body recovery operations—enemy bodies, and our own.

Yue Sheng's fingers tapped on Shen Qinghou's file, the calluses on his knuckles scraping against the paper with a soft sound: "I'm not complaining. Soldiers follow orders, regardless of right or wrong. But I want to make one thing clear: this man killed twenty-three people in the old city."

"If my men run into him again, I don't know how many people will die before we can take him down. And after we take him down, his accomplices will retaliate. After that, we send in more men, and when they die, we send in more. When will this cycle stop?"

"I don't understand what you were arguing about—principles, stances, face, justice. I only understand one thing." Yue Sheng's voice deepened, his eyes bloodshot. "Every one of my men is handpicked from the very best of the entire army's special forces. It takes eight years to train one, but only a second to kill one. I can't let them sacrifice their lives for an endless cycle."

He took a step back, crossed his arms again, and calmly met Gu Mingyuan's gaze: "My attitude is simple. Keep fighting, and my men will die. How many will die depends on how many people are on the other side and how far their abilities have evolved."

"A surrender deal might be reached, or it might not. If it fails, the worst outcome is the same as continuing the war. If it succeeds, my men won't have to die."

"Director Han proposed the offer of amnesty, and the Sharp Blade Brigade supported it."

After Yue Sheng finished speaking, he retreated to the wall and did not say another word.

Gu Mingyuan looked at Yue Sheng, who did not look away, his eyes open and honest.

Gu Mingyuan looked away first, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, his knuckles cracking.

After a full minute of silence, Gu Mingyuan spoke again, his voice as cold as ice: "I will not agree to this. Whatever the outcome, my stance is clear."

The air in the conference room froze completely after Gu Mingyuan finished speaking, and even the ticking of the clock on the wall sounded particularly jarring.

Han Qiming didn't respond to him, shifting his gaze from his tense face to the faces of everyone present: "The strategy for appeasement has already been decided by the headquarters. Today we'll discuss the implementation plan."

He reached out and opened the folder in front of him: "The first step is to establish contact channels. We need a reason for the superhumans to be willing to sit down and talk."

He paused for a second, then glanced at the crowd: "They're basically chips."

Han Qiming gestured to the official on the left, who was in charge of investigating social relationships, to report the prepared information.

The official immediately opened the file booklet in his hand and reported on each file in order:

"Chen Guohua has been confirmed dead. There is no further follow-up value."

"Xu Suyuan's immediate family member, her grandmother, has passed away. After three months of investigation into her other social relationships, no other valid contacts have been found."

"Han Xiao is presumed dead; there is no value in following up further."

"Li Rui has been confirmed dead. There is no further follow-up value."

"Liu Zhen's immediate family members, wife and children, are deceased. His other social relationships are being investigated, and no valid contacts have been found yet."

"Meng Zhaowen's immediate family member, her brother Meng Zhaohui, has passed away. Other social relationships are being investigated, and no valid contacts have been found yet."

"Lin Shen comes from an orphanage and has no family records. His mentor, Song Yuanming, is deceased. His other social relationships are being investigated, and no valid contacts have been found yet."

"Shen Qinghou's immediate family member, his mother, is deceased, and there are no other family records. During the investigation of social relationships, one piece of useful information was found: he had a girlfriend during his university years, they broke up two years ago, and he is currently a Chinese language teacher at the Third Middle School of Chenxi City."

The official closed the file and looked up at Han Qiming: "Director Han, of the eight extraordinary individuals, three have been confirmed or presumed dead, and the investigation into the social relationships of the other four has yielded no useful results so far. The only contact we have at present is Shen Qinghou's ex-girlfriend, Su Wan."

Han Qiming was silent for a few seconds, then tapped his finger on the cover of Shen Qinghou's file: "Find the person and bring him under the protection of the General Administration."

The official on the left paused for a moment, then looked up and asked, "Under what pretext?"

"There is evidence that she may have been contacted by supernatural beings, and the General Administration has taken preventative protective measures in accordance with the law." Han Qiming's answer was without the slightest pause. "Execute."

The official nodded, then lowered his head to write down the order in his notebook; the sound of the pen gliding across the paper was exceptionally clear in the quiet conference room.

"Director Han."

Gu Mingyuan's voice suddenly broke the brief silence.

Han Qiming looked up at him, his eyes calm: "Speak."

Gu Mingyuan stared directly into Han Qiming's eyes, his voice as cold as ice: "You said 'protect.' Protect whom? Protect Shen Qinghou's ex-girlfriend, or protect Shen Qinghou himself?"

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly tensed up, and everyone's eyes were on the two of them, even their breathing became soft.

Han Qiming met his gaze and answered decisively, "I'll protect them all."

Gu Mingyuan's lips twitched, his face revealing undisguised sarcasm: "Shen Qinghou killed twenty-three people, his hands are stained with my son's blood. Now you're sending people to protect his ex-girlfriend, does that mean—we're protecting someone a murderer cares about, so he'll be willing to talk to us? Is that what you mean?"

"That's what I mean." Han Qiming answered without the slightest hesitation.

Gu Mingyuan was silent for a few seconds, then leaned back in his chair, tapped the table lightly with his fingers, and the sarcasm in his voice faded, leaving only a cold certainty: "I want to participate in this operation."

The official on the left, who was in charge of taking notes, subconsciously looked up at him, a look of surprise on his face.

Gu Mingyuan's gaze was fixed on Han Qiming's face: "You just said that the first step in the surrender is to establish contact channels. Contact Shen Qinghou, through his ex-girlfriend. I need to be in that channel."