Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Zheng Daoyuan stood up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, the morning light of Gwangyang City was hazy.

The morning light seeped out from the horizon, illuminating the sparse early risers on the street below.

He had his back to his assistant, and his voice came back from the direction of the window.

"I provided the address for Shiraishi. I provided the car. I installed the GPS tracker."

He counted them one by one, as if he were taking stock of a messy account.

"He was very shrewd back then. He would make the deal as soon as he got to the cement factory, and if he died on the way, Xiongbei would suffer no loss. He was prepared for both scenarios and left no room for error."

He turned around, his voice strained: "He's alive now. Fang Li is dead. He sealed the pursuers into the foundation, burned them to ashes, and molded them into stone balls."

"I turned someone capable of doing this kind of thing from a partner into an enemy."

He walked back to the table and sat down, interlacing his fingers on the surface, remaining silent for a full two seconds.

When he spoke again, there was an added layer of resentment in his tone.

"The organization has always wanted to obtain live samples of awakened individuals. Xu Suyuan was a step too late that time."

"After she disappeared on the seaside boulevard, my men searched the shantytown for three days and only found a few strands of hair."

"Han Xiao's body wasn't even recovered that time. Nanshan was blown up into a crater, with temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees Celsius. Nothing was left."

His tone grew colder as he spoke.

"Now look what's happened. Someone I've worked with, someone who messaged me to arrange a meeting at the cement plant, I proactively put a GPS tracker under his car."

Zheng Daoyuan slammed his fist on the table.

The teacup jolted and jumped, spilling tea onto the report cover and wetting a corner of it.

"If I hadn't installed that locator back then—"

He paused for a moment, then his voice suddenly rose.

"If we send someone to protect him in White Stone Town, the trust between Xiongbei Company and him will remain. I can then legitimately send an observation team to follow him and record the entire process of his abilities developing from nothing to something."

"He had no suspicion of me. I had firsthand data on his state before awakening, how his brainwaves changed at the moment of awakening, and how his metabolic indicators fluctuated when his abilities were activated."

"A hundred times more detailed than the autopsy reports of those frozen corpses from the Five Sacred Mountains Society."

"I could even collaborate with him to build a laboratory and reproduce the complete formula left behind by Shen Yanhui."

He lowered his voice, as if he were talking to himself.

"It's lost."

He slammed his fist on the table again, this time with his left hand, and with even more force than before.

"They were all lost because of that locator."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When I opened my eyes again, I had regained my composure.

He reached out and straightened the tilted teacup, his movements unhurried and deliberate.

His fingers were as steady as if he hadn't just pounded the table.

"The mistake has been made, and regret won't put food on the table. The cooperative relationship is over, and there's no point in getting back in touch."

"When he pried open the mudguard to remove the positioning device on the roadside, he should have guessed that I installed it. The cooperation window is closed."

The assistant finally dared to speak: "So, what's the next step?"

Zheng Daoyuan said, "Find him before the Five Mountains Alliance and Chiji. If cooperation fails, capture him directly."

"Capture him alive, study his abilities, and extract the correct parameters for the formula. If you can't capture him alive, dispose of him on the spot; at the very least, don't let the Five Mountains Alliance get their hands on him."

There was still a hidden ruthlessness in his heart that he didn't voice.

Whether or not Shen Hanzhou has awakened, he is now the biggest variable in the underground structure of Lieyang Province.

The Five Mountains Alliance lost Fang Li, the Red Thorn Alliance lost Zhou Ting and Wang Zhaoping, and Xiong Bei only lost a cooperation opportunity.

Shen Hanzhou is still alive, his abilities are still there, and the formula is still there.

Whoever can pin him down on the experimental table first will gain a significant lead over their rivals in the research of supernatural powers.

He has already ruined the partnership by underestimating Shen Hanzhou, and he will not risk this stake by hesitating again.

Zheng Daoyuan stood up and walked to the map of Lieyang Province hanging on the wall.

Guangyang City, Chenxi City, Baishi Town, abandoned industrial zone.

He circled the four locations in red pen, and connected the circles with arrows to form a winding escape line.

He tapped the four circles with his fingertips one by one, from White Stone Town all the way to the abandoned industrial area, and finally stopped on a blank area that had not yet been circled.

His tone regained its composure when he spoke.

"Currently, there are three groups of people in Lieyang Province chasing after the same Shen Hanzhou."

"Yan Tingyao killed Fang Li, and six men chased him into the factory, but none of them came out."

"Jiang Yi killed Zhou Ting and Wang Zhaoping, burned them to ashes, and molded them into stone balls."

"People are dying on both sides. We've only lost one cooperation opportunity so far, and our manpower is still intact."

The assistant asked, "But our intelligence network in Lieyang Province isn't as secretive as the Five Mountains Alliance. How can we possibly outmaneuver them?"

Zheng Daoyuan turned around, his back to the map.

"Yan Tingyao's position is not yet secure."

"After Wang Hongyuan's downfall, he took over the Lieyang Provincial Branch, but the scores for Song Mingzhang's death at Yunyin Manor and Zhong Heng's death at Qingyun Horse Ranch have not yet been settled."

"Headquarters is already observing him. He can't afford to fail again."

"Jiang Yi is even worse off."

He pointed to the area where Redthorn was active on the map.

"The two men he sent to kill Shen Hanzhou were burned to ashes and sealed inside a stone sphere. Shen Hanzhou hates him the most now."

"This hatred is a burden on Crimsonthorn, not ours."

"Both opponents have their own burdens, but we have the lightest."

He walked back to the table and sat down.

He took a kraft paper folder from the drawer and opened it.

Inside are Shen Yanhui's old files.

The paper is yellowed and the edges are worn.

The cover is printed with the words "Five Mountains Society Lieyang Province Branch - Internal Personnel Files" in red.

"More importantly—"

He opened the file, pushed it aside, as if he were organizing his thoughts.

"We need to analyze Shen Hanzhou's current situation. He's been surrounded by three parties, has been on the run for four days and four nights, and has just survived a life-or-death battle."

"Regardless of the principle behind his ability to mold cement like mud, killing six people right after awakening must have taken a huge toll on his mental and physical strength."

"He needs two things most right now. First, a safe place to recover his strength. Second, to finish that batch of medicine."

"That was the product of his revenge for his senior sister; he won't give it up just because he's awakened."

Zheng Daoyuan extended his five fingers one by one, pressing them down after each count.

It was as if they were making a choice for Shen Hanzhou.

"What can the Five Mountains Alliance give him? Lock him in the basement as an experimental subject, squeeze out his abilities and formulas, and then dispose of him."

"What can Chiji give him? A bullet. Jiang Yi has already sealed his fate; there's no turning back."

"What can the General Administration offer him? K-class files are sealed, he's locked up in a containment facility, and he'll disappear for life."

"Only our Kumahoku Company—"

He reopened his pressed-down fingers and opened his palm.

"We can provide him with laboratory facilities and a professional team. We can continue the research that his senior, Shen Yanhui, didn't finish back then."

His tone was confident.

It has the shrewdness and calculating nature of a businessman negotiating terms.

"I did install a GPS tracker. But I also gave him my address and car. At least initially, I was the only one who formally discussed the terms of the deal with him."

"Among the three sides that were blocking us, I was the only one who had arranged to meet him at the cement factory, rather than setting up an ambush."

"Neither the Five Mountains Alliance nor the Red Thorn have this foundation."

He closed the file and made his decision.

"Let's start with diplomacy, then move to force. Let's resend the cooperation terms through encrypted channels."

"Send it to the encrypted channel he used before, and he can receive it as soon as he turns on his computer."

"The conditions are as planned: Xiong Bei will provide the raw materials and laboratory shelter, and he will hand over the correct formula parameters."

"This time, we won't install a GPS tracker or add any additional terms. We'll give him three days to respond."