"WTF! Who the hell is that?!"

"Are you crazy?!"

Even normal people rarely hear such blatantly rude words.

The host stared, dumbfounded, turning to look at Su Su, whose expression had turned rather unpleasant.

Su Su forced a smile: "Since someone doesn't like it, then I won't overstep. Let's pick another lucky audience member."

She handled it gracefully—no fuss, even after being insulted—which made a lot of people feel sorry for her.

Right after she spoke, some fans weren't having it. They started shouting: "So rude! Apologize!"

"Apologize!"

"Apologize!"

Since her debut, Su Su has gained tons of fans; some male fans were downright obsessed. A lot of them even tried to push past security to get on stage.

Ruan Xing ignored the chaos below: "Are you a pollutant?"

Su Su's expression stiffened: "What did you say?"

The host panicked, "What nonsense are you spouting?!"

That's not something you can say carelessly! You could get arrested for that!

Ruan Xing's eyes shimmered with a faint glow as she quietly stared at Su Su. She looked like a siren, constantly attracting attention and making people fall deeper into obsession.

But in Ruan Xing's eyes, the stench around the woman had almost turned into physical black smoke, slowly spreading in all directions.

A wave of it wrapped around the host while the rest of the smoke split off and entered the bodies of numerous people in the crowd.

The thickest cloud of it was now surrounding Ruan Xing, trying to envelop him.

"Security! Get this person off the stage!"

The host looked highly alert and shielded Su Su behind him.

One of the fans had made it onto the stage. He was a large man, charging forward with a fierce look and bloodshot eyes while swinging his fists.

Ruan Xing slightly tilted his head, dodged the punch, and circled behind him. From that spot, he was close enough to keep an eye on both the attacker and Su Su.

The host caught between them but posed no threat, so he was completely ignored.

The man also had a faint stench, but it was nothing compared to the woman on stage.

Mycelium unraveled from Ruan Xing's wrist, and with a slight tug, the big guy was tripped and slammed onto the ground. The thud was loud, like a mountain of meat crashing down, rippling with waves of flesh.

The man collapsed on the floor. Ruan Xing raised an ID: "Investigation Corps—please come with me."

Although this woman wasn't a pollutant, the smell of these people definitely had something to do with pollution.

Su Su's composed expression finally disappeared. The host turned around in disbelief, staring at her with shock and suspicion.

Security finally showed up, pulling out electric batons and riot shields to grab people. But when they saw the ID, they hesitated and looked instinctively toward the host.

The host rushed over: "It's a misunderstanding! Just a misunderstanding!"

The fans in the audience had completely lost it, yelling and charging forward, trying to pull Ruan Xing away.

Security scrambled to stop the fans from getting on stage. The scene turned into total chaos—screaming, shouting, stage rushers, and even those just taking advantage of the mess. With the stench intensifying everything, people's emotions were going wild.

It was like they were all on drugs—total madness in the hall, like a glimpse of hell.

Bai Xu kicked away a lecherous audience and contacted someone at the same time.

Ruan Xing brushed the host aside and stepped closer to Su Su.

The fungal threads spread and easily wrapped around her. He pulled tight—but she was slippery, giving no sense of resistance as if he were trying to bind a fish.

Ruan Xing was slightly surprised.

Su Su's face changed drastically. What kind of weapon is this?! It has self-awareness?!

With nothing left between them, Ruan Xing was close enough to subdue her. Su Su gritted her teeth and backed toward the stage exit.

Seeing this, Ruan Xing quickly followed. Her lips moved slightly, and her fingers formed a strange seal.

A strand of mycelium wrapped around a piece of jewelry on Su Su's clothes. She didn't seem to notice at all.

Just as the distance closed and Ruan Xing was about to take her down, a massive shadow suddenly lunged toward him.

Ruan Xing lightly jumped and dodged sideways.

The mountain-sized man from earlier, who had been lying on the floor, had a twisted expression and charged at him again like a human tank.

The air reeked. After the first failed strike, he didn't give up—both fists clenched, he launched a two-handed slam. He boxed Ruan Xing in, fists aimed straight at his head.

If that hit landed, even if his skull didn't explode, it would definitely deform.

The man was too close now, the punch already brushing Ruan Xing's face—but Ruan Xing remained calm. With a small wave of his hand, there was a sharp whistling sound in the air.

Out of nowhere, a black arrow pierced straight through the man's back and out his chest.

Behind him, a spiral of wind shimmered faintly, showing just how fast the arrow had flown.

The man let out a piercing, inhuman scream.

His face began to crack apart. He writhed and struggled, half-shedding his skin like peeling off a shirt—but the arrow pinned his chest, preventing the rest from tearing free. It was like watching a barbecue skewer stuck through a monster.

At the same time, poison from the arrow began to spread. The frog-like pink flesh inside was slowly turning purple. The suited man's once malicious expression twisted in pain and desperation.

"Please... I beg you..." he whimpered—

Before he could finish, the monster stopped moving.

When Ruan Xing looked again, Su Su had already vanished.

The pollutant might be gone, but its influence remained. More and more people approached him—all with the same red eyes, bulging veins, twisted expressions, and the overwhelming stench on their bodies.

Under the effect of the smell, they were losing their minds and turning into puppets.

Ruan Xing couldn't just kill them. All he could do was use the mycelium to tie them up or disable them.

The mycelium that had been on Su Su had already snapped—it couldn't stretch that far.

However—

Ruan Xing's eyes lightened, and in his right eye, a pale green pupil reflected complex geometric patterns densely woven together like a map.

On that map, a red dot was moving rapidly.

[Tracking Spell]

When he got close to Su Su earlier, he had already planted a mark on her. Now, Su Su's location could be seen at any time.

Confirming the mark's presence, Ruan Xing knew she wouldn't be easy to catch, so he turned back to deal with the scene first.

The performance hall was in complete chaos.

Su Su's disappearance seemed to ignite everyone's rage. The crowd started wrecking everything, and the whole venue became a mess.

Toppled chairs, smoke from unknown fires, men screaming, and even the sound of gunfire echoing from somewhere in the distance.

Bai Xu was struggling to keep things under control, but it wasn't helping much.

Ruan Xing looked grim. He pulled a hidden gun from her calf and fired several shots into the air.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The noise brought the chaos to a brief halt. Some turned to stare at Ruan Xing, while others, after a moment of hesitation, resumed their rampage.

Ruan Xing felt a wave of frustration. Where the hell is Fu Gui?

"Ruan Xing!" Bai Xu finally spotted him.

Suddenly, a hallucination appeared in front of Ruan Xing's eyes.

Snow started to fall—tiny flakes drifting down, glowing faintly with a soft platinum light.

But it's only September, and the weather is still hot—where is the snow coming from?

He opened his palm and caught some of the "snow" falling from the sky. Strangely, it vanished without a trace when it touched his hand. It didn't even feel cold.

It wasn't snow. It was something else.

These specks glimmered faintly as they drifted down from above the venue, gradually merging into every corner.

After the "snow" fell, the people who had been frenzied moments ago gradually regained clarity in their eyes and slowly stopped what they were doing.

Many wore confused expressions on their faces.

Weren't they just watching a performance? What happened?

"A knight!"

"It's actually a knight!"

Someone shouted.

A figure appeared in the distance. His slightly long black hair was tucked behind the ear, and he wore a white uniform similar to those of the Investigation Corps but embroidered with golden patterns and adorned with golden tassels on the shoulders.

The man's eyes were also gold. He swept his gaze coolly across the room. For some reason, Ruan Xing found his face oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

Bai Xu frowned. "Why is it him?"

The man stepped forward and walked directly toward Bai Xu, nodding slightly. "I happened to return from a mission—perfect timing."

It was rare for Ruan Xing to see such an expression on Bai Xu's face, as if he had something to say but held it back. In the end, he only said, "Thank you."

The man then turned to meet Ruan Xing's gaze. "You were the one who fired the shot just now?"

Ruan Xing just responded with a quiet "Mm."

The man nodded. "Well done. You bought us some time."

The praise, delivered from a high-and-mighty stance, made Ruan Xing uncomfortable.

"The situation is mostly under control now. I'll be going."

Just as the man was about to leave, his gaze paused. Ruan Xing looked down and saw he was staring at a small black feather on her shoulder.

It was Fu Gui's feather.

"Is there something wrong?" Ruan Xing asked him.

"Nothing." The man withdrew his gaze indifferently and said to Bai Xu, "I'll return to the Tower."

The Tower officially claimed it only handled the purification of pollution and didn't interfere with worldly affairs—like the resettlement of affected individuals. Naturally, the hassle fell to the Enforcement Division.

"Got it~," Bai Xu replied breezily.

As the man left, staff from the Quarantine Center entered the venue.

The leader greeted Ruan Xing and the others politely, inviting them to the Quarantine Center for a bit.

The group had no objections. The Quarantine Center handled matters within the base, while the Investigation Corps primarily dealt with outside matters. Even so, cooperation in such cases was expected.

"Where'd you disappear to just now?" Ruan Xing asked Fu Gui.

"Went to take a dump. Can't exactly do it on your head, can I?" Fu Gui replied shamelessly.

Ruan Xing pinched Fu Gui's cheek.

After settling the situation at the scene, they rode a vehicle to the Quarantine Center. Unexpectedly, they saw a familiar figure in the office—someone leaning tearfully into their manager's arms.

Ruan Xing paused mid-step. Didn't she run far away earlier? How did she get back so fast?

Su Su visibly trembled in fear when she saw Ruan Xing.

"You have to investigate this properly! I don't know what happened—this person just tried to arrest me. I'm innocent!" she cried, pointing an accusing finger at Ruan Xing.

The stench she carried before had mostly faded.

"Miss Su, while we didn't detect any pollution on you, the incident occurred during your performance and affected a lot of people. We can't simply brush this off in front of the public."

Before entering the office, Ruan Xing overheard Su Su continuing her tearful plea: "I really don't know anything..."

She might not be polluted, but that didn't rule out the influence of supernatural powers. After all, the incident with Chen Yin was still fresh.

Ruan Xing entered an office. Though both were under the Enforcement Division, the Investigation Corps handled external matters while the quarantine center managed internal ones. But bureaucratic turf wars weren't uncommon when it came to fuzzy jurisdictional boundaries.

The "interrogation"—or rather, "discussion"—was led by a young man from the Quarantine Center. He had dark skin and was on the shorter side.

The two sat across from each other at a bare desk. The man's expression toward Ruan Xing wasn't exactly friendly.

"Ruan Xing, right?"

"Mm."

"I've already reviewed the surveillance footage. Strange, things seemed to spiral out of control right after you went on stage. Anything you want to say about that?"

Starting right off by casting blame—what did he mean things only got out of hand after he went on stage?

Ruan Xing refuted, "There were problems from the beginning. The pollutant was already hidden in the venue."

"If you noticed something wrong, why didn't you report it? Why wait until chaos broke out? Were you intentionally holding back?" the man pressed.

If he'd thought he was just dense at first, now it was clear—he was trying to pin blame. No matter how he explained it, it would be hard to justify.

Ruan Xing retorted sarcastically, "Funny, I was about to ask you the same. Why weren't there any Quarantine Center staff at the scene? According to regulations, large events must be supervised. Or did you give her a free pass because she's a big star?"

This incident wasn't even supposed to be handled by the Investigation Corps. The Quarantine Center's poor protocols were to blame. Now, they wanted to dump the blame? Wishful thinking.

The man was taken aback. "I'm the one asking questions here."

Ruan Xing replied, "Aren't we having a conversation? Are you trying to interrogate me?"

That was a line he couldn't cross. The two departments were on equal footing—technically, the Investigation Corps had slightly more authority. The Quarantine Center didn't even have the right to interrogate them. If there were any real suspicions, the Enforcement Division itself would send someone.

Sweat beaded on the man's forehead. "N-no, that's not what I meant…"

Ruan Xing glanced at the bracelet on his wrist—it was a pink beaded one that looked totally out of place on him.

"You're a fan of Su Su?" she asked.

The man immediately denied it. "No."

Ruan Xing made a noise of acknowledgment. "You seem so hostile to me, I figured you were taking her side." He didn't hold back.

In just a few exchanges, the man realized that although Ruan Xing looked young, he wasn't someone to mess with. He'd tried to play hardball and ended up embarrassing himself—and nearly got dragged into hot water himself. His expression turned sour.

After a few more pointless formalities, the man left, leaving Ruan Xing alone in the office.

About two hours later, he was informed that he could leave.

Outside, Bai Xu stood with his hands in his pockets, looking unconcerned.

Ruan Xing asked, "Didn't get to the bottom of it?"

Bai Xu replied, "There were traces of contamination, but no source was found. And the crucial thing is that Su Su's test results returned normal."

“All normal?” Ruan Xing asked.

"Yeah. The pollution level was a bit high, but medication brought it down. If she were the source, that medicine wouldn't have helped. Plus, the bloodwork came back clean."

If she was really clean, why had she run earlier?

"I see." Ruan Xing's tone was vague, as though he had more to say.

At that moment, the two had left the quarantine center behind. The streetlights along the road suddenly went out.

Bai Xu shivered and rubbed his arms. "Spit it out already. If you're gonna be cryptic, go do it somewhere else."

Ruan Xing stopped in his tracks and replied meaningfully: "Was that person earlier really Su Su?"