"Sister Xiaona, we caught this guy outside the factory."

One of the team members in charge of watching the civilians dragged over a plump middle-aged man. The top of his shiny, Mediterranean head gleamed under the light.

While both sides were fighting, Luo Shi took the chance to slip away while Ruan Xing was distracted. However, he did not expect that there would still be members of the Investigation Corps outside.

Heaven knew how he survived the moment when he realized he was surrounded by a crowd of people staring straight at him—Luo Shi felt like his heart was going to stop. The Investigation Corps recognized him the moment they saw him and immediately subdued him.

"Hey, hey! Take it easy! Is this how the Investigation Division treats one of its own?! Huh? I'm the deputy director of the Research Institute!"

When he saw Su Xiaona, still looking sharp despite her injuries, Luo Shi raised a hand and waved awkwardly, forcing a smile. "Hi..."

Su Xiaona recognized the guy right away and frowned. "Tie him up. We'll take him back with us."

She looked like she was just doing her job—clearly not open to discussion.

Luo Shi lowered his head.

He hadn't expected that after everything he'd done, he would still fall into the hands of the Investigation Corps.

He felt bitter. Why was it always him getting the short end of the stick?!

"I have something to say! I have someone backing me! Inside the base, there is—"

Before he could finish yelling, a sharp pain hit his throat as if a lump of burning coal had been shoved down it. The searing sensation nearly made him pass out. He clutched his throat and took a long time to recover.

He could not even talk about this?

The terms of the contract were way too strict!

He really could not report that person?

Luo Shi dropped to his knees, holding his throat, looking disheveled and deeply disturbed. Something was clearly wrong, but Su Xiaona had no time to deal with it. "Save your testimony when we return to the base. Everyone else—"

She turned to look at the civilians who had regained consciousness behind her and said to one of the younger team members, "Contact HQ to send people over. There are too many civilians here. Our helicopter cannot fit them all."

Then, she crouched down in front of Wang Qi. He lost too much blood and looked pale. They still have to walk a considerable distance to the helicopter.

Su Xiaona reached into her gear and took out a small red bottle. There was still some left inside. “Ruan Xing gave this to me. Take it for now."

Wang Qi drank the potion in one gulp. Color returned to his face, and his bleeding slowed significantly. He stared in surprise. "This stuff is amazing! Where is Ruan Xing?"

Su Xiaona's lips turned down slightly. "I don't know."

Wang Qi was stunned. No one from Squad Two had been lost, but that new team member from Squad One, Ruan Xing... Wang Qi remembered he had not even been with them for half a year. Now, he was trapped inside the factory. Judging from the situation... things were not looking good.

Wang Qi steadied his breathing. "Ruan Xing, he—"

Su Xiaona said, "I will look for him later. We need to get these people and the wounded back first. And him too."

She glanced at Luo Shi. The man shivered.

About five or six hours later, a helicopter descended from the sky.

Su Xiaona narrowed her eyes as the cabin doors opened, and a figure appeared.

The man was covered in dirt and blood. His hair was a mess, with small cuts across his cheekbones. As he came closer, the killing intent around him was icy cold.

When he saw Su Xiaona, Fu Zhi asked, "What happened?"

Her backup had arrived. Su Xiaona couldn't hold back anymore—her eyes welled with tears. "I lost Xingxing."

Fu Zhi's lips were pressed into a tight line. His expression showed that he was clearly not in a good mood. "Things are still uncertain. You should rest now. I will look for him."

Su Xiaona shook her head. Her eyes quickly turned resolute. "No. I need to go too. I was the squad leader on this mission. It is my responsibility to find him."

Fu Zhi did not argue further. After giving a few instructions to the people beside him, he and Su Xiaona returned to the city together.

The place looked different from when Su Xiaona had left.

The once ghastly white bones on the walls had turned into black ashes embedded into the cement-like fossils. The candy roofs and decorations had mostly melted into sticky syrup that dripped constantly. The ground was also slick and tacky.

Both were in low spirits and headed straight for their destination. The former grandeur was gone. With the pollution source destroyed, what remained were ordinary building materials.

Exposed steel bars jutted out of broken concrete. A collapsed pipe on the side kept spraying water with a hissing sound. The muddy ground blended with melted candy syrup from afar, creating a grimy, sluggish sludge—muddy, sticky, and eerily grotesque.

Su Xiaona focused on figuring out the direction of the explosion and began searching through the rubble.

Fu Zhi closed his eyes and sniffed the air lightly. The scent of death was everywhere, and even... the smell of soul annihilation.

His eyes turned ice blue. He had not worn contacts today, so the change was obvious.

In his world, everything looked completely different.

The blood on Su Xiaona's body faded to a deep gray, and her skin turned ghostly pale. Not just her, the ruins behind her, the gravel on the ground, and even the colorful candies on the rooftops all lost their color, becoming just black, white, and gray.

The colors of the world vanished. Once all the flashy distractions were stripped away, what remained were the "living elements"—the soul-flames.

A white glowing flame flickered faintly at Su Xiaona's chest—about the size of a fist, not too bright, with traces of black around the edges. For a human, it was considered fairly healthy.

Everyone possesses these soul-flames. When a person becomes fully corrupted, their flame turns entirely black, transforming into a pollutant beyond saving.

The stronger the pollutant, the blacker, larger, and more vibrant the flame.

Whether human or pollutant, every living being in this world owns a flame.

Through the grayscale world, Fu Zhi could pierce through layers of obstruction and spot these active elements. He scanned carefully among the small black flames. Still, he could not find any glowing ones in the area Su Xiaona was searching.

He already left?

Fu Zhi widened his search.

He spotted a small flame with very low activity, already completely engulfed in black.

Fu Zhi stepped forward and pried open a large stone slab with the back of his knife. Underneath it was a small hedgehog. No one knew how it had survived the massive explosion. Its limbs were blown off, but it was still alive.

Su Xiaona followed closely and looked disappointed when she saw what was under the slab.

"That is not Xingxing."

Fu Zhi's voice was cold. "I'll keep looking."

No matter how hard he searched, all he found were surviving pollutants or half-polluted beings. He didn't find Ruan Xing.

Fu Zhi was tense and silent, continuing the search. Su Xiaona noticed. "Captain, maybe we should go back first..."

Fu Zhi replied, "I will keep looking. You worked hard today. Go back with the others."

Su Xiaona searched for two more hours. By then, the sun had already set. Her body could not take it anymore, and under the team's urging, she finally left.

Fu Zhi sat at the highest point of the factory, looking down at the chaotic ruins. The moonlight fell on his face, casting sharp shadows across his dark hair. His icy blue eyes reflected a cruel, unnaturally calm look. He looked like a lone Siberian wolf on a frozen tundra—silent, ruthless, and cold.

Suddenly, a faint sound came from nearby.

Fu Zhi's ears twitched. He turned his head sharply, pupils narrowing. He locked onto a faint glowing droplet. It was so dim that he had missed it before.

Even Fu Zhi himself did not realize that his eyes lit up the moment he saw the glow. Hope flickered in his gaze, and even the corners of his mouth softened slightly.

He dug through the rubble, layer by layer, but found a crow whose chest was barely moving. It stretched out a wing and cawed at Fu Zhi twice before passing out.

Fu Zhi's smile vanished.

When Fu Gui woke up, the first thing he saw was a pair of ice-blue eyes, cold and scrutinizing.

He had never seen Fu Zhi show this expression when he was with Ruan Xing. It was a little scary.

Fu Gui shivered. "Uh… hello."

After the greeting, he finally realized where he was. A bright window, hotel-like decor, and the familiar chandelier. He had flown up there once, shouting, "Stop fighting already!"

Fu Gui recognized where he was—Fu Zhi's home.

What the heck? Ruan Xing came to this guy's house again?!

Did he drink too much again or something?

That was Fu Gui's first thought. But he quickly shook that off because he remembered what he was doing before he passed out.

"That damn rabbit died?!"

Fu Gui squawked, knocking the bandage off his head.

Fu Zhi calmly tied it again.

"I know you have a lot of questions, but for now, I need you to answer mine."

Fu Zhi handed him a wristband. It was very familiar—it was Ruan Xing's?

"I know you can read," Fu Zhi said, causing Fu Gui's heart to skip a beat.

"Type out everything you know. Do not leave out a single detail," Fu Zhi spoke slowly as if trying hard to suppress the tremble in his voice.

“Your master, Ruan Xing. Before he died—tell me everything, word for word."

Fu Gui froze. What?! Ruan Xing died?!

—

Ruan Xing could still hear the rabbit begging for its life before it died. "Please... spare me..."

But it was too late. The contract had already taken effect. Even Ruan Xing could not stop what happened.

Given such a great opportunity to sign a contract, how could he not rig it?

The scene flashed in his mind. When they were signing the contract, the rabbit stopped and asked why he was still writing. What did he say again?

Oh, "Polishing."

Polishing his ass!

Who polishes a contract? Ruan Xing took advantage of the rabbit's ignorance and tricked it into signing a double-sided contract.

[Upon completion of the trade, the contract is considered binding. Once the contract is established, if either party kills (crossed out) harms the other, the same consequence as breaching the contract will apply—soul annihilation.]

Ruan Xing replaced "kills" with "harms" and added many restrictive clauses using spells—like the more severe the injury, the faster the death, and harming humans would be considered harming the contract holder, and so on.

He hid all of that under tiny ink droplets. He used the same trick to cheat on exams and never failed.

Thankfully, the rabbit was blinded by joy, so it didn't notice a thing.

Ruan Xing had taken the mayor rabbit's attack directly. It did not kill him, but that was enough to trigger the terms of the dual-faced contract.

Every time the mayor rabbit attacked, it was actually accelerating its own soul's destruction.

Ruan Xing carved a final magic array onto the rabbit, marking it like bait glowing in the dark. The contract immediately sensed the violation and came to collect its dues.

Once the contract was noticed, the rabbit—and the entire factory—was doomed.

Ruan Xing had finally tied up a major loose end. Now, he could focus on adjusting to his new power level.

The power of an A-level pollution source gave him a huge boost, allowing him to recover some of the strength of his past life.

Although he had taken the rabbit down, it was very rushed. He still needed to absorb the pollution source so he only managed to put up some protection and had no time to escape.

It seemed like dawn had broken outside. Through a crack between stone slabs, he saw light.

The slabs were heavy and hard to move, but surprisingly, Ruan Xing squeezed through the gap.

Unbelievable. Did his body become more flexible after getting stronger?

He wriggled out and stretched under the sunlight.

Hmm?

Something felt off.

He looked down and saw a fuzzy, pitch-black blob. When he tried to raise a hand to touch it, he realized—he had no hands.

Bathed in sunlight, a round, fuzzy black ball stood atop the ruins. Due to gravity, its body was slightly wider at the bottom, like a fat rice ball with a bulging belly.

Two gem-like emerald green eyes sparkled on the round and super cute black lump.

Ruan Xing's expression went blank.

Where was his original body? Why did he turn into a long-haired soot puff?!

#IAmNoLongerHumanAfterGettingStronger

#IAlreadyToldYouThatPotionWasFake