He just broke up with his girlfriend and is already living with the devilish rich girl.

When Bai Ziheng arrived at headquarters, the entire building was eerily quiet.

He looked up at the broken revolving door, its glass shattered all over the floor.

Half of someone's sleeve was still hanging from the edge, the blood already dried to a dark brown.

He stepped over the threshold, his shoe sole scraping against the broken glass with a soft, shattering sound.

No one stopped him.

The hall was littered with the corpses of the aliens.

Blood spread from the ground to the walls, as if someone had used the crudest brush, dipped it in thick red, and turned this originally solemn space into a slaughterhouse.

He walked through the lobby, past the mountains of corpses, and made his way to the elevator.

None of the aliens along the way were intact.

The top floor can no longer be described as "a field strewn with corpses".

This place is a living hell made of flesh and blood.

The walls were covered in blood, and thick droplets of liquid dripped from the ceiling. Limbs and entrails covered the floor.

There wasn't a single place where I could put my feet down.

Then he saw that person.

At the end of the corridor, amidst corpses and pools of blood, a person was curled up on the ground with their back against the wall.

Mirage one.

There wasn't a single part of his body that was intact.

The right arm disappears from the shoulder, leaving only a jagged section.

His left leg was severed at the knee by some sharp weapon, and the blood had already drained away, leaving only a dark red pool beneath him.

The chest is sunken, the ribs are flared outward, and the rise and fall of the chest during breathing is almost invisible.

His skin was covered with a dense network of cracks.

It felt like being twisted by countless thin threads at the same time.

Liquid slowly seeped from each crack, indistinguishable between blood and fragments of a ripped-out soul.

The scariest thing is his face.

Half of his face had collapsed, and his eye sockets were sunken.

The remaining eye was gray and dull, devoid of light and tears.

There is only a kind of tranquility that comes from the emptiness that comes after the world has drained all meaning from it.

He slightly raised his head and looked at Bai Ziheng, who was walking out of the mountain of corpses.

"You...have arrived?"

Bai Ziheng stopped and stood three steps away from him, then nodded.

"Was it done by Director Lin?"

Shenyi did not answer.

His one eye twitched, as if trying to identify who the person in front of him was.

"No..." He shook his head, his movements so slight it was as if he might stop breathing at any moment.

"If she makes a move, I'll actually... die a quicker death."

Bai Ziheng did not ask any further questions.

He crouched down, bringing himself to eye level with the man who was barely alive.

When Shen looked at him, a very faint smile suddenly appeared at the corner of her mouth.

There was no resentment in that smile, but rather a self-deprecating and desolate one.

"After countless calculations and plans... for so many years..."

His voice was dry and hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against a cracked throat.

"He schemed against the Special Administration Bureau, he schemed against the Venerable One, he schemed against you... he schemed against everyone..."

"But little did I know, this game was never in my hands from the very beginning."

Bai Ziheng did not interrupt him.

"I've been in prison for over a thousand years."

"I have never stopped hating since the day my people were slaughtered."

"I hate those who killed my people, I hate the woman who stood by and watched, I hate every living being in this world who lives with a clear conscience."

"So I wait."

"Wait until I become stronger, wait until the cage loosens, wait for a chance to stand up again."

He paused here.

Something flashed in that single eye, like the last flicker of a lamp about to burn out.

"Now that I think about it carefully, perhaps this world has always had its own plans."

"In the more than twenty years since I finally left this prison..."

He slowly raised his head and looked at Bai Ziheng, the light in his eyes trembling.

"It then specifically created one that could target me with superpowers."

"That power to cut through flesh and soul..."

"Just like this world, it has prepared a pair of scissors from the very beginning, specifically to cut my threads."

"He came specifically... for me."

Bai Ziheng listened quietly.

For the first time, he heard sorrow in Shenyi's voice.

It wasn't the kind of heart-wrenching accusation, but rather a deathly silence after being crushed, where even anger couldn't be sustained.

Do you believe in fate, Bai Ziheng?

Suddenly, Shenyi asked.

"..." Bai Ziheng remained silent.

I don't believe it.

Mirage One itself provided the answer.

He grinned, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, mixing with the half of his collapsed face, making him look incredibly ferocious.

"But it came to me."

"I did everything I could, killed everyone I could kill, and gained all the power I could gain... Until the very last moment, I believed that at least once, the world would be on my side."

"But is it really so intolerant of us?"

His single eye stared straight at Bai Ziheng, like a homeless child asking a question that had no answer.

"Is it really so hard to tolerate someone from a vanquished clan who wants justice?"

"Who did this?" Bai Ziheng asked.

Shen Yi remained silent.

He swayed, then used his only remaining hand to support himself on the ground and slowly stood up.

Then, he raised his only remaining hand.

Amidst chains and blood mist, a figure slowly emerges in the void.

It was a woman.

She was covered in blood, her hands hanging in mid-air by chains.

Her clothes were torn, and her long hair hung down, covering most of her face. Only drops of blood dripped down her hair.

Bai Ziheng's pupils suddenly contracted.

That's Bai Qing.

He felt his heart being gripped tightly by something cold in that instant, and he plunged into an abyss.

The chains extended from the void, densely binding her entire body.

Some even embedded themselves into the skin and flesh, as if they had been forcibly squeezed in.

Blood was still dripping from her body, and she had lost consciousness, with only a very slight rise and fall in her chest.

Bai Ziheng slowly stood up.

His aura spread out instantly.

It was an uncontrolled, almost violent pressure, like a roaring wave crashing outwards in all directions.

The surrounding corpses were shaken and rolled to both sides, causing the cracked ground to crumble further.

The pressure was so great that Shenyi was forced to kneel down.

His knee slammed into the pool of blood with a dull thud, and for the first time, genuine fear appeared in his one eye.

"I didn't kill her..."

Shenyi's voice trembled, and the corners of his mouth began to twitch uncontrollably.

It felt like being pushed to the brink of collapse by something surging up from the depths of my soul.

"...I didn't want to kill her...I just...wanted her to leave..."

Bai Ziheng didn't look at him.

His eyes remained fixed on Bai Qing, who was hanging there, and his breathing continued to rise.

"I...I was about to let her go...I didn't kill her...It was her...it was her who suddenly..."

"Stop talking," Bai Ziheng suddenly said.

In that instant, the oppressive aura surrounding him receded like a receding tide.

"Stop talking."

He repeated it again, his voice now calm.

He withdrew his aura, turned around, and faced Bai Qing.

Then, he waved his hand gently.

The chains that stretched out from the void snapped one after another with a series of cracking sounds.

It turned into specks of dark red light and dissipated into the air.

Bai Qing lost her support and fell downwards.

Bai Ziheng stepped forward, reached out his hands, and embraced her.

Her body was very light, as if most of her weight had been removed.

Bai Ziheng looked down at her, at her pale face, at the fine wounds on her face, and at her lips that were chapped from blood loss.

He reached out, his fingertips trembling slightly, and gently placed his hand on the artery on the side of her neck.

There was still a breath.

...faint, but definitely still there.

He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.

Then he opened his eyes and looked quietly and gently at the woman in his arms, who was covered in blood.

"I'm already so old..."

His voice was a little hoarse, but surprisingly gentle.

"Why are you still trying to block my way, sis...?"

His fingers brushed away the bloodstains on her forehead, very lightly and slowly.

"I won't even mention how you protected me when I was little, and you still protected me when I joined the army. Now that I'm married, have my own shop, and have my own family, you still come here."

He smiled, but there was an indescribable bitterness in his smile.

"My life was saved by you trading half your life back then."

"You always say you're the older sister and should take care of me. But do you know that the only person I've ever truly wanted to protect is you..."

He lowered his head, burying his face in her hair, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible:

"Don't take on everything for me... Your brother isn't a child anymore..."

Shen Yi slumped in a pool of blood, staring blankly at the scene.

He watched as Bai Ziheng held Bai Qing in his arms, as if he were holding the most precious thing in the world.

He watched as the tears welled up in Bai Ziheng's eyes, falling drop by drop onto Bai Qing's face and mixing into her blood.

Suddenly, Shenyi realized that something in her chest was hurting intensely.

But the pain had nothing to do with the shredded wound.

"You...you don't want to kill me?"

Shen Yi suddenly spoke, her voice carrying a tremor that Bai Ziheng had never heard before.

"I hurt your sister."

"If I hadn't hung her up and threatened you, then..."

"I don't hate you," Bai Ziheng said.

He raised his head, his tears now dry, and his eyes regained their usual calm.

"What?" Shen Yi seemed not to have heard clearly.

"I said, I don't hate you." Bai Ziheng looked at him, his gaze like a stagnant pool.

"This is not pity, nor is it forgiveness. It's just that you are not worth my hatred right now."

Shen Yi was stunned.

He looked at Bai Qing, who was unconscious in Bai Ziheng's arms, and then at his own hands, which were covered in cracks. Those cracks were empty; his soul was riddled with holes, and even his hatred was slowly flowing away.

"I didn't come here to kill you."

"So you came here to laugh at me?" Shen Yi's tone carried a hint of self-mockery.

"What if I told you I had a way to solve all of this?" Bai Ziheng looked at him.

Shenyi didn't reply, but just stared at him with his single eye.

He felt like he had misheard something, because the man in front of him spoke so calmly, as if they had just been discussing what to have for dinner.

"What did you say?" he asked.

Bai Ziheng gently placed Bai Qing against the wall, took off his coat and covered her with it, then stood up and faced Shen Yi again.

"Your hatred, your resentment, your 31,800 clansmen."

He spoke slowly and deliberately.

"I'll help you put a period to this."

Shenyi's single eye widened slightly. He wanted to sneer, but the injury on his cheek prevented him from even making the gesture.

"You can't do it." His tone was very soft, as if stating a cruel fact.

"Those souls have completely merged with mine. If you kill me, they will disintegrate along with me. If you don't kill me, they will be forever entangled with my hatred."

"What makes you think you can solve something like this?"

"Based on the moment you personally carried those 30,000-plus lives on your back," Bai Ziheng said.

Shen Yi remained silent. He simply stared at Bai Ziheng, as if trying to find any trace of a lie on his face.

"I'm not some savior." Bai Ziheng took a step forward, squatted down in front of Shen Yi, and looked the blood-covered man in the eye.

"You're not some world-destroying monster."

"You are Mirage One."

"From the moment of birth, one is destined to stand between the dead and the living, bearing all their resentment."

Shenyi's body trembled violently.

"I didn't come here to kill you," Bai Ziheng repeated, his voice lowering.

"I've come to settle things with you."