Chapter 26

Chapter 026

The scene was heart-wrenching.

Zhou Qimeng had even stopped playing cards. He was crying as he pulled out his phone to take a picture, muttering about adding this plotline to the game he was developing.

His company was currently working on two projects: a cash-grab mobile game and a triple-A title called Global Evolution. He’d started the latter out of a grim sense of duty, watching the Pollution Disease spread and wanting to do something—anything—to raise public awareness. But now, with the authorities gradually lifting restrictions on information about the disease, the game was teetering on the edge of cancellation.

Everyone present was in tears. Except for Lu Yan and Tang Xian’an.

Lu Yan had briefly wondered if he should force out a few tears for propriety’s sake. Then he glanced at Tang Xian’an. The man’s expression was utterly placid, a still pond in a storm. Lu Yan decided to drop the act.

Tang Xian’an’s hand rested on the hilt of his Tang blade, his long middle finger tapping a slow, absent rhythm against the scabbard.

His duty was eradication. To purge pollution. Countless pollutants had died by his hand; Huang Chen had drunk its fill of blood. By all logic, hesitation was a luxury he couldn’t afford.

He’d encountered—and personally executed—many high-level pollutants. He knew better than anyone: the higher up the food chain the monster, the more complete its retained intellect.

In his view, the conflict between humans and pollutants was irreconcilable. A struggle for survival where only one side could walk away.

But to act now… he feared Zhao Cheng wouldn’t survive the blow.

Father and daughter wept for a long time before the storm of grief finally subsided.

Zhao Cheng ran his hands over her arms, feeling the rough, mottled scars beneath his fingers. His heart clenched with a fresh, physical pain. “My good girl,” he whispered, voice thick. “Daddy’s taking you home.”

Longnu’s serpentine lower half still rested in the water. At his words, she shook her head slowly, her face a mask of profound sorrow.

She opened her mouth, emitting a series of soft, hissing clicks.

She can’t leave. There’s no way. There are hundreds of infants in this lake. If she goes, these little Longnu will swim upriver like sturgeon, spreading to every waterway. Their pollution levels are low now, but pollutants evolve.

Besides… after living with them for over a decade, she’s not without feeling for these little monsters.

Lu Yan met her gaze and translated. “She can’t go back with you… She, well, she has children here. Many of them. She can’t leave.”

Zhao Cheng fell silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth. “Then I’ll move here!”

Tang Xian’an rejected the idea instantly, without a second thought. “No.”

Letting an ordinary human live beside a powerful pollution source was a death sentence.

Longnu let out a series of urgent, staccato cries. Her tail slapped the water’s surface, sending up sprays of droplets.

She wants to discuss something. She needs Zhao Cheng to leave.

Lu Yan caught Chen Shisi’s eye, then turned a gentle, reassuring smile on the old man. “Sir, please, don’t worry. Why don’t you rest in the car for a moment? Let us talk with your daughter.”

Zhao Cheng was reluctant, but Chen Shisi’s grip was firm, and Longnu gave his hand a placating pat. Finally, he allowed himself to be led back to the vehicle.

Once inside, he seized Chen Shisi’s wrist, his voice low and urgent. “My eyes are gone, boy. Tell me the truth. Has Yuanyuan… has she become one of those… monsters?”

He’d heard the news. Volunteers from the Prevention and Control Center had even given talks at his community center. X City was still safe, for now. He’d never seen one, but he’d heard the stories.

Chen Shisi hesitated, stumbling over his words, unsure how to answer.

Zhao Cheng was no fool. He’d spent over a decade searching for his daughter across the length and breadth of the country. He’d seen all sorts. The young man’s hesitation was answer enough.

He felt the tears well up again, but they were quickly burned away by a fierce, stubborn light in his clouded eyes. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, his voice firming. “She will always be my daughter.”

***

By the lakeside, negotiations began. Tang Xian’an faced Longnu, with Lu Yan acting as interpreter. Zhou Qimeng and the detective, having recognized Tang Xian’an, stood off to the side, not daring to make a sound.

Longnu: “Aah… eh… ah—ah.”

Lu Yan translated: “She says she won’t leave Longnu Lake. She wants to live here with Zhao Cheng. She can suppress her instincts. She will also… spare the villagers.”

Tang Xian’an’s gaze swept over Longnu’s face before settling on Lu Yan. “I believe her current intentions are genuine. I don’t believe she can maintain them.”

High-level pollutants exerted a kind of bloodline suppression over lower ones—a fact Longnu understood from the trusting deference of her offspring. But she’d never imagined feeling that same primal fear directed at a human.

She possessed enough wisdom and memory to know the truth: without a satisfactory answer, Tang Xian’an would cut her down without mercy.

He wasn’t willing to gamble. He’d rather bear a little infamy and strangle the risk in its cradle.

Longnu issued another series of short, sharp cries.

“She says she will cut out the gills she uses to breathe on land. That way, she can only stay in the water. She also offers to… remove the thing growing inside her.”

Zhao Yuan was pregnant when she jumped into the lake. Not far along. Catalyzed by Lu Cheng, the thing in her womb is a true “dragon seed.” It’s the source of most of her pollution value.

This time, Tang Xian’an didn’t ponder long. “Agreed. But satellites will monitor this area constantly. If there is any anomaly, the Prevention and Control Center will notify the Special Operations Department immediately.”

There would be no second round of negotiations.

He thought for a moment, then added, “The men in the village have reached the third stage of aberration. There’s no returning to normal for them. You are permitted to resolve the situation… with measured discretion.”

The statement wasn’t entirely accurate. The third stage was treatable, if one hadn’t fully transformed. But in Tang Xian’an’s judgment, these men weren’t worth saving.

In his earpiece, the liaison officer fell silent. Their job was to relay information and manage morale, not to question the choices of an Awakened—unless those choices descended into outright madness.

While the presence of a high-level pollutant in the Fuling mountains would make the local authorities nervous, if this was Tang Xian’an’s judgment, they would trust it.

A look of profound relief washed over Longnu’s features.

The gills she used for breathing on land were located behind her ears, like fleshy fins. When she ripped them out, two long arcs of blood sprayed into the air. The pain of it was visible in the shudder that wracked her frame.

Then she dove beneath the dark water. Muffled, guttural roars echoed from the depths, soon followed by a cloud of rich, crimson blood blooming and spreading like ink.

A moment later, a pale hand broke the surface, placing a small, lifeless form on the bank.

On the detection device, Longnu’s pollution value plummeted, crashing from over 7,000 down to 3,600.

It was a pale golden, semi-transparent serpent. But two small, bud-like protrusions crowned its head—the beginnings of horns.

The tiny snake wasn’t completely dead. It had developed fully, its scales a dull, metallic gold. Its tail twitched feebly, a final, weak struggle.

The moment Lu Yan saw it, a sharp, inappropriate hunger twisted in his gut. The King Fish inside him thrashed with excitement, like a man dying of thirst spotting an oasis.

He wanted it. Desperately. But he didn’t move. Because the stranger he couldn’t hope to defeat was still standing right beside him.

Zhou Qimeng peered at it from a distance, clicking his tongue. “So that’s a special item extracted from a pollutant? First time I’ve seen one.”

Their functions were mysterious, but these items were, without exception, incredibly valuable. In the current natural order, pollutants were the undisputed apex predators. But that rule wasn’t absolute.

Pollutants do produce things humans can use. Tang Xian’an’s draconic wings were stripped from another pollutant. The King Fish you merged with is another example.

“Protocol dictates it should go to the Research Institute,” Tang Xian’an stated, his voice flat. “But this area was discovered and explored by your team first, and the pollutant surrendered it voluntarily. Since the three of you are not Special Operations personnel… you may decide its disposition among yourselves.”

Though he said “you,” his eyes remained fixed on Lu Yan.

“A young woman shouldn’t come to dangerous places like this,” he couldn’t help adding. “If you must, at least file a report first.”

In his eyes, Lu Yan was far too weak. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he kept stumbling into the path of incredibly powerful pollutants. Anyone else would have died a hundred times over. It was a profoundly dangerous way to live.

As he spoke, a flicker of confusion passed through Tang Xian’an’s eyes. He felt like he was forgetting something. But if it was important, it wouldn’t have been affected by Zhou Qimeng’s talent in the first place.

Shaking off the feeling, Tang Xian’an unfurled the great, leathery wings from his back. “I’ll take my leave.”

Lu Yan: “…”

For a man with wings, going anywhere was remarkably convenient.

In mere seconds, he was gone, a dark speck swallowed by the sky, leaving Lu Yan and the others to handle the aftermath.

Why does he wear a muzzle? Lu Yan asked internally.

The side effect of overusing his talent is uncontrollable rage. He killed one of his own comrades. After that, headquarters fitted him with that… restraint. Truthfully, it’s useless against his strength.

It’s less a physical shackle and more a psychological one.

The muzzle wasn’t for your sense of security. It was for Tang Xian’an’s. To make him believe he was still under restraint and control. That he wouldn’t completely fall and become a pollutant himself.

Interested in being the one to tame him? I could teach you.

Lu Yan found the system’s words deeply strange. And more than a little perverted.

*

By the time Tang Xian’an returned home, the dog was waiting.

He lived alone in a detached courtyard in City A, with no neighbors for miles. A few miles further on stood the First Research Institute.

He owned a German Shepherd.

It was a special kind of Awakened animal, with the innate ability to speak human language.

The Prevention and Control Center had given it to him as a sixtieth birthday present. It had been with him for over forty years now.

“Old Tang.” The Shepherd wagged its tail. “Finally back. Spring’s almost here. When are you taking me to the pet matchmaking market?”

Tang Xian’an lit a cigarette, drawing the smoke expertly through the metal frame of his muzzle. “Get someone else to take you. I don’t want to move.”

The dog fetched a blanket and settled at his feet. “I’ll call Xiao Wang. He said you came back without seeing me because you went to meet some new teammate. How was it?”

Tang Xian’an thought for a moment. “Too weak. Not suitable as a teammate yet.”

If he took Lu Yan on a mission now, the slightest lapse in attention would mean collecting a corpse.

Not that his current teammates were much better—a bunch of dead weight. But at least their spiritual power thresholds were in the thousands.

“I thought you’d just refuse outright.” The dog’s eyes held a disturbingly human amusement. “But you actually left room in your answer. Seems you like him.”

Tang Xian’an’s gaze drifted away for a second.

The Shepherd rested its head on his knee and said nothing more. Tang Xian’an reached out and scratched the soft fur of its neck.

Humans got lonely so easily.

Dogs understood.