Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes, recalling the diagnosis Nuwa No. 17 had given for Li Kang—

Contamination Level: High Risk.

Li Kang shook his head. His complex gaze swept over everyone present, but finally, a smile touched his face. "You’re all still young!"

"So, explain!" Chu Bamboo urged.

But this time, Li Kang couldn’t even be bothered to open his mouth, as if he’d made up his mind for good.

After a moment’s thought, Chu Bamboo said wistfully, "Looks like the next time I see Minmin, I’ll have to..."

"3-181! The Infant Ghost." Li Kang cut in decisively, his righteous expression making it seem as if his previous silence was just a load of hot air!

"I’m not sure of its exact origins... but its function is this: after you open it, you say to it, ’I’m your mommy! Mommy’s been hurt.’"

"The next moment, it will go berserk and attack anyone who might harm its mother! But..."

Chu Bamboo was listening with great interest. "But what? Go on!"

"If you can’t get it back into its box the instant it’s finished with the enemy..." Li Kang’s face twisted. "The Infant Ghost will rip open its ’mother’s’ stomach and curl up inside the abdomen... just like a baby returning to the womb!"

"Normally, if it really gets inside its mother... the contamination will go off the charts! At that point, I’d probably... But, if you can stuff it back in the box right away, it’s not a huge problem. There’ll be some contamination, but it’s manageable!"

Chu Bamboo: "..."

To be honest, just hearing about this thing’s behavioral logic was enough to give Chu Bamboo a severe mental shock.

’This is too ridiculous!’

No wonder an eagle-like man such as Li Kang was trembling in fear just looking at him. The contamination was one thing... but getting saddled with being a "male mommy" on top of it? Who could handle that?

Wait.

"This thing is alive?" Chu Bamboo asked, the realization dawning on him late. He was shocked. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"...Hard to say." Li Kang finally managed after a long pause.

Chu Bamboo: "?"

"If you say it’s alive, it’s definitely not alive! But if you say it’s dead, it seems a little bit alive." Li Kang thought it over and came to a conclusion. "Kinda-alive!"

After a brief silence, Chu Bamboo cupped his hands in a mock salute to Li Kang. "I never would have guessed you were also a master of bullshit, old friend."

"Just average, third best in the world!" Li Kang said, taking it as a compliment rather than an insult.

Chu Bamboo rolled his eyes, sat down on the sofa, and began silently counting the time in his head.

Time trickled by.

Li Kang went from being cautious to bored, and then to yawning.

Suddenly, a piercing alarm blared.

"...What?" Li Kang’s expression shifted slightly. He whipped out a tablet from behind his back and glanced at it. "Six kilometers away, a civilian has learned about the existence of the Extraordinary! We have to..."

Li Kang’s words stopped abruptly, and he grew thoughtful.

’This is different from yesterday... A butterfly effect? Is it because of that big thing I did today? Or maybe...’

’Is the enemy using a tactic to lure the tiger from the mountain?’ Chu Bamboo’s mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. He preferred the idea of the enemy luring them away over it being a butterfly effect. After all, if they needed to resort to such a tactic, it meant the enemy wasn’t strong enough to take them on directly.

"What should we do? Should I go? But..." Guan Fei’s brow furrowed. He kept glancing at Chu Bamboo. He wasn’t a complete idiot; after so many missions, he realized what was happening.

"Hmm, let Wall Announcements go." Ning Linglong’s mind was sharp. She took out her phone and started making a call right in front of everyone.

"That could work! If it’s just this one thing... but I’m worried." Li Kang’s gaze was profound. If this really was a diversion, then even if Wall Announcements solved this problem, other "fires" were likely to break out elsewhere.

Taking a deep breath, Li Kang slapped his cheeks. "No need to worry too much! If they really start leaking information everywhere with no restraint, once it’s reported to the Captain’s Office... Hmph! I don’t care if they have the Jade Emperor himself backing them, they’re dead."

After all, this was the biggest taboo of the current dynasty—

it was a matter that the deity residing in the Grand Ancestral Temple frequently issued Oracles to resolve!

After Wall Announcements was dispatched, Ning Linglong never hung up the phone, maintaining constant contact with him, mostly out of fear that something might happen on his end.

Soon, Wall Announcements reported back, "Memory erased... Nothing major! I’m heading home..."

The group waited quietly, only breathing a sigh of relief after Wall Announcements confirmed he was home and hung up.

Then, they continued to wait.

But contrary to their expectations, no further news of Extraordinary leaks appeared.

"Looks like," Li Kang let out a slight sigh of relief and remarked, "it was really just a coinci—"

The next instant, a black light flashed.

This wasn’t the first time Chu Bamboo had encountered something like this. Quick as a flash, his body tensed, and he flipped right off the sofa.

RIP!

The sofa was torn apart. The black light had pierced straight through it...

"Dammit!" Guan Fei’s pupils dilated. The muscles on his body swelled once more. It could even be said that he was no longer a mountain of flesh, but a mountain of muscle.

In his eyes, the world slowed to a crawl. He could see the black light that had shredded the sofa make a turn in mid-air and stab straight toward Chu Bamboo’s back.

"Run!" Guan Fei rolled over like a mountain, slamming Chu Bamboo underneath him with a BOOM.

Blood spattered!

Chu Bamboo: "?"

’Are you crazy?’ Chu Bamboo almost laughed in exasperation. It wasn’t that he wasn’t moved by Guan Fei’s quick reaction, but the crucial point was... he was wearing the down jacket! When it came to taking a hit, he was definitely tougher than Guan Fei.

"!" Li Kang immediately opened the safe, his words rapid. "I am your mommy, Mommy has been hurt!"

The infant, wizened like black wood, opened its eyes.

Its pupils were crimson, without a trace of any other color.

A sharp, piercing screech erupted! The glass windows trembled, and faint cracks appeared upon them.

Berserk power was unleashed wantonly.

Fast, incredibly fast!

The infant transformed into a Divine Light of black and blood-red. It violently collided with the other black light in the void!

Chu Bamboo shoved Guan Fei off him with one hand, got up, and stared grimly at the two black lights. He could finally begin to make out their forms. The infant’s was obvious, but the other one...

"...A shadow?" Chu Bamboo murmured. It didn’t quite look like a person. It twisted and turned in the void, swift as a Flying Sword, but at the same time, its form was constantly changing. One moment it was a black sword, the next a black shield, and the next it had even become a beast.

It could transform like this three times in a single second!

Seeing this, Ning Linglong swallowed hard, her expression grim as she began to chant loudly.

"The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao!"

"The name that can be named is not the eternal name!"

Chu Bamboo: "!"

’Chinese! It’s Chinese again.’