Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Wen Yan sensed that the number of pursuers was decreasing rapidly—of the three armored vehicles, two had completely disappeared from his perception, leaving only the deathly silence pulsating on the metal wreckage.

The third vehicle is still there. The vibrations from the engine are transmitted through the vehicle body to the ground, and then from the ground to the edge of the seed's perception, like the last ripple on the surface of water.

One person in the third car had a stronger life force and a more focused will than the others.

There was no panic in that fluctuation, only a highly focused tension and a cold, restrained composure.

That's Yue Sheng.

Wen Yan had already verified the name through previous information channels—the captain of the Sharp Blade Brigade, the most elite combat commander in the General Administration.

This person never turned off his walkie-talkie from the moment he entered the quarry, and every command he gave was short and precise.

But now his fluctuations have also vanished.

The instant the electric current struck the back of his neck, the dam of his willpower was breached, and he fell into a coma, plunging into silence along with the other four team members in the vehicle.

The fluctuations of the five seeds began to move again.

Wen Yan confirmed one thing: everyone was safe and there were no pursuers.

He opened his eyes, and the light from the table lamp filled his vision again.

The light fell on the blank page of the notebook, where a shallow indentation had been unconsciously made by his fingertip at the right foot of the page.

He took his hands off his knees, opened his palms, and glanced down at them.

The lines on my palm are still very shallow, but the knuckles of my fingers are no longer as prominent as they were a month ago, almost transparent.

Two months ago, this hand would tremble even when it was just holding a glass of water; the knuckles would crack, and the water would spill onto the table.

Now it can be placed steadily on the table, with all five fingers flat and the fingertips not shaking.

The Fire Seed organization took the initiative tonight, picking up the people from the headquarters' encirclement and destroying three armored vehicles.

Xu Suyuan's void power, Liu Zhen's electrical energy, and Meng Zhaowen's earth spirit awakening—the three people's abilities merge into a resonant band, releasing power far more efficiently than if they fought individually.

This means that the official threat assessment of them will jump to more than one level.

Since the Nanshan incident, the General Administration of Customs has only been setting up the Special Investigation Bureau, expanding its staff, and researching non-lethal weapons.

But after tonight, with three armored vehicles blown to smithereens at the quarry and the captain of the Sharp Blade Brigade in a coma, the General Administration will no longer remain at the stage of "observation" and "prevention".

The next transfer won't be just a small brigade.

Heavy weapons, strategic forces, and a true encirclement and suppression system—those things that were previously reluctant to be used will all be put on the table.

They need more manpower.

More qualified individuals, more capable individuals, and more people who can complement the Fireseed Organization's combat strength from different perspectives.

Wen Yan opened the drawer and took out another notebook.

This notebook is older than the previous one; the edges of the artificial leather cover have been worn down to reveal white fibers.

Turn to the middle page, which shows an overview observed from Xu Suyuan's perspective.

One name appears multiple times.

Shen Hanzhou.

You are the one.

------

The van drove into the underground parking lot of the abandoned research institute in Gwangyang City.

The car headlights swept past the mottled cement pillars and the old experimental equipment boxes piled up in the corner, and stopped in parking space numbered "A03".

Six people got off the bus.

Lin Shen opened the trunk and took out a portable stretcher frame from the first aid kit. Shen Qinghou waved his hand to push the frame aside and carried Su Wan out of the back seat.

She had already woken up once, asking "Have we arrived yet?" halfway there. After receiving a nod from Xu Suyuan, she leaned against Shen Qinghou's lap and fell asleep again.

The wound on the sole of her foot was re-bandaged by Xu Suyuan in the car, and the gauze did not bleed.

Enter the basement.

The motion-activated lights in the corridor lit up one by one, illuminating the iron bookshelves piled with old periodicals and the dusty lab benches on both sides.

The innermost room in the basement was originally the research institute's duty room, but it has now been converted into a temporary base for the Fire Seed organization.

Xu Suyuan walked up to Shen Qinghou.

Her footsteps were very light, but when her shadow fell on the edge of the cot, Shen Qinghou noticed the change in light.

He looked up and read her lips.

Xu Suyuan said, "Welcome to the Fire Seed Organization. Even without you and Lin Shen, we would have inevitably clashed with the headquarters sooner or later. With you here, we have two more people."

After reading her lips, Shen Qinghou remained silent for a moment.

He said, "I should be thanking you."

Liu Zhen walked over from the washing machine, carrying a bottle of mineral water.

He placed the water bottle on the ground next to Shen Qinghou, the bottom of the bottle hitting the cement floor with a soft sound.

As he straightened up, he patted Shen Qinghou on the shoulder, his palm lingering on Shen's shoulder for a second before he withdrew it, turned around and walked back to the washing machine to continue scrubbing the dirt off his hands.

Meng Zhaowen pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting the cold white light of the overhead fluorescent lamp, which mostly concealed the weariness in his eyes: "I'll find you a new zither tomorrow. There are three Guangyang Zither stores; the owner of the one in the south of the city doesn't ask where you've come from."

Lin Shen closed the refrigerator door and added, "I know a shop that sells old cedarwood guitars with a deep tone, which is suitable for your low-frequency sound waves."

Shen Qinghou couldn't hear what they were saying, but he read Meng Zhaowen and Lin Shen's lip movements. He nodded and said, "Okay."

Xu Suyuan leaned against the corner of the wall and took out a leather notebook with frayed edges from the inside pocket of her coat.

She flipped to the record page she had made three days ago, her gaze lingering on the three words "Shen Hanzhou".

She stumbled upon this name while investigating the internal structure of the Five Mountains Society.

The Five Mountains Society has a small drug research and development unit in Lieyang Province, which is specifically designed to provide cover identities and special drugs for the peripheral execution team.

Fake ID cards, forged medical licenses, sedatives injected before the operation, and dissolving enzymes used to clean up the scene afterward all originated from this unit.

Shen Hanzhou is the synthesis supervisor of this unit, responsible for drug molecule design and synthetic route planning.

A month ago, the Five Mountains Society launched a new project.

Xu Suyuan's investigation did not uncover the project's complete code name; all that was known was that the project required Shen Hanzhou's team to synthesize a batch of high-purity neuroactive compounds for "external asset management."

When she found this, she stared at her notebook for a long time—basically, it was a mind control drug, targeted at living people.

Shen Hanzhou refused to sign the agreement in person at the project launch meeting.

The reasons for the rejection were written in the meeting minutes, and the wording was technical: the safety window of this batch of compounds was extremely narrow, the difference between the effective dose and the lethal dose was less than two milligrams, and the lethality rate was uncontrollable when used in non-clinical settings.

When Xu Suyuan saw this meeting summary, she had already distinguished Shen Hanzhou from the researchers who had been bribed by the Five Mountains Society.

The Five Mountains Alliance did not take action against him on the spot.

The R&D unit can't operate without him in the short term—he designed the synthesis route, and the process parameters are in his mind. It would take at least three months for a new person to take over, and the project can't wait three months.

They first transferred him away from the laboratory to manage the inventory records of the chemical warehouse, while simultaneously looking for a replacement.

The warehouse manager position is one where you can't even get into the lab. You have to register at the gate to enter and exit. Your daily job is to use a form to record which bottle of reagent was taken by whom and how many milliliters are left.

Shen Hanzhou stayed in the warehouse for two weeks.

Once the replacement was in place, the internal security of the Wuyue Society's Lieyang Province branch sent someone to his apartment that very night.

But they came up empty-handed.