Ruan Xing felt that the one who was truly bringing bad luck to the people around them was not the little girl but himself. Everywhere he went, something happened—not just polluted zones, but also people with malicious intent targeting those around him.

The little girl was laid down on the hospital bed. The doctor's face showed an obsessed expression as he muttered, "Good luck, good luck, come to me."

If Fu Gui had been there, he would already be singing by now.

The doctor looked down at the pale, malnourished girl. He pulled back her sleeve, revealing a slender arm, and raised his scalpel to cut into her tender skin.

"What are you doing?"

A male voice suddenly rang out, startling the doctor so much that the scalpel fell to the floor.

Who just spoke?

There were only two people in the room—who else could it be?

The doctor shook his head, thinking he was just hearing things, then picked up the scalpel again.

As the blade sliced through the girl's skin, fresh red blood began to flow. The doctor quickly grabbed a glass bottle to collect it.

Once the bottle was full, he turned and entered the inner room.

He opened a basement door and stepped into a room filled with jars and glass containers.

The doctor placed the girl's blood into a set of glass apparatus and began working in a rush.

He added chemical reagents, shook the mixture, and then centrifuged it...

A string of strange procedures flowed smoothly. It was evident that this was not his first time doing this.

After about an hour, the doctor cursed under his breath, "Damn it!"

His eyes flashed coldly. He carried the little girl into the room, intending to insert a long tube into her arm. The tube led to a huge vacuum bottle. If it actually started drawing blood, the girl would definitely not survive.

But the doctor did not care. He rolled up his sleeves, ready to start.

"What are you doing?" The ghostly voice echoed again, sounding exactly the same as it had earlier.

"Who is it?!" The doctor's face twisted with fury.

A black shadow slipped out of the girl's pocket. It looked like… uh, a steamed bun?

The doctor froze. "What the hell?!"

He never expected that the bun-like thing could talk. "Put down the scalpel."

The doctor's expression changed. He ignored the little creature and tried to continue his work.

Ruan Xing did not waste time arguing. The mycelium floated up from the top of his head and wrapped tightly around the doctor's arms and legs.

The black dumpling-like creature jumped onto the operating table, narrowing its eyes to observe the doctor.

"How can there be a pollutant here?! How did you even get in?" the doctor cried out in shock.

Ruan Xing did not answer. Instead, he signaled the mycelium to wrap around the man's neck. "Why are you killing people?"

The doctor said nothing. A slender strand of mycelium tightened around his neck, drawing a thin line of blood.

The man trembled. "I just wanted to save this child. Her health is bad. She needs surgery. I am helping her."

What a load of nonsense. What kind of surgery starts with drugging someone unconscious?

The mycelium tightened further. Beads of blood began to surface, dense and glistening.

"I will talk, I will talk!" the doctor screamed. "I was interested in her ability. I wanted to study it."

Ruan Xing asked, "What is there to study?"

The doctor replied, "I once saw someone awaken an ability or mutate it into something even stronger. I wanted to try it myself."

Human experimentation was strictly prohibited at the base. Even in Ruan Xing's time, no one dared to conduct such research openly.

"You are breaking the law," Ruan Xing said coldly.

The doctor opened his mouth. "Ridiculous! You're a pollutant—what do you know about the law?"

Ruan Xing had no interest in arguing. He told the mycelium to keep the man restrained. He hopped onto the operating table and called the girl's name softly next to her ear, but there was no reaction. She was still lifeless.

The doctor chuckled. "You do not need to pity that child. This is their fate."

"What do you mean?"

Ruan Xing questioned him, but at that moment, a strong sense of danger rose up. Something was coming.

The mycelium suddenly tightened. The doctor's head rolled to the floor with a soft thud. Strangely, the wound did not gush blood; only a thin red line seeped out. It was far from the normal amount for a human.

The familiar swelling reappeared in the room, though this time it was much smaller.

The doctor's entire body seemed to melt. His limbs dissolved and turned yellow. Where his neck used to be was now an empty cavity. His clothes tore apart, revealing rings of fleshy segments.

The doctor had turned into a sandworm!

But this one could talk. It laughed twice. "I do not know what you are, but since we are of the same kind, there is no need to be so hostile. It is not easy to sneak in here. Why not work together?"

He thought Ruan Xing was another pollutant like him, even trying to recruit him to join in the destruction.

Ruan Xing laughed in disbelief. "You think you can compare yourself to me? Have you ever looked at yourself?"

The doctor said, "You were clearly fooled by that child's appearance. They are not from the base. Their genes and blood are different. If I can replace them, I will definitely get into the Holy City."

Ruan Xing narrowed his eyes. "Holy City?"

The doctor's expression turned dreamy. "They say it is a miraculous city where you can gain incredible power."

He stood upright, and the flesh rings on his body wriggled as the mouth on top of his head opened and closed.

"You must not know about that place. Otherwise, you would definitely agree with me. Once we get access, we will never have to worry for the rest of our lives!"

"What do you say? Do not stop me. Let me study them. We can work on this girl together. I'll even let you have her brother."

Ruan Xing glanced toward the door. No one from the Quarantine Center had arrived yet. Why were they so slow?

Seeing his expression, the doctor was furious. "You do not believe me?! I can move in and out of the outer city because I swallowed that man whole, drained his power, and replaced the blood in his body with my own.

Do not underestimate any pollutant!"

This ability was almost on par with the one used by the boss's fake company. It could change forms and even replace memories. Possibly even more advanced.

The mycelium whipped around and tightened again, causing the pale yellow liquid to flow out of the doctor.

It was clear that Ruan Xing had rejected his offer.

He had been doing just fine as a person. Why would he want to turn into a worm?

The doctor, enraged by his attitude, caused a rumbling sound to rise from below.

"You refuse the wine offered in respect, then take the wine as punishment."

A massive sandworm burst through the floor. It was even bigger than the one that appeared earlier that morning.

The doctor was one of them. He knew the siblings would return today and took advantage of the chaos to sneak in and capture them.

The huge sandworm twisted its body and shattered the building. Ruan Xing dodged mid-air and saw the doctor's body wrap around the little girl.

Screams came from outside, along with the roar of car engines and gunfire.

The commotion had finally drawn attention.

Many people rushed out of their homes, some even half-naked, screaming and making emergency calls.

This was the second sandworm incident. Something might have gone wrong with the base's defense.

The horn of battle had sounded. Not far from the first sandworm, another appeared, charging straight into the fleeing crowd, tearing through everything.

Screams filled the air. Blood sprayed freely, and broken organs rained from above.

Ruan Xing avoided falling debris while trying to channel magic. But to his disappointment, perhaps due to his altered body, he still had magic power but could not cast any spells.

The massive sandworm head charged at him, clearly recognizing him as the one who ruined the plan.

The mycelium struggled to resist. It was already down to a small piece and barely holding on.

"Quick! We found the worm!" Some uniformed personnel arrived. It was the Quarantine Center.

Ruan Xing had no choice but to hide himself.

Amid the chaos, he lost track of the doctor.

The girl had disappeared too.

Damn it!

Ruan Xing's face was tense. He felt a fire surge inside him. His magical energy began to rampage uncontrollably, and his emerald-green eyes darkened to nearly black.

Meanwhile, in the Quarantine Center's Inspection Department—

The city-wide surveillance screen showed a scanner reading that was rising at an alarming rate.

Beep-beep! Beep-beep—

A staff member rubbed his eyes, then rubbed again, unable to believe what he was seeing. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "What the hell? Am I seeing things?"

On the massive wall-sized map, a blood-red blinking "S" appeared in the outer city.

"S–S-class pollutant?!" The staff member screamed.

A drowsy colleague next to him said, "Impossible. An S-class pollutant cannot appear inside the base."

"It really is!"

Putting on his glasses, the colleague took one look at the screen and yelled, "Holy sh*t!"

"Quick! Call the Enforcement Division! And the Tower! Major Fu is still in the base—connect immediately! Hurry!"

That night, many people tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

The doctor, carrying the girl, made a rapid escape. He knew he could not afford to fight. That black lump might look ordinary, but his instincts screamed that it was a formidable opponent.

He stuck out a head from his mouth—the one he had hastily grabbed during the chaos—and attached it to his body.

A worm with an old man's head. It was unbelievably grotesque.

"I will never give up!"

The doctor shouted his resolve with determined eyes.

He set the girl down. From his fleshy worm body extended a thin arm—clearly a deformed limb—trembling as it stretched out. At the end was a biting mouthpiece with sharp teeth, ready to sink into the girl's arm.

But just as the mouth came halfway, something stopped him.

A pair of dark green eyes flashed before him. Then, the strength in his body gushed out, along with a spray of blood. His vision flipped, and he saw his body on the ground.

Through the human eyes on his severed head, the doctor saw another human figure. But soon, that figure slowly dissolved and shifted into an unremarkable black lump.

Impossible...

The overwhelming pressure of a high-level pollutant crushed the last thread of his consciousness.

Then, the world plunged into darkness.