Chapter 523: When Shadows and Blood Collide

The air suddenly solidified as a razor-sharp shiver brushed against the skin.

Bright, glaring lights illuminated wounds of exposed, bloody flesh, with clumps of muscle visible. A pallid face, emotionlessly chewing on its own flesh, along with deep red corners of the mouth and wide, vacant eyes, created an image that struck hard.

“Glug…”

Sun Heizi was the first; a harsh sound erupted from his throat as he staggered back, his face ashen as if he’d seen a ghost.

Gecko reacted swiftly, turning to shield Red Serpent’s eyes, but instead he felt a rough, old hand. It turned out Group Leader had preemptively covered Red Serpent’s eyes. Despite being an older man, his reaction was even swifter than that of Gecko the Spider-type, a testament to his deep bond with Red Serpent’s father and daughter. At the same time, Lu Xin edged forward, blocking Han Bing’s view.

“Glug…”

His throat moved slightly, but his voice was barely a whisper.

“Mr. Lone Soldier, it’s alright.”

Han Bing adjusted her mood, and her voice finally echoed from behind Lu Xin.

Lu Xin turned to see Han Bing’s face unusually pale, her lips pressed tightly as if forcing herself to remain calm, while her expression alternated between horror and scrutiny, carefully studying Sun Heizi.

“We must have found one of the earliest polluted ones…”

She murmured, her voice trembling slightly.

Lu Xin then glanced at Sun Heizi again, noting that he posed little threat.

Yet, he couldn’t help but feel a slight unease.

Sun Heizi showed no signs of mutation, nor any distortion in his mental power, and there was no hint of a mental monster.

Thus, he wasn’t driven by any external force. His condition was simply due to a breakdown in his mental state—numbly, mechanically, he began devouring his own flesh bit by bit…

Is this the extreme distortion that a sleepless mind can reach?

Looking at the gruesome, bloodied wounds on his face, one might feel his pain, yet he himself remained unmoved.

The room had shifted from utter darkness to an almost blinding brightness.

The empty room was suddenly packed with people, including his thug friends and his big brother.

But he showed no reaction at all, as if he had completely lost all responsiveness to external stimuli.

“I need to collect a sample. Mr. Lone Soldier, mark my words,”

Han Bing murmured before pulling a mask and a hairband from her bag. She checked the precise detection device on her wrist and finally snapped on a pair of rubber gloves.

“You watching?”

Lu Xin was momentarily confused. Was Han Bing trying to have him learn as well?

Even with the mask on, a slight blush appeared on Han Bing’s face as she whispered, “I’m scared he might bite me…”

“…”

Only then did Lu Xin realize and reply, “Go ahead, I’ll keep an eye on things.”

Relieved, Han Bing stepped carefully in front of Sun Heizi to check his vital signs and collect his blood sample.

“What… what is happening here?”

As Han Bing began the sample collection, heavy, labored breaths were suddenly heard nearby.

It seemed that Group Leader and Yin Mao had finally taken notice. Their voices, interlaced with trembling hints of crying:

“Sun Heizi hasn’t been seen for just a few days, and now… has he lost his mind?”

“My God, he used to be such a coward—hiding when chopping, always behind others…”

“Why is he so ruthless on himself when he’s too scared to hurt others?”

“…”

“Sigh…”

Amid Yin Mao and Group Leader’s panic, Lu Xin remained absorbed in watching Han Bing, naturally giving no answer.

After all, Red Serpent was a newcomer in the group and was careful not to reveal secrets. In contrast, Gecko turned around, letting out a resigned sigh as he glanced at Group Leader and the others, muttering, “This mess is all because of your shady business…”

“R-really?”

Whether Group Leader and Yin Mao believed it or not, their expressions had undeniably taken on a peculiar strain.

……

Before long, Han Bing completed the tests and blood sample collection without incident.

Sun Heizi quietly continued eating, making no attempt to bite her.

Yin Mao then called out loudly, instructing the underlings below to come up quickly and wrap Sun Heizi in a clean plastic sheet to take him to the hospital for treatment. Yet both Lu Xin and Han Bing knew well that by now it was too late for him.

Sun Heizi’s mental state had completely collapsed.

If a person’s mental power is like a stable model—a finely balanced work of art in an Ability User—then a dead man’s mental power is a blank slate. Sun Heizi was nothing more than shattered fragments of what once was. Even gods couldn’t mend such total collapse.

“Sample collection successful. I need to run a thorough analysis to see if we can uncover anything.”

Han Bing approached Lu Xin and murmured, “But for analysis, we need specialized equipment and personnel. We can’t rely on Heichao City’s Administration Hall, and we don’t have much time…”

Lu Xin nodded; the drawbacks of trusting the Administration Hall of Heichao City were all too familiar.

According to the original plan, this should not have been a problem.

“So you need an analysis?”

While Han Bing and Lu Xin pondered this, Group Leader, who had been listening, suddenly spoke up:

“Leave it to me. I have a state-of-the-art lab at my disposal…”

Lu Xin and the others were instantly taken aback.

How could a street thug have a lab?

Group Leader caught their surprise, snorted coldly, and said, “You think Black Grass can be sold without any processing?”

Everyone was stunned—had this operation become so sophisticated?

“…”

Everyone fell silent, a newfound respect mingling with their shock at the underworld magnate of Heichao City.

A plan was swiftly hammered out: the group would first return to the hotel. Then, Han Bing suggested Group Leader send men to check on others who had participated in that Tianhe Security project half a month ago, people similar to Sun Heizi. Group Leader immediately responded, dispatching dozens of underlings on tricycles or sports cars to scour the city.

Before long, reports began to come in.

Those who had participated in the Tianhe Security project—and even their close associates—were all falling apart.

Some, upon being visited, were found with an entire family of three sitting on a sofa watching TV, unresponsive no matter how much they were shouted at.

Upon closer inspection, that family was already dead, their faces still bearing a drowsy smile and lifeless eyes, fixated blankly on a TV filled with snow-like static, as if dead for an eternity.

Others were found hanging from their own house beams, while their pet dogs jumped around, tearing into the flesh on their legs.

Some lay on their beds surrounded by Black Grass smoke, as if they were submerged in a bathtub.

When one of the underlings arrived, he found someone calmly seated on the rooftop balcony of the eighteenth floor. As the men burst in, he slowly turned, cigarette in hand, and offered them a wordless smile while murmuring:

“I finally found a way to sleep peacefully…”

“…”

As he spoke, he leaned out, smiling, cigarette dangling from his lips, and flew toward the ground.

……

……

“Everything’s gone wrong?”

At these words, Group Leader’s face turned visibly alarmed, the muscles in his face twitching unnaturally.

Their mental states had all become hazy; both their reactions and perceptions were markedly dulled.

Though they were vaguely aware of the sleep deprivation issue, not everyone had completely lost sleep. Most remained oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

Yet seeing so many people falling apart stirred a deep, underlying panic.

“Looks like our mission has grown another clause,”

Han Bing, having just washed her face in the restroom with a few damp strands of hair falling over her forehead, murmured, “It’s nearly certain now that these bizarre incidents are linked to that Tianhe Security operation.”

“Then our top priority is to figure out what the target of that operation was,”

she continued in a low voice.

“…”

Lu Xin nodded, gazing into Han Bing’s slightly reddened eyes as he said, “You must be exhausted.”

Han Bing paused, suddenly realizing why Lu Xin had asked, and hurriedly rubbed her eyes, a bit embarrassed as she replied, “I wish I hadn’t removed my makeup… But don’t worry, Mr. Lone Soldier, I’ll manage through this crisis.”

“Now I need to devise a detailed plan to uncover the secrets of Tianhe Security…”

“…”

Lu Xin sighed softly and nodded at her.

After days of travel, arriving in Heichao City and facing such complex issues, revising the entire plan on short notice—coordinating investigations, gathering intel, and even breaking up a fight—was no small feat.

After all, she was just a twenty-year-old girl!

But he understood the urgency and importance of a mission that affected an entire city’s safety, so he kept his counsel.

“So we need to get to the bottom of that Tianhe assignment, right?”

Unexpectedly, Group Leader, listening intently, suddenly spoke in a chilling tone, “Leave it to me.”

At his words, even Han Bing, Lu Xin, and Red Serpent turned to look at him in surprise.

“Dad~~”

Red Serpent asked in a coquettish tone, “You’ve got the contacts for this corner too?”

“Of course not.”

Group Leader affectionately ruffled Red Serpent’s hair before instructing Yin Mao, “Go get Yongzi and Qiangzi in here.”

“Bring a crew and tie up the recruiting supervisor of Tianhe Security for me.”