Pei Ye's eyes widened to the limit as he stared at Pei Yi's fallen figure. He finally couldn't hold it in and forced out a sound from his chest.

"Ah Yi!"

Zhou Zheng's expression was calm, as if he had just casually dealt with something insignificant.

Pei Yi coughed up blood, looked at Zhou Zheng's face, and saw a familiar expression there. He didn't speak again, but slowly turned his head toward Pei Ye. Red spots bloomed on his pale cheeks, and his chin was stained completely red.

Seeing the fear on Pei Ye's face, Pei Yi's thoughts drifted far away.

"Brother, I was wrong."

Pei Yi didn't even know if those words had left his mouth. Whether it was his avoidance or his self-righteousness, both had caused irreparable harm between them.

A crystalline liquid slid from the corner of his eye, and his gaze gradually lost its light.

Fu Zhi immediately stepped forward, drew his blade without hesitation, and engaged Zhou Zheng in battle.

The moment Pei Yi died, Pei Ye finally emerged from the mirror, his expression vacant. He dropped to his knees and stared at the blood on the ground. In the end, he couldn't hold back and let out a heart-wrenching wail.

Ruan Xing glanced at Pei Ye with a complicated expression, then shifted his gaze to Zhou Zheng.

No, perhaps he shouldn't even be called Zhou Zheng anymore.

Zhou Zheng's face no longer wore a calm look, but a hint of mockery. "Major General Fu, why attack me? I just helped you clean up a piece of trash."

Fu Zhi didn't respond. His attacks only became fiercer. A slash of his long blade broke through Zhou Zheng's defense, sending blood scattering into the air.

Ruan Xing narrowed his eyes. He felt a sense of familiarity with this man. Not because of Zhou Zheng himself, but a familiarity on the level of the soul.

Yet there was no mark of his own on this person.

Zhou Zheng paused and looked down at the severed section of his arm. After a brief struggle, countless fleshy buds sprouted from the wound, wriggling until they reformed into the shape of his original arm.

[Rapid Regeneration]

One of this knight's abilities.

Zhou Zheng lifted his eyelids, brushing his brown hair back to reveal eyes full of ambition, making him look like a true villain.

"You're not Zhou Zheng." Fu Zhi spoke while holding his blade across his chest.

Zhou Zheng only smiled and didn't answer. Ice arrows shot from around him, but Fu Zhi evaded skillfully and closed in.

Fu Zhi's speed was even faster than before. His blade rose and fell toward Zhou Zheng's neck, but it struck the ice armor with a sharp ding.

Zhou Zheng glanced at Fu Zhi's white blade. It was already cracked and clearly wouldn't last much longer.

He smiled. "This blade—"

This blade couldn't harm him at all.

Ding!

Zhou Zheng's pupils shrank. He looked down to see a black long blade piercing through his body.

So Fu Zhi could also wield a blade with his left hand. Zhou Zheng's thoughts blurred.

Scarlet flames swept upward from the wound. The man raised his eyelids, gripped both blades with force, and wore an indifferent expression.

With blades positioned above and below, Fu Zhi looked ready to tear Zhou Zheng apart.

It was clear that Zhou Zheng's regeneration couldn't repair the damage caused by those flames. He quickly realized this and, reversing his strategy, clamped down hard on the blades, his muscles bulging as he tried to pin Fu Zhi in place. Tough frost quickly covered Fu Zhi's body.

He intended to trade his life for Fu Zhi's!

Ruan Xing immediately flung out his mycelium, the other end of it hooking toward Zhou Zheng's neck. Bright red blood gushed out, bubbling as it spilled from the cut in his windpipe.

The shadow of death descended.

The muscles on Zhou Zheng's face seemed to be split into two sides: on the left, fear, his gaze pleading toward Fu Zhi; on the right, indifference, with even madness in his eyes when they met Fu Zhi's.

It was as if… two people were inside this body.

Ruan Xing's eyelids twitched. He glanced at Fu Gui, who looked equally shocked, and for some reason thought of that boy from the road.

Fu Zhi's face remained unchanged, still cold and detached, as if Zhou Zheng's desperate struggle was beneath his notice. The broken ice spikes drove into Fu Zhi's body, blood dripping down, but he resolutely stayed on his course.

With his movements, shards of ice fell away, shattering the frost on his body.

The opposing forces twisted Zhou Zheng's body into several sections. The dull sound of blades cutting flesh filled the air, and flames surged upward, illuminating his distorted expression.

Crack!

As if on cue, Zhou Zheng finally stopped resisting.

Two afterimages, accompanied by flying beads of blood, cut his body into three pieces.

The head, torso, and remaining lower half toppled to different spots like scattered building blocks.

The frost quickly melted into mist that drifted through the air.

The head rolled to a stop at Pei Ye's feet.

Strangely, it was still alive.

Its eyes widened, staring at Pei Yi's corpse.

With vitality that strong, perhaps not even pollutants could be harder to kill. No wonder he was one of the knights.

The head let out a scream, grief etched deep into its face.

But wasn't this the path he had chosen? Why pretend to be a saint?

Pei Ye hung his head, hiding his expression. Wind rose around him, lifting the head and the headless body nearby into the air. In Zhou Zheng's frenzied muttering, they were shredded into pieces.

Silence returned.

In the surveillance feed, Wang Jiu stared blankly at the scene before him. He didn't understand the grudges between them or what had been said, but the power these humans had shown was even more terrifying than pollutants.

Could pollutants still talk after being beheaded?

Beside him, Director Gu let out a long sigh. "What a sin…"

Wang Jiu shivered. He no longer felt like asking them for compensation. Keeping his life was good enough.

Director Gu received a message, and his heavy expression lightened.

"The most dangerous place is the safest. Quick, gather people! Find the insect queen and kill it."

Everything else would be easy after that.

In the most remote ward of the Quarantine Center, staff found a host who was still conscious. Though it was the moth's consciousness, not the human's.

The insect queen had completely taken human form, except for the wings on her back. Given time, even those wings might evolve away until she could fully replace a human.

Realizing her identity had been exposed, the queen let out a scream that nearly knocked out everyone's minds.

Chen Yihang stepped forward.

[Insecticide · Invincible Edition]

Flying insects are the worst. The invincible edition insecticide, spray it and it dies. PS: only 100ml capacity, not suitable for large-scale use.

Remaining summons for today: (1/3).

The moment he summoned it, Chen Yihang's wristband blared an alarm. His baby-faced complexion went pale as if his life force had been drained in an instant, and strange bulges squirmed under his skin as if something were trying to break out.

Bai Xu snatched the insecticide, stuffed cotton into her ears, grabbed a shield, and charged at the moth, spraying wildly.

"Ssshhh—"

The moth shrieked and tried to take flight, but two metal chains shot toward it, and it collapsed to the ground before it could resist, twitching slightly. It looked in terror at the grinning pink-haired attacker approaching.

The pungent spray invaded its trachea, destroying its nerves and organs.

It died before it had the chance to reunite with its swarm.

The secretary came to An Mao again. "Minister, the energy barrier cannot withstand another moth attack. They… are spreading too fast!"

An Mao turned off the monitor, which was showing the figures of Ruan Xing's group in the inner city.

The drones sent earlier had been shredded by Pei Ye's wind. This new one was scanning the surroundings.

Thinking of the moth Zhou Zheng had encountered on the road, An Mao frowned. "Bai Xu and the others have already gone to the Quarantine Center. There shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Even as he spoke, a message from the front line came in.

After the queen's death, the moths lost their organized, aggressive assault and scattered chaotically. The pressure on the teams dropped sharply, and they counterattacked immediately.

An Mao's frown eased. "The inner city needs to act quickly too. Once Bai Xu and the others finish, have them join First Squad to investigate."

The secretary's smile quickly shifted to seriousness. "Yes!"

Infectious pollutants were the most challenging to deal with, as they were difficult to eradicate completely, and the prevention of recurrence had to be ensured.

The queen's death meant the moths would no longer evolve or share a unified target, but their pollution remained. Individual strength alone couldn't resolve this.

An Mao stared at the three figures still alive in the feed, his expression shifting.

The Quarantine Center had emergency plans for infectious pollution. The entire base running at full capacity could conduct checks in a short time.

The whole base became like a machine running at full speed, constantly sending personnel to various locations. Every second, countless moths were being killed.

At the same time, the tense headcount was proceeding smoothly.

"It is reported that the death toll has reached 24,632, with another 30,743 missing. There are still countless individuals, and the number is expected to rise further. The inner city is scheduled to reopen in a week. Residents at home and in shelters, please prepare yourselves. Emergency kits continue to be distributed…"

Wang Jiu turned off the radio, his expression complicated. There was no signal for wristbands underground, so the last time he had seen anything was on the monitor in Director Gu's office, likely the only place with a signal.

He would have to wait a week before he could return…

But his house had already been destroyed!

The Quarantine Center should pay compensation, right?

But if there was no legal basis, what if they refused?

Forget it. If they wouldn't pay, Wang Jiu would expose the Tower's collusion and conflicts with the Executive Department.

They would have to give him some hush money, right?

What he didn't expect was that before he could expose anything, the Executive Department tore the veil off their relationship with the Tower themselves.

It was a bright afternoon. When Wang Jiu came out of the shelter, he was greeted by a massive electronic screen.

On it were records of the Tower's involvement in pollution incidents and illegal experiments over the years. Accompanied by the host's slow narration and some secretly filmed footage in the upper right corner, Wang Jiu could not help but feel a sense of absurdity.

Were they… preparing to go to war?!