Two hundred meters underground, the residents of this street were crowded together, gathered around an old television.

"Mama, when can we go back?"

A little girl asked her mother, her timid gaze almost bringing tears to her mother's eyes.

"Very soon. Once they finish dealing with those bugs, we can go back. Then Mama will buy you that model kit you always wanted."

The girl's eyes curved into a smile. She didn't know what the situation outside was like at the moment, but her mother's promise was enough to soothe her hours of fear.

"Meal time."

A staff member in a Quarantine Center uniform pushed a cart over. Many people here were sitting directly on the ground. The staff handed each of them a stainless-steel bowl filled with a sticky, pale pinkish-white paste. It looked decent and nutritious, but had no real flavor.

"What the hell is this? Is this even for people?"

A voice rang out. The staff member's face immediately darkened. "Eat it or not. If you don't want it, no one is forcing you!"

The one speaking was a handsome young man with a face full of freckles: Wang Jiu. Looking at the food before him, he still didn't eat it. Instead, he pulled a piece of chocolate from his pocket and bit into it with a loud crunch.

"Shut up." A middle-aged man spoke up. Wang Jiu looked over, and his temper flared instantly.

The reason was simple.

Wang Jiu's older brother and sister-in-law were the two main culprits in the Unity Middle School pollution incident. When that was exposed, the Wang family's reputation suffered a huge blow. Their business collapsed, and all of it, in his eyes, was due to that girl, Li Yue, from the Li family.

The middle-aged man opposite him was Li Yue's father.

Their families lived on the same street, so their assigned shelter area was similar. This evacuation had been so sudden that many people weren't properly dressed before arriving. Wang Jiu was lucky enough to have grabbed a piece of chocolate to fill his stomach, but now this old man was trying to lecture him? His face darkened.

"Who are you calling noisy, old bastard?" Wang Jiu said bluntly.

The Li family's old man clearly recognized him too. With enemies meeting face-to-face, hostility flared instantly.

The middle-aged man was provoked. "You little brat, don't you know what respect means?"

The Wang family's butler tugged at his sleeve. "Young master, we should keep a low profile right now. We still do not know what is happening out there. Please calm down."

But Wang Jiu had no intention of calming down. His anger boiled over. He stood up and marched right up to the man. "Old man, if it weren't for your daughter, would my family be this miserable now?"

The man also stood, sneering. "Serves you right. I actually think your family has not suffered enough. You all should go to hell together."

Wang Jiu's fist flew instantly. The middle-aged man, being older, couldn't dodge in time and lost a tooth from the blow.

They grappled. Not far away, the staff serving food blew a whistle.

The commotion drew several more staff members, and in the end, the two were forcibly separated and taken to the office.

"Sigh." Director Gu knew both of them. At a glance, he understood the situation. He shook his head. "Humanity is about to be finished, and you two are still fighting among yourselves."

Wang Jiu scoffed. "What nonsense. Wasn't there an evacuation like this before? We didn't go extinct then. I don't care about others. As long as I survive, that is enough."

Director Gu's expression darkened at those words. "This crisis is very serious. You might not survive this time."

Wang Jiu was startled. "What?!"

If even an inner-city resident like him couldn't survive, then the base was doomed.

The middle-aged man asked, "What's going on?"

Director Gu used a remote to turn on a feed.

The footage came from a drone, filmed from a high altitude.

The three people in it were familiar to the middle-aged man.

One was the well-known Major General Fu. Another was a Tower knight, once famous for being the youngest to take the title. The last one, after some thought, the man realized was the recently famous solver of the Mist City incident, someone named Xing?

Why were these three fighting?

Director Gu said, "We have a traitor in our midst."

He played another video.

The figure was blurry, and the person had not even bothered to disguise themselves. It was clearly Pei Yi's face.

At a street corner, as a passerby walked by, Pei Yi placed a bug onto him. The insect quickly crawled into the man's ear.

The man didn't notice, but zooming in several times, the bug was unmistakable. It was one of the same moths currently causing chaos outside.

The timestamp on the footage was from two days ago.

The Li family's business had a significant stake in manufacturing equipment for the Investigation Corps. Hence, the man immediately understood what this meant. His expression turned complicated. "What exactly are they trying to do?"

As for Wang Jiu, he stared at the screen, which showed the extremely destructive fighters, his face frozen as if struck by lightning.

Fight all you want, but why the hell did you have to destroy my house?! My fortune, all gone!

Ruan Xing followed the red dot's marker to a place some distance from the Tower.

There, he saw Fu Zhi and Pei Yi.

Countless wind blades howled toward Fu Zhi, most blocked by his blade, but some still slipped through, slicing his skin and drawing blood.

Invisible blades of air cut through the surroundings with a metallic hum. Some even turned toward Ruan Xing.

The mycelium shielded him, ringing with a ding ding ding as it deflected the wind blades.

Pei Yi's face darkened when he saw Ruan Xing. One against two, especially after having already experienced the other's power, this wasn't good.

When Ruan Xing attacked, he didn't hold back. Old grudges and new anger piled together; he had no intention of sparing Pei Yi's life.

The ambush caught him off guard. Even face-to-face, fighting Pei Yi head-on wasn't necessarily advantageous.

Pei Yi countered with wind blades. Ruan Xing used the same method against him, casting wind magic of his own, moving around Fu Zhi to perfectly match his actions.

The force of the spell shredded a nearby villa into flying paper-like debris, scattering it through the air as the backdrop to the battle.

With a thunderous blast of air, Pei Yi was thrown hard, rolling several times in the air before crashing to the ground.

The impact thudded heavily, and the mirror at his chest was knocked loose.

His once-pristine white uniform was now filthy with blood, with no trace of its former dignity.

"Cough!" He spat fragments of his own innards, clutching the cracked mirror protectively in his arms.

Pei Yi knew he couldn't last long in a direct fight against Ruan Xing, but he didn't expect the man to take him down in just one move.

Even already injured, unable to last much longer... this was too fast!

His expression even showed a hint of blank confusion, a sign of disbelief. A refusal to accept reality.

If Fu Zhi was pure single-target offense, where the difference was only strong versus stronger, then Ruan Xing was like a magic toolbox. Unknown cards, unknown attack methods, and able to pull out a move at random that instantly changed the entire fight.

Back in the mirror world, Pei Yi had already learned about this man's abilities. Using wind pressure to tear open a hole in the mirror space, even the perfectly mimicking mirror couldn't replicate all of his powers.

From the very first observation, Ruan Xing had decided on an ambush. And succeeding in that ambush had been due in large part to luck.

Just what was this man's origin?

Pei Yi groaned as searing pain swept through him. It felt like countless bugs were digging through his body, crawling along his bones and tendons, causing an itchy and painful sensation.

This was not just wind.

Perhaps something else had been carried into his body through the air currents.

Curled up in agony, through the haze of blood, he looked at Ruan Xing walking toward him unhurriedly.

"You seem to enjoy watching others suffer." Ruan Xing stood above him, casting a shadow over his vision. "The Mist City incident was your doing too, wasn't it?"

Pei Yi gritted his teeth and didn't answer. White threads bound his limbs, fixing him firmly in place.

"Why not fight head-on? In Mist City and in the mirror before. You always hid in corners, striking from the shadows like a bug."

"Your brother would be disappointed to see you like this."

The words struck home. Pei Yi's head snapped up.

"Shut up! What do you know?!"

His face twisted, trying to struggle up, only for Fu Zhi's blade to press against his neck, blood trickling down from the cut. Fu Zhi's expression was colder than the last time they had met.

Pei Yi's lips trembled, his messy hair falling forward as he lowered his head.

"Am I wrong?" Ruan Xing's tone was flat. "You released pollutants into the base, letting them devour humans at will, turning the entire outer city into hell, and now you act like you had no choice?"

Muscles twitched on Pei Yi's face, his chest heaving.

"Tens of thousands died in the outer city, Pei Yi. Do you think Pei Ye could forgive you, even if he wanted to?"

"Before they died, those people had their brains eaten, their organs devoured. Insects bored through them, leaving black holes. Their bodies gnawed into empty shells. Do you think the dead would forgive you? Do you think your former teammates would forgive you?"

Ruan Xing's eyes were cold. "You should experience the pain of having your body taken over by insects. Dying like this would be too easy for you."

Pei Yi's pupils shrank. Immediately, the crawling sensation intensified. Tiny, almost invisible insects opened their jaws inside him, writhing and devouring his life force.

"Aaaah!"

His screams were raw. He felt his body turning full of holes, air leaking from his bones, insects pouring from his eyes to flutter before him.

An adult man could endure wounds, but not necessarily torture. Pei Yi was one such case.

Fu Gui landed on Ruan Xing's shoulder, looking at the writhing figure with a complicated expression. "What is happening to him?"

"Just a little trick," Ruan Xing replied blandly.

Fu Zhi picked up the small mirror nearby and saw Pei Ye's reflection.

The man looked hollowed out. "Let me out."

Fu Zhi tucked the mirror into his breast pocket, tilting it so Pei Yi's disheveled state was in Pei Ye's view.

Pei Ye lowered his head. "I didn't think he would become like this."

On the ground, Pei Yi rolled in agony. His clothes were stripped away, revealing a pale chest that had not seen sunlight in years, now covered in bloody scratches. He clawed at himself, trying to dig the bugs out, but it was futile because they did not exist. They were just hallucinations branded in his mind.

Blood dripped, pooling with dirt into sticky clumps.

His gaze was vacant. "Brother, help me! Help me!"

"Brother—"

"Brother, I made it into the Investigation Corps! Now we can work together!"

"Brother, I signed up for the knight selection. Don't look down on me! I just want to try. Of course, I cannot win, I am still young… go easy on me."

"Brother, where are you?" The bloodstained youth stared into countless mirrors, panic on his face. "Don't leave me, brother!"

"I'm here."

In the mirror, his brother appeared. Pei Yi's face lit up as he stepped forward to embrace him, but a dagger suddenly drove into his chest, the wielder smiling brightly.

Pei Ye stood not far away, arms folded lazily. "Sorry, I have already reserved this knight position. You're just in the way."

"Brother…"

I would give you anything, so why kill me?

Pei Yi couldn't believe it. He felt his life draining away, but something inside him was awakening.

[Nirvana]

From his wound, a red flame sprouted. On the brink of death, this new ability brought his life force back.

Clutching his scorched, tattered clothes, all he could see was Pei Ye's mocking face.

It had to be fake. The mirror creature had taken his brother's form to deceive him.

Pei Yi hid and found the impostor. It smiled at him again. But this time, he wasn't fooled. He stabbed its heart.

The impostor's identical face froze in shock before collapsing.

But it didn't vanish, nor revert to a monster's form.

Pei Yi froze.

"My, my. Did you just kill your brother?" A blond man appeared, voice teasing. "Looks like you mistook the wrong person."

A hammer blow seemed to crash into Pei Yi's mind. Absurdity swept over him.

Impossible... he killed Pei Ye?

Ridiculous. It was all an illusion!

The world shook and crumbled.

"Lucky you met me. I'm a kind man, Pei Yi. Would you like me to save your brother? Shouldn't be too hard."

Will smiled, and Pei Yi felt like he had fallen into an ice pit.

"I can transfer your new ability to him, keep him alive. This came at just the right time, didn't it?"

"…What do you want me to do?" Pei Yi's voice was hoarse.

The man's eyes glinted with interest and madness. "Become a knight. Work for me."

Agonizing pain spread through him, every cell torn apart and reassembled again and again until, under the man's force, a new self was forged.

Pei Ye's heart beat again. He was alive, inside Pei Yi's body.

"Very successful. I didn't remove all of your ability. I left you some and avenged you two. Additionally, I made a minor adjustment to the procedure. You don't mind having another ability, do you?"

"Oh, and your brother's memory stops at the moment you killed him. For petty gain, you turned on each other. He must be heartbroken. Maybe when Fu Zhi finds out, he will see you differently."

"Wind, fire, purification, mirrors… You are perfect. Congratulations on becoming a new knight, Pei Yi. No one else has lasted this long."

After that, no longer truly human, Pei Yi avoided Pei Ye. He saw his brother's hair turn white overnight, troubled in frustration and confusion.

He saw the other grow more and more distant.

He couldn't forgive himself for harming his own brother. Over time, guilt turned into hatred: hatred for his own weakness, hatred for his blindness, hatred for Pei Ye pretending nothing had happened.

I killed him once.

Such a grudge couldn't be easily forgiven.

That guilt and shame kept him from Pei Ye. Left him unable to face Fu Zhi.

If only I had been stronger. I would pay any price.

The blond man's figure flickered past.

Pei Yi's face paled. He began groping on the ground. "Brother? Brother, where are you?"

He was searching for the mirror. The one that had imprisoned both Pei Ye and himself.

"Pei Yi!" Pei Ye's voice called out, making him freeze.

The "bites" of the insects had blinded him, but he could still recognize his brother's voice.

Relief softened Pei Yi's face. He smiled. "Brother, you're still here. Good."

"Where is the insect queen? Tell me," Pei Ye asked.

"I sent the queen to the Quarantine Center. Kill her, and the moths will not attack the inner city or desire to breed."

He seemed to have escaped the hallucination and was calm again. "Kill me now."

Ruan Xing moved to oblige.

"Wait!" Pei Ye said. "He can't die like this."

"You can't bear to." Ruan Xing said.

Pei Ye's face was blank. "Not yet. A quick death is too easy for him."

Pei Yi's eyes dimmed. Painfully, he forced himself upright, breathing heavily. "Brother, I—"

Before he could finish, his body froze.

Through the pain, he saw a hand burst from his chest, gripping his still-beating heart before crushing it to pulp.

In the rain of blood, he turned with difficulty to see who it was. When his gaze met the burly man's, understanding flashed in his eyes.

"I'll see you off," the man said.

Pei Yi's body crumpled like garbage, revealing the brown-haired man behind him.

It was Zhou Zheng.