Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Zhou Ting lay on his side on the stone platform, his broken left arm hanging over the edge, blood dripping from his fingertips.

Wang Zhaoping lay prone on another stone platform, his forehead pressed against the surface, not daring to look Shen Hanzhou in the eye.

The wound on his leg was still bleeding, and a small pool of dark red liquid had accumulated on the surface of the stone platform.

Fang Li was still on the ground, his right leg pinned down by the precast concrete slab, gritting his teeth as he looked up at the scene.

Shen Hanzhou stood between the three raised stone platforms and spoke.

"You were chasing me just now," he said. "Now the roles are reversed. I'll ask questions, and you'll answer."

He first looked at Zhou Ting and Wang Zhaoping.

My gaze lingered on these two faces, which I had known for three years, for a full two seconds.

Then he spoke: "Your alliance with the Five Mountains Alliance wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. From the very beginning, Xiong Bei and Chi Ji never intended to protect me. Am I right?"

Wang Zhaoping lay prone on the stone platform, his head trembling more and more violently under Shen Hanzhou's gaze.

The wound on my leg kept bleeding.

When I fell, the steel bar cut my outer thigh, and blood was flowing down my trouser leg, leaving a small pool of dark red liquid on the stone platform.

The pain made his mind go blank in waves, and his consciousness kept shifting between being clear-headed and confused.

But what truly broke him wasn't the wound, but the way Shen Hanzhou looked at him.

There was no anger, no accusation, just a question asked, the tone as calm as if checking experimental data.

This calmness terrified him more than any roar.

Three years ago, when he was stopped by customs at Guangyang Wharf, he was the one who panicked first.

That time, Zhou Ting stood behind him, patting him on the shoulder and saying, "Don't be afraid, Mr. Shen has taken care of it."

Shen Hanzhou used a forged copy of an import license to smuggle three tons of controlled solvents away from right under the nose of customs.

Wang Zhaoping remembers clearly that Shen Hanzhou was standing at the warehouse door waiting for them, still holding the experimental report in his hand. He glanced at them and said, "Don't leave any loose ends next time."

That time, Shen Hanzhou's eyes only showed a little impatience.

This time, there was nothing in Shen Hanzhou's eyes.

Wang Zhaoping's defenses crumbled the moment the stone platform rose.

He blurted out to Shen Hanzhou, his voice shrill and urgent: "Hanzhou...it's not what you think! We didn't intend to kill you—it's been agreed upon with the higher-ups that we won't kill anyone, we're only responsible for locating you!"

Shen Hanzhou didn't speak, he just looked at him.

Dust above the stone platform drifted slowly down through the cracks in the broken floorboards. Wang Zhaoping completely broke down amidst Shen Hanzhou's silence.

He suddenly raised his head, his voice growing louder and louder, becoming incoherent: "The Xiongbei Company made two preparations from the very beginning! The address of Baishi Town was given by Zheng Daoyuan, and Chiji was just handed over to you!"

But Zheng Daoyuan, the head of Xiongbei Company's Lieyang branch, had also installed a GPS tracker in the car! He said, "If you get to the cement factory alive, the transaction will proceed as planned; if you die on the way, Xiongbei won't suffer any loss!" These were Zheng Daoyuan's exact words, and Zhou Ting heard them too! "Zhou Ting, say something!"

Zhou Ting lay on his side on the stone platform with his eyes closed, the excruciating pain from his broken left arm making his breathing shallow and rapid.

Hearing Wang Zhaoping call his name, he opened his eyes, his lips moved, and he managed to squeeze out a single word: "...Yes."

Shen Hanzhou's expression remained unchanged as he turned to Wang Zhaoping: "What did the Five Mountains Alliance give up?"

Wang Zhaoping now just wants to spill everything he knows.

Once it's all over, I won't have to be watched by Shen Hanzhou anymore; once it's all over, I won't have to bear those eyes that are covered by glasses so my emotions are unclear.

He wiped the blood and ash from his face, and spoke hastily, his words coming out as if he were in a hurry: "Three things!"

"First, the Five Mountains Alliance shared the research report on Chen Guohua's body with Xiong Bei and Chi Ji—the basic data for the batch of medicines you helped your senior sister prepare, including the complete autopsy report and metabolic analysis!"

"Secondly, the Five Mountains Alliance has opened its intelligence network across the entire Lieyang Province, allowing for simultaneous monitoring of superhuman information by all three parties! Previously, the Five Mountains Alliance's intelligence network only circulated internally, leaving Xiong Bei and Chi Ji completely unable to access it; now, all three parties share it!"

"Third, the Five Mountains Alliance promises to cooperate with the three parties in the subsequent pursuit operation, share intelligence, and split the spoils equally after capturing the extraordinary individuals! Sharing intelligence is not enough; we will also capture them together and divide the loot together!"

Shen Hanzhou's eyelids twitched when he heard the third point.

The three parties joined forces to hunt down the superhuman.

Xiongbei, Chiji, and the Five Mountains Alliance.

These three organizations used to stab each other in the back—the Five Mountains Society monopolized the distribution of illicit drugs in all underground channels in Lieyang Province, the Xiongbei Society was blocked by the Five Mountains Society for six years when it wanted to go south, and the core members of Chiji died on the rooftop when Wang Hongyuan swallowed up its territory.

Now they're sitting at the same table for the sake of extraordinary power.

And he, Shen Hanzhou, was the appetizer being devoured on this table.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Wang Zhaoping assumed he didn't believe him and quickly added, "It's true! Jiang Yi, he's our leader, Chiji. He was extremely excited after obtaining the intelligence-sharing rights, and during the meeting, he said in front of all of us—"

Chiji has been fighting the Five Mountains Alliance for twenty years, but he never imagined he'd be able to get intelligence from them! He even said—"

He stopped.

His voice sounded like a chicken being choked, with the last few words stuck in his throat.

Shen Hanzhou looked at him and calmly said two words: "What did you say?"

Wang Zhaoping's voice suddenly dropped, so low it sounded like it was being squeezed out of his throat, trembling with sobs: "They said they'd trade you alone for Chiji's intelligence control over the entire province. That's a bargain!"

He immediately lowered his head after speaking, not daring to look at Shen Hanzhou again.

Shen Hanzhou remained silent for two seconds.

He remembered the name Jiang Yi, then suppressed all those thoughts and turned to Fang Li.

Fang Li was much tougher than Wang Zhaoping.

This deputy head of the security team of the Lieyang Province branch of the Five Mountains Alliance had worked in the Five Mountains Alliance for eight years and had handled no fewer than twenty internal purges.

He had seen traitors kneeling on the ground begging for mercy, seen executed researchers crying and saying they were willing to go back to continue working, and he had also seen himself gritting his teeth and remaining silent after his right leg was crushed.

But from the beginning, Shen Hanzhou noticed something—Fang Li hadn't said a word.

He listened to what Wang Zhaoping had to say and calculated what information he still had to offer as leverage.

This person is a veteran of the Five Mountains Society, and his logic is different from Wang Zhaoping's.

He knew that he was in Shen Hanzhou's hands today, and although he was seriously injured and couldn't escape, there was hope of survival—Shen Hanzhou might need someone to deliver a message.

If you're going to pass on a message, you have to leave someone alive; and if you leave someone alive, they have to be valuable.

Without Shen Hanzhou having to ask any further questions, Fang Li took the initiative to speak.

His voice was hoarse, each word seemingly forced out through clenched teeth from the pain, but his tone carried a transactional decisiveness: "Yan Tingyao is now in charge of the Lieyang Provincial Branch. You should have met him before you defected. He personally signed the order to eliminate you, and he also approved the concessions to Xiong Bei and Chi Ji."