The Sun

Night Watchman headquarters.

Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe touched down and immediately sensed the heavy atmosphere hanging over the entire compound — though the situation wasn't quite what Lu Yuan had feared. The Underground Containment Room had not been breached.

If it had been, the place would be in absolute chaos right now. A mass of Aberration Entities unleashed at once would have been a catastrophe beyond reckoning.

The two stepped into the main hall. Gene Warriors moved through it with urgent, purposeful strides. Acting on the information in their emergency summons, Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe went straight to the elevator and rode it to the top floor.

They arrived at the chairman's office. Lu Yuan knocked. The door opened almost immediately — Secretary Liu appeared in the doorway.

The moment he saw them, Secretary Liu broke into a welcoming smile. "Elder Li, Elder Lu — you've made it. Come in, please."

They nodded and stepped inside.

Lu Yuan was mildly surprised to find that besides Secretary Liu and Chairman Gu An, eight other Gene Warriors were already present.

He swept his gaze across them. Most were unfamiliar faces. Only two middle-aged men rang a bell — he'd crossed paths with them at HQ before and knew they were Honorary Elders.

*Are the rest Honorary Elders as well?*

That seemed the likely conclusion.

The eight stood in the office with grave expressions. When Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe entered, several pairs of eyes flickered with recognition. Nods were exchanged, polite smiles offered.

Three of them, however, studied Lu Yuan with unconcealed curiosity.

A handsome middle-aged man smiled warmly. "Elder Lu — I've been hearing about you ever since you joined the Night Watchmen and always hoped to meet you in person. Today I finally get my wish. I hear you've already reached rank 40 on the King Rankings? Truly — heroes emerge from the young."

His words made the other five Gene Warriors' eyes go wide.

"King Rankings rank 40?"

A slight, wiry old man stared at Lu Yuan in undisguised disbelief.

"That can't be right. Elder Lu, you only broke through to Battle King Rank less than half a year ago, didn't you?"

A hulking broad-shouldered man shook his head, clearly stunned.

The rest of the room wore equally shell-shocked expressions.

"Elder Lu's talent is enough to make anyone envious."

"Battle Emperor rank must be a foregone conclusion for him. Battle Saint might even be within reach."

Watching the reaction ripple through the room, Li Qinghe at his side lifted her chin slightly, a trace of quiet pride in her expression as she tucked her arm through his.

Lu Yuan offered a sheepish smile. "You all flatter me. I've just been putting in the work, that's all."

Several mouths twitched in unison. A brief, telling silence fell over the room.

*If putting in the work was enough to get this far, none of them would still be stuck at Battle King or Battle Sovereign rank.*

Behind the desk, Gu An had just processed the news about Lu Yuan's rank 40 standing himself, and the faint echo of shock still showed in his expression. He composed himself quickly, cleared his throat, and spoke with gravity:

"Everyone. I've called you here because there's something we need to address."

The room's attention shifted to him.

"Chairman, what's happened? This feels like a full-scale mobilization."

The wiry elder asked.

Gu An drew a slow breath. "Word has come in. Zinan City, Yunzhou City, Xikou City, Haiyang City — eleven cities in total have simultaneously reported massive, sudden death tolls among their civilian populations. In each location, there are signs of powerful Aberration Entities at work..."

He paused, glancing at Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe, his expression grim.

"Based on the evidence, we believe Soul-Devouring Orbs may be responsible."

The moment those words landed, both Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe stiffened.

Lu Yuan's brow furrowed. *Just as I suspected — there were never only two Soul-Devouring Orbs.*

But eleven cities, all at once?

*That's not alarming. That's staggering.*

If these were all Soul-Devouring Orbs, and each one evolved to its complete form... that would be the equivalent of eleven Battle Emperors.

A cold weight settled in his gut.

Beside him, Li Qinghe had reached the same conclusion. Her brow creased, and her grip on his arm tightened.

The Honorary Elders clearly knew what Soul-Devouring Orbs were capable of. A heavy silence swept the room. Stunned faces stared back at Gu An.

After a moment, Gu An continued, his voice measured: "All eleven cities are appealing to the Night Watchmen for aid. However, Night Watchman HQ has a critical matter of its own that requires significant manpower here as well. That is why I'm asking each of you to take point on this."

A broad-shouldered Honorary Elder frowned. "Even if we all deploy, it still won't be enough — there are only so many of us."

"I've already reached out to the Imperial Family and other major factions," Gu An replied. "Others will be joining the response."

A collective exhale. The group nodded.

A white-haired elder spoke up: "What about HQ's own Elders? Won't they be mobilized?"

"The Elders have a separate assignment — equally critical. The details are classified."

Gu An sighed quietly as he answered.

At those words, something clicked in Lu Yuan's mind.

*Guarding the Underground Containment Room, most likely.*

Eleven cities erupting simultaneously with severe Aberration outbreaks — that was far too coordinated to be coincidence. There was intent behind this. And the Underground Containment Room might well be the true target.

*If I were chairman, I'd keep people on the Containment Room. Classic misdirection.*

The other Honorary Elders seemed to have no knowledge of any plot against the Underground Containment Room — the puzzled looks on their faces made that clear. Gu An was keeping that card close. Whether out of concern for a potential inside threat or simply careful compartmentalization, it wasn't Lu Yuan's place to second-guess the man.

He gave a nod. "Then there's no time to waste. If these really are Soul-Devouring Orbs, whoever controls them is growing stronger by the minute. Chairman Gu An, please run us through the city assignments. Which one do we take?"

Gu An nodded. "Elder Lu is right — time waits for no one. The most severe situation right now is Xikou City. By the time the reports came in, casualties had already reached several thousand. Battle King Rank fighters on the ground are working to contain the Aberration and evacuate civilians, but there are no Battle Sovereign Rank combatants anywhere near Xikou City. What they need above all else is someone who can get there fast."

"I'll go," Lu Yuan said. "My speed is more than enough to get there quickly."

In truth, as long as he had the spatial coordinates, he could be there in an instant.

The situation was urgent. There was no reason to hold back. If anyone asked later how he'd managed a spatial jump across that kind of distance, he'd attribute it to a prize from his King Rankings climb — some spatial artifact or other. That would hold up well enough.

The Honorary Elders looked at him without objection.

They all knew about the Soul-Devouring Orb incident — and that Lu Yuan was the one who had brought the first orb back. The individual controlling it at the time had been Battle Sovereign rank. Even so, Lu Yuan had handled it alone.

No one had any doubts.

Gu An's voice was steady and earnest. "Elder Lu, if you can get there first, please do. We're counting on you."

Lu Yuan gave a single nod.

Li Qinghe spoke up. "I'll come with you. Two people will track down whoever's controlling the Soul-Devouring Orb faster than one."

Gu An considered briefly. "Then I'll leave it to both of you."

He proceeded to assess the urgency of each remaining city and assign the Honorary Elders accordingly. Once the assignments were distributed, the entire group filed out of the chairman's office together.

The elevator ride down was quiet.

The wiry elder broke the silence with a furrowed brow. "Troubled times. I never imagined we'd see a wave of Aberration outbreaks like this all at once."

The broad-shouldered man beside him nodded. "Let's hope not all of them are Soul-Devouring Orbs."

The words settled over everyone like a stone.

If they truly were all Soul-Devouring Orbs, then whoever had orchestrated this simultaneous eruption across eleven cities had been planning it for a long time. A plan of that scale never had small ambitions.

Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe said nothing, their brows drawn together in matching silence.

They cleared the elevator and crossed the main hall under the eyes of the Night Watchmen rushing about inside, then parted ways with the rest of the group. Lu Yuan took Li Qinghe's hand — space folded — and the two of them vanished where they stood.

The others stopped and stared at the empty air.

The wiry elder let out a dry, rueful laugh. "Elder Lu has a Spatial Type Transcendent Gene on top of everything else. What a gift that must be."

"We'd better move too."

The group shot skyward in streaks of light, each burning toward the city they'd been assigned. The difference in speed between Battle King and Battle Sovereign Rank was immediately apparent — three Battle Sovereigns surged ahead, pulling away sharply from the rest. Even so, the Battle King Rank warriors moved far faster than any conventional aircraft.

Above Xikou City.

Space rippled, and Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe materialized in the air.

Li Qinghe looked around with a flicker of confusion. "Yuan... where are we?"

Lu Yuan scanned the city below, his gaze sharpening. "Xikou City."

Li Qinghe blinked. Then her eyes flew open. "Xikou City?! *Here?!* We just left — how can we already be here? Your spatial movement... you covered tens of thousands of kilometers in a single jump?"

She looked genuinely stunned. It was the first time she'd seen him teleport such a staggering distance at once.

Lu Yuan cleared his throat. "I made some gains recently. My spatial range got a significant boost."

Li Qinghe nodded slowly, processing that — then something lit up in her expression. "Yuan, this ability is incredible! If anything goes badly wrong, we never have to worry about getting away!"

The corner of his mouth twitched. He looked at her sideways.

*Of all the things to think of first — escaping.*

Though, honestly, he couldn't argue. Staying alive came first. The spatial anchor he'd registered back then had been motivated by exactly the same logic.

Then, without warning, both of them stiffened at the same instant. Lu Yuan's eyes snapped toward a particular area in the distance. Li Qinghe's did the same.

Their brows drew together as the wrongness in the air reached them — a familiar, creeping taint. Li Qinghe's expression darkened.

"That energy... it's a Soul-Devouring Orb, all right."

"Let's move."

Xikou City, North District.

A vast residential area. Black mist coiled through the streets in thick tendrils, merging overhead into a roiling dark cloud that blotted out the sky. From within it, Shadows plunged in continuous streams — diving in and out of apartment buildings — while screams of terror erupted from every floor and window.

Inside the buildings, some residents were overtaken before they could run. A Shadow passed through them, devoured their souls, and their bodies folded silently to the floor.

Amid the pandemonium, Gene Warriors in Night Watchman black stood their ground among the fleeing civilians, their voices amplified by Spirit Power:

"Stay calm! Move in an orderly line! Do *not* run blindly!"

On the streets, civilians stampeded in every direction — wild-eyed with panic, shoving and trampling those ahead of them as they fled the residential blocks.

A woman clutched a small girl's hand, her face drained of color, sobbing as the crowd pushed her relentlessly forward. Her husband — the girl's father — had thrown himself in the path of a Shadow lunging toward the child. He lay where he'd fallen. They hadn't even been able to stop and grieve; the crowd carried them on.

Then a large man shoved forward with a savage snarl:

"Get out of my way! *Move it!*"

His thick arms swung outward, scattering the people around him — and in the same motion, tore the woman's hand from the little girl's.

The woman's face went white.

"Xiao Ling!"

The small girl staggered in the crush of adult bodies, her face twisted with terror, moments from going down — when a middle-aged man in a Night Watchman uniform gathered a cyclone of wind around himself, dropped from the sky, and landed directly in front of her. He scooped her into his arms.

His cold gaze swept the crowd.

"Everyone moves in an orderly fashion. Do *not* run blindly. Once this Aberration event is contained, those who caused disorder will be held to account."

The words landed like cold water. A jolt ran through the crowd — not just from the chaos, but from the man himself. The power these warriors wielded was so far beyond ordinary that even in the heart of a stampede, the primal instinct to fear them held. The frantic pushing steadied, just slightly.

The Gene Warrior passed the little girl back to her mother, who thanked him through a blur of tears, then rose into the air on a burst of wind. The lower-ranked Night Watchmen nearby seized the moment: "Follow the evacuation signs! Stay in line!"

They set to work organizing the flow with practiced calm.

A second contingent of Night Watchmen surged their Spirit Power and unleashed Combat Techniques against the Shadows, scattering clusters of them — but the Shadows were endless. For every group dispersed, more poured down from the cloud above.

Several of the weaker Gene Warriors were eventually overwhelmed. Their Spirit Power failed under the relentless onslaught, and the Shadows took them.

The middle-aged man who commanded the wind swept another mass of Shadows apart, his expression carved from stone.

"Damn it all. Has anyone located the Aberrated Individual yet? Still nothing?"

"Nothing, Deputy Director." A young Night Watchman answered with a tight, bitter grimace. "At this rate, we can't hold much longer. Every soul that orb consumes, the Shadows multiply. If we stay, we all die here."

The Deputy Director fixed him with a hard look. A dangerous light crossed his face.

"Then we die here holding. Reinforcements from HQ are already en route. When they arrive, this thing gets put down. If we break now, every civilian in Xikou City is dead. That's over ten million people."

The young man straightened sharply. "Yes, sir!"

At that moment, a single thread of golden light pierced through the black cloud above.

Then the light *exploded*.

It blazed like a sun igniting in the heavens — burning the dark mass apart, flooding everything below in gold. Wherever the radiance touched, Shadows shrieked and dissolved, unraveling into wisps of black smoke.

Every fleeing civilian and every embattled Gene Warrior stopped. Every face turned skyward. Every eye stared up at the sun burning overhead, wide with awe.