The next morning, inside the research facility, Doctor Bai Qinian sat inside her office with a deeply disturbed expression on her face.

Her eyes kept drifting toward the timer displayed across the wall screen. Impatience tightened her features.

Finally, she rose to her feet, pulled her phone from her pocket, and spoke coldly.

"Bring Shao Xinyuan to me immediately."

She paused briefly before adding, "You still have the controller connected to the torture device, don’t you?"

"Yes, Doctor." The response came through the phone instantly. "But he’s already inside the building. He just arrived."

Doctor Bai froze. "Oh."

Her shoulders visibly relaxed. "Good. Bring him directly to me."

A slight pause followed before the voice spoke again. "Doctor Bai, Director Shen Jue has called for an emergency meeting. All research staff are required to attend."

"I’ll attend after I’m done here," Doctor Bai snapped. "And make sure no one sees him enter. I want this handled confidentially. There’s already enough chaos happening right now."

"Yes, Doctor."

The call disconnected.

Doctor Bai let out a heavy breath before stepping out of her office entirely unaware that the man she had just spoken to was currently pinned face-first against the floor.

Wenzhi stood over him calmly, one leg pressing hard against the armed personnel’s neck while the phone remained in his hand.

The man struggled violently beneath him.

Wenzhi simply smiled and shifted his foot slightly harder against the man’s throat, forcing a choked sound out of him.

"Now," Wenzhi said brightly, "that wasn’t so hard, was it?"

The man gasped painfully.

Wenzhi ignored him completely and pressed the earpiece in his own ear. "Are you in position, Sleeping Beauty?"

Meanwhile, Xinyuan walked silently through the facility halls.

Dark mist poured endlessly from his body like living shadows, spreading rapidly through the building.

Every corridor the mist touched, some armed personnel were slammed unconscious against the walls. Others were restrained where they stood, dark tendrils wrapping around their throats before dropping them cold.

Xinyuan didn’t even bother looking toward the security cameras.

The moment his senses brushed against them, the screens shattered one after another across the facility.

Hearing Wenzhi’s voice through the earpiece, the cold expression on Xinyuan’s face disappeared instantly.

A bright smile spread across his lips instead, the tips of his ears already beginning to redden.

"I’m almost there," he said softly.

The dark mist surrounding his body suddenly swirled violently around him, and then he vanished.

The next moment, Xinyuan appeared directly inside the facility’s central system room.

Rows upon rows of massive supercomputers filled the enormous chamber, glowing cables spreading across the ceiling and floors like tangled veins.

Charging stations lined the walls. And standing at the very center of the room was a massive cylindrical glass pod. Glowing wires connected into it from every direction.

The moment Xinyuan saw it, his steps halted.

And like a memory violently dragged back to the surface, the reflection inside the pod shifted.

Suddenly, there was a boy inside it.

A young Xinyuan. No older than sixteen.

His head had been completely shaved, his thin body suspended inside clear liquid as though he was drowning.

He slammed desperately against the glass walls. Again. Again. Again.

Muffled screams escaped his mouth through the water. "No... please! Get me out! It hurts!"

His terrified eyes searched frantically outside the pod. "Mother! Please!"

Xinyuan’s breathing slowed.

Outside the pod stood a younger Doctor Bai.

One hand rested gently against the glass as she stared at the struggling child with a painfully calm expression.

"I’m doing this for you, Xinyuan," she whispered softly. "I’m protecting you."

Something inside Xinyuan snapped.

The memory shattered apart as he drove his fist directly into the pod.

CRACK.

Spiderweb fractures spread across the glass surface before the entire structure exploded apart.

Shards crashed across the floor.

Xinyuan’s clenched hand trembled at his side. His pupils had dilated completely from rage.

"Sleeping Beauty, are you there yet?" Wenzhi’s voice drifted through the earpiece again in an almost lazy singsong tone.

Xinyuan froze.

Just like that, the fury dragging him under loosened slightly.

His heartbeat steadied.

He lifted a hand slowly toward the earpiece. "...I’m here."

Meanwhile, back in the hallway, Wenzhi crouched beside the unconscious armed personnel calmly searching through the man’s pockets.

He was Doctor Bai’s main security personnel.

Which meant the torture device controller.... Wenzhi pulled out a small black controller with a single red button sitting at its center.

He stared at it for a second and pouted. "That crazy woman really did implant one..."

Without hesitation, he shoved the controller into his pocket.

The night before, he and Xinyuan had agreed to destroy the research facility together.

And so far, the plan was going surprisingly well.

But Wenzhi had another objective too.

His kill list.

The elevator beside him opened with a soft chime.

Standing inside was one of the higher-ranking officials meant to attend the emergency meeting the armed personnel had mentioned earlier to Doctor Bai.

Several armed guards surrounded him.

The moment the guards noticed Wenzhi, they reached for their weapons but Wenzhi was faster.

BANG.

The bullet went straight through the official’s forehead.

Blood splattered across the elevator wall.

The guards froze for half a second in complete shock and that was all the time Wenzhi needed.

He turned and bolted.

Gunfire erupted behind him instantly.

The entire facility descended into chaos.

Armed personnel flooded through the hallways searching for the intruder while alarms blared overhead and destroyed surveillance cameras sparked uselessly from the ceilings.

Wenzhi moved quickly through the corridors, avoiding direct confrontation whenever possible.

And when avoiding wasn’t possible, he fought dirty. Very dirty.

The moment he got close enough for hand-to-hand combat, he slammed his gun directly into someone’s face, kicked another guard hard between the legs, then used the confusion to disappear around another corner before more personnel arrived.

But through all of it, his target remained the same.

Shen Jue.

Wenzhi wasn’t about to let something as simple as an explosion rob him of the satisfaction of killing that bastard personally.

Eventually, he found another elevator.

Empty this time. Finally.

Wenzhi slipped inside and leaned heavily against the wall, rubbing his sore neck.

"Ah!" he yelled in frustration, clutching his stomach as it suddenly growled loudly.

Through the earpiece, Xinyuan’s voice came filled with worry. "What happened?"

"I’m starving," Wenzhi snapped. "I haven’t eaten since yesterday. I couldn’t even finish my dinner because of you."

"Maybe we can have breakfast together," Xinyuan suggested casually.

Wenzhi looked genuinely offended. "If I don’t get killed because of this reckless nonsense first."

"It’s your idea, Freckles," Xinyuan teased lightly.

Wenzhi rolled his eyes.

Then the elevator doors opened.

And directly outside, another squad of armed personnel stood waiting.

Wenzhi stared at them silently for one long second before slowly pressing himself back against the elevator wall.

"...Yep," he sighed tiredly. "This is definitely my idea."