Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

The assistant asked, "What if he agrees?"

"Send an observation team to closely record his capabilities and data. We'll make a decision after we get the formula. If he cooperates, we'll continue working together. If he doesn't cooperate, we can't cause any trouble in the lab."

"What if he refuses?"

"Grasp."

"What if he completely ignores me?"

Zheng Daoyuan stood up and placed his hands on the table.

The fluorescent light cast a cold, harsh glow on his face.

The angles of the cheekbones and jawline were highlighted.

"Then we have no choice but to take action. Notify all field agents in the Lieyang division to suspend routine trading operations and shift all manpower to the pursuit of Shen Hanzhou."

"Keep a close eye on the movements of the Five Mountains Alliance and the Crimson Thorn, and avoid direct confrontation, but report to me immediately if you spot any trace of Shen Hanzhou."

"He escaped once, which already cost me the opportunity to cooperate. I can't let him escape a second time."

He paused for a second, lowering his voice.

"Request reinforcements from the headquarters in the three northern provinces. Lieyang Province is not our home turf, but information and items related to the extraordinary are extremely important."

"I want to take the best things from someone else's turf."

After his assistant left, Zheng Daoyuan left behind the three core members of the synthesis research and development team.

The door was closed tightly, and the blinds were drawn.

Only four people and the electronic sound of a fluorescent light remained in the conference room.

Zheng Daoyuan sat at one end of the long table, with three members of the research and development team sitting on either side.

Each of them had an untouched cup of tea in front of them.

Zheng Daoyuan got straight to the point.

"The Five Mountains Society wants to capture Shen Hanzhou and lock him up in a laboratory. Chiji wants to kill him to silence him. The General Administration wants to control him and confine him in a containment facility. They only want one thing."

He held up two fingers.

"We need more than they do. We need the correct parameters for his batch of medicine formula."

"It's not the flawed original version from the Five Mountains Society, but the correct version that Shen Yanhui hid in the experimental records."

"I need firsthand data on his awakened abilities. He can dismantle cement, mold stone balls, and seal living people into foundations before burning them to ashes."

"What exactly is the mechanism, the resource consumption, and the limitations?"

"It must be alive."

He pointed three fingers in turn at the head of the synthesis research and development team.

"We have two cards that none of them have."

The head of the synthesis research and development team sat up straight.

"The first card to play – technological reserves."

Zheng Daoyuan pulled out a bound internal report from the folder.

The cover reads "Overview of Kumahoku Corporation's Neurobiology Research Platform".

He pushed the report in front of the team leader.

"The Five Mountains Society uses Awakened Ones as weapons for research, focusing on combat data collection and battlefield application. How do their abilities kill, how do they coordinate with tactics, and how do they fight? They have a weaponized mindset."

"We are a biopharmaceutical company. From molecular synthesis to drug metabolism analysis, from cellular pathway research to neural regulation mechanisms, we have a complete analytical platform and a professional team."

He tapped Shen Yanhui's file with his fingertip.

"The core mechanism of Shen Yanhui's batch of drugs is to overdraw vitality in exchange for a short-term burst of power."

"This involves three areas: the limiting regulation of cellular metabolism, the regulatory pathways of neural signals on the release of bioenergy, and the efficiency of bioenergy conversion into physical energy."

"The Five Mountains Alliance's weaponization approach cannot go deep into these three areas. We can."

He turned to a page in the report.

The top is filled with a dense list of instruments and a preliminary framework for capability research.

"If Shen Hanzhou's ability is indeed to manipulate the structure of matter, then it makes even more sense."

"The disassembly and recombination of molecules in solid matter involves the control of atomic bond energy, the reconstruction of crystal structure, and energy conversion efficiency."

"This is essentially a biophysics problem, which we have a complete laboratory to tackle. The Five Mountains Society doesn't. Chiji doesn't even have the basic equipment."

The head of the synthesis research and development team opened the report.

My gaze swept over the rows of blank testing items in the capability research framework.

EEG monitoring, metabolic index collection, and measurement of energy fluctuations at the moment of ability activation.

Each item is marked with a description of what Kumahoku Company’s existing equipment can cover.

Zheng Daoyuan took out another file.

This file is older, with yellow stains on the edges of the paper.

The cover reads "Shen Yanhui: Academic Resume and Talent Network".

He opened the file.

It contains a dense list of names, organizations, contact information, and start and end dates of collaborative projects.

Some names were circled in red pen, and some were crossed out in black pen.

Next to it, in small print, were the words "deceased," "left the company," and "whereabouts unknown."

"The second card - Shen Yanhui's complete resume."

He laid the file out on the table, and the three members of the research and development team all crowded around to look at it at the same time.

"Before Shen Yanhui was recruited by the Five Mountains Society, the headhunting department of Xiongbei Company had also contacted her."

"Although the deal didn't go through, the headhunting department did their research on her network of contacts."

"We have archives of all the researchers she has collaborated with in academia, the students she has mentored, and her classmates during her doctoral studies."

He pointed to one of the names circled in red.

Next to his name, a line of small print in pencil read: "Current Deputy Director of the Synthesis Department at Chaoyang Biotechnology".

"Shen Hanzhou doesn't trust anyone now. He hates the Five Mountains Society to the core, he hates Chiji to the core, and he still won't believe me even though I installed a locator."

"But he will definitely meet the people his senior sister cared about when she was alive."

The head of the synthesis research and development team asked, "You mean we should find intermediaries through Shen Yanhui's network of contacts and have them relay our message?"

"No middlemen involved."

Zheng Daoyuan shook his head.

"Find someone that Shen Hanzhou can contact on his own initiative."

He circled three or four names on the list with his finger.

"Screen the list. Find people who are still active in related fields. Those in the circles of biosynthesis, illegal drug development, and underground chemical product distribution."

"Find people Shen Hanzhou might trust. Her former students, former colleagues, and peers who owe her favors."

"Once you find it, don't alert them, just keep an eye on it."

His fingertips pressed down hard on one of the names.

"Nobody knows where Shen Hanzhou is hiding right now. But if he wants to finish that batch of medicine, he'll need raw materials, equipment, and technical support sooner or later."

"The Five Mountains Society is blocking the normal supply lines of the underground channels, and Xiong Bei and Chi Ji are also keeping an eye on it."

"He wouldn't dare touch legitimate raw material suppliers. Every transaction is recorded, and the General Administration is waiting for him to come to them."

"His only breakthrough was the network of contacts left behind by Shen Yanhui. These people weren't officially registered in the underground channels, but they had resources and equipment at their disposal."

"Once he contacts one of these people, we'll follow the lead."

Zheng Daoyuan stood up and placed his hand on Shen Yanhui's file.

His tone was calm, but his words concealed a calculating intent.

"We know more about his senior's academic legacy than he does. We know where her former students are doing research now, what resources her former colleagues have, and who she owes favors to and can repay them."

The R&D team leader copied the list into his notebook and asked a question.

"What if the person he's contacting is already being watched by the Five Mountains Alliance or the Crimson Thorn?"