Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Zheng Daoyuan closed the file, his tone turning cold.

"Then let's see who gets there first. Marking people isn't my ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to catch them. Whoever gets in my way will be eaten up."

After the R&D team left, Zheng Daoyuan left the security manager behind alone.

The door closed tightly again.

The security chief sat opposite Zheng Daoyuan, with a walkie-talkie slung across his back.

He had obviously just returned from a field job; the soles of his shoes were still wet from the rain.

Zheng Daoyuan lit a cigarette and dragged the ashtray to his side.

"The R&D team is responsible for building a network through Shen Yanhui's connections. Your task is different."

The security chief asked, "Keep an eye on Shen Hanzhou?"

Nobody knows where Shen Hanzhou is hiding.

Zheng Daoyuan flicked off some cigarette ash.

"But you must know where Jiang Yi's men are."

The security chief's expression froze for a second behind the smoke.

Zheng Daoyuan's tone turned cold.

"Jiang Yi is the most anxious person right now. The two men he sent to kill Shen Hanzhou were burned to ashes, and Shen Hanzhou knows that he was the one who betrayed them."

"There is no room for negotiation between them. Shen Hanzhou will never forgive Chiji, and Chiji will never give up on silencing them."

"There's only one outcome when the two sides clash: a fight to the death."

"Jiang Yi will definitely do everything in his power to capture Shen Hanzhou. Chiji has been rooted in Lieyang Province for more than 20 years, with logistics lines and strongholds all over the province. Their speed in finding people will not be slower than that of the Five Mountains Association."

"Keep an eye on the people from Red Thorn. Their field teams, transport vehicles, and safe houses in Guangyang City and its surrounding towns. If you keep an eye on them, you can find Shen Hanzhou by following them."

The security supervisor asked, "If Redthorn is found first, should we just steal it?"

"Rob."

Zheng Daoyuan stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray with a heavy thud.

The cigarette butt was crushed into a crumpled lump of pulp.

"Shen Hanzhou's abilities are still undetermined. The police department's on-site investigation concluded that there are 'suspected abnormal factors,' and the Anomaly Bureau has already created a file to track him."

"Even if there's only a 30% chance it's a supernatural ability, it's still worth turning against Redthorn."

He lifted his eyelids, his gaze passing through the lingering smoke.

"Let them fight first. Against a transcendent awakener, even a regular field agent from Crimson Thorns will be crippled, no matter who wins. We'll enter the fray and finish them off once both sides are weakened."

The security supervisor then asked, "What about the Five Mountains Alliance?"

"Yan Tingyao has the most secretive intelligence network in Lieyang Province. His men will definitely find out Shen Hanzhou's movements faster than Chiji."

"Our informants around the Five Mountains Association continue to operate. Report to me immediately if Yan Tingyao's security team makes any unusual moves."

"Sudden mobilization, concentrated operations, or sudden reduction of personnel at a known stronghold—don't overlook any disturbances."

He paused for a moment and then broke down the differences between the two companies.

"But the Five Mountains Society is different from the Red Thorn Society. Yan Tingyao wants prisoners alive to report to headquarters. He lost Fang Li, so he has to make up for it with Shen Hanzhou."

"Chiji wanted the corpse to silence them. With Shen Hanzhou dead, everything is over."

"We need them alive for research. Awakening ability, metabolic mechanisms, energy conversion efficiency—once they die, all of that is lost."

"Therefore, when clashing with the Five Mountains Alliance, the goal is to intercept them, not to fight them head-on. We should use our intelligence advantage to snatch Shen Hanzhou from their hands as much as possible, avoiding a direct and exhausting battle."

"When clashing with Crimson Thorn, there's no need to hold back."

The security supervisor made the distinction to mind and then asked, "How many people do we need to deploy?"

Zheng Daoyuan said, "Transfer a biotechnology team down here."

"Notify the biochemistry team to prepare portable physiological monitoring equipment, blood analyzers, electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors, and high-precision metabolic detection reagents."

"After capturing someone alive, a professional team needs to conduct an initial test on-site. We can't just lock them in a basement and point at them like the Five Mountains Society does, saying, 'This is an Awakened One.'"

His tone was cold and hard.

"What we need is data. Complete, firsthand data."

"Request another tactical support team from headquarters, not regular field agents. Shen Hanzhou was able to kill six of Fang Li's men, which means that under extreme circumstances, he can wipe out a standard mopping-up team in a confined space. We can't use the lives of regular field agents to make up for it."

"Notify the equipment team to equip themselves with heavy-duty capture gear, including high-density restraint nets, neuro-sedative injectors, and tamper-resistant composite handcuffs."

"If Shen Hanzhou's ability is really related to the manipulation of solid matter, then ordinary handcuffs are just for show for him."

The security supervisor stood up, ready to leave.

Zheng Daoyuan called him back as he reached the door.

Zheng Daoyuan stood by the window, his back to the door.

The dawn was already breaking, and sunlight was seeping in through the gaps in the blinds.

Cut stripes of alternating light and dark on the carpet.

There were early morning trucks reversing outside the window.

The beeping of the reversing alarm came through the glass, muffled yet piercing.

His voice came back from the direction of the window, very low.

"I made a mistake; I turned my partner into an enemy. Now I have no other option but to give him one."

He pulled the blinds all the way down, blocking out all the morning light.

The office was bathed in the cold white light of the fluorescent lights.

"Bring them back. Start over in the lab."

He turned around, his face sharply defined under the fluorescent light.

His expression was cold and hard, showing no trace of the table he had just slammed his fist on.

"This time there are no locators. Only a stationary platform."

The security supervisor nodded, opened the door, and went out.

The footsteps in the corridor faded away.

Zheng Daoyuan stood alone in the conference room for a long time.

He looked down at the three spread-out documents on the table.

Printouts of encrypted messages, intelligence on the Five Mountains Alliance, and on-site photos.

The three items were lined up in a row, like three cards that had been played.

He picked up the third photo.

A photo of Fang Li sealed in cement.

The cement was poured deep into the foundation, and its density far exceeded that of normal concrete.

When it was dug out, the steel bars in the foundation were squeezed and bent into an arc shape.

The entire block of cement encased a blurry human figure, as if a person had been poured into the foundation when the factory was being built.

Zheng Daoyuan stared at the photo, with only one thought in his mind.

Shen Hanzhou killed all the pursuers in the abandoned factory, leaving behind a stone ball in the center of the ruins.

This is not the destruction of evidence.

This is a demonstration.

Everyone who has ever hunted him will stand in front of this stone sphere for a long time, weighing whether they are qualified to be his next prey.

He turned the photo over and placed it face down on the table.

"No matter what happened to you, you must fall into the hands of the Kumahoku Company."

He spoke aloud to the empty conference room.

"We're betting everything on our business in Lieyang Province."