The day after he returned home, Lu Yan received a message from Zhou Qiming.

“I went to investigate the trafficking case related to Zhao Yuan. It took a long time, but I finally found a suspected culprit. He was sentenced to death twenty years ago for multiple crimes, including smuggling firearms and trafficking women and children. The sentence has already been carried out.”

I have a 1?: I feel something is off, so I went back to look at the confessions. The interrogation lasted a week, and the convict confessed to a lot. The trafficked women were also found one by one according to his testimony. But the only name never mentioned was Zhao Yuan. And at that time, Zhao Yuan had clearly just been sold to Dragon Lady Lake not long before.

I have a 1?: Besides, I also entrusted the authorities to check the address of the original poster. The official told me they didn’t have the authorization. When I went to look, the post had already been deleted. It seems the water runs very deep. The detective has already sent the data report back to headquarters.

[When that trafficker was captured, he had already been hypnotized. He didn’t remember that incident at all.]

Lu Yan only thought for a moment before asking with a very certain tone: “Lu Cheng?”

[Yes, or rather, you should know him by his current codename: “The Prophet.”]

Lu Yan had read many files on pollutants on the Awakened Forum.

The Prophet, Class A Pollutant. Formerly Subject No. 18 of the First Research Institute.

Talent: Precognition, Bewitchment, Hypnosis.

Notes: Low combat power but extremely dangerous. The Institute once gathered Awakened to arrest The Prophet, but the executive “Class A Awakened – Titan” is currently missing and suspected dead. No traces of The Prophet’s activities have been discovered in various polluted areas.

“Where is he now?”

[Are you sure you want to know right now? I can help you look, but at the same time, you will also be discovered by The Prophet. You are the person in this world who knows him best. You know the consequences, don’t you?]

Lu Yan’s expression returned to calm. “You’re right.”

Lu Yan drew his compound bow, the string pulling into a beautiful angle.

The arrow flew like a bolt, the metal tip piercing the bullseye and burying itself deep into the wall behind it. It was thanks to the fact that Lu Yan hadn’t used his full strength; otherwise, collapsing a wall wouldn’t have been impossible.

Lu Yan changed the question: “He orchestrated the trafficking case, and later went to Dragon Lady Village to bewitch the villagers into drowning Zhao Yuan. What was the purpose of all this?”

Everything has a purpose, even if it’s a murderer killing people indiscriminately on the street—it’s to vent against society and make themselves feel good.

Not to mention someone like Lu Cheng, who wouldn’t get up early for anything less than profit.

[To create a god.]

[Despicability is the passport of the despicable; nobility is the epitaph of the noble. In the gilded sky, the curved reflections of the dead are floating everywhere.*]

[Only suffering can forge great and lofty souls. After these souls are fully evolved, their physical bodies will also become exceptionally powerful pollutants. For decades, he has set up a total of seven such ‘games.’ The Dragon Lady Lake you saw is just one of them.]

Dragon Lady Village.

The Prophet covered his bleeding hand, the giant eyeball on his face covered in fine red bloodshot veins.

One of his hands had been bitten off at the wrist by the Dragon Lady.

The Prophet could see the future, but the future he had seen did not include this possibility.

Or rather, this miracle.

At that moment, all the little dragon girls at the bottom of Dragon Lady Lake rushed toward their “mother” like swallows returning to their nest, merging into the Dragon Lady’s body.

The monster, as if experiencing a final burst of life, bared its fangs.

Secondary evolution.

The Prophet had forgotten the last time he experienced such excruciating pain. His tone was furious: “You could have clearly stopped her—why did you just stand by and watch?”

Shen Qingyang’s face still held a gentle smile: “But, if I blocked her, I would get hurt too.”

“Don’t be governed by emotion; isn’t that what you taught me? Teacher?”

Lu Yan took the pale gold snake-fish out of the refrigerator.

The golden snake had been dead for quite a while. Soaking in water, its scent was quite unique.

What a normal person might smell was fishy, but in Lu Yan’s olfactory system, the scent was damnably sweet.

The “King Fish” had indeed remodeled him.

“What is this thing useful for?” Lu Yan asked.

The system replied without a hint of emotion: [King Fish seedling, the same variety as the fish eggs you saw. Very useful. I suggest you cook it and eat it; don’t swallow it raw.]

[The effect will be a bit weaker this way, but it won’t make the two fish inside your body fight. That white King Fish from before is a ‘good big son,’ but it’s quite jealous.]

[If it finds out you have a ‘second child,’ it might secretly bite the second one to death while you’re not paying attention.]

[After all, if it eats the other one itself, it can get stronger, too.]

The evolution of pollutants relies heavily on consuming their own kind.

Occasionally, there are extreme cases that rely on other things, such as courage, faith, anger, or willpower; but usually, this is more like a miracle.

Hearing this, Lu Yan immediately started a pot of water.

High-end ingredients often require the simplest cooking methods.

Lu Yan asked: “Will adding soy sauce and cooking wine affect the fish’s effect?”

The system was silent for a moment: [No, but it will make it taste better.]

Lu Yan was satisfied.

He butterflied the King Fish, scored it, and marinated it in cooking wine.

He minced green onion and ginger, sprinkled them on the surface of the fish, and finally steamed it in the pot for ten minutes. After taking it out, he drizzled it with some light soy sauce.

The fish meat was fresh and sweet, and the thick, pale golden sauce steamed from it was so delicious he wanted to swallow his own tongue.

Lu Yan declared this the best fish he had ever eaten.

[The King Fish isn’t a fish… never mind.]

Unlike the last fusion, the rejection reaction this time wasn’t heavy. At least there was no high fever or vomiting.

Lu Yan felt as if he had drunk too much alcohol, feeling a bit smoky and light-headed.

This was likely because he was already an Awakened with a spiritual power threshold nearing 1,000.

Translucent fish scales sprouted on his arms. They were much larger than when he first saw them, looking like old koi scales that had been raised for a dozen years.

These scales turned from red to a pale gold.

Lu Yan lay on the sofa, spreading his hands toward the ceiling.

“1 hour after ingestion: scale mutation. Symptoms of clear disorientation and uncoordinated limbs.”

“4 hours: scale growth covers the right hand.”

“6 hours: gill slits similar to a shark grow on the side of the ears, totaling three.”

“8 hours: teeth mutation, presenting as serrated shark teeth… two extra rows of teeth appear in the oral cavity, located on the upper and lower ends respectively.”

“13 hours: mutation complete.”

Lu Yan’s body broke into a cold sweat; at the same time, he stopped his recording.

His hazy vision became clear.

In his ears, the system’s congratulations rang out: [Congratulations to the host, you have acquired Talent 167 – Regeneration.]

Regeneration, a Special-type talent. As long as the Awakened does not die, they can regrow limbs for any part of their body.

Paired with a Combat-type talent, this makes for an incredibly troublesome character to face.

[If you had swallowed that fish raw, you could have acquired Talent 29 – Phoenix. This is the advanced version of Regeneration. Just like I am the advanced version of The Prophet’s talent.]

[However, I don’t approve of you doing that; it’s too dangerous. Although the first King Fish in your body is very docile and even shows no aggression… it is indeed the幼鱼 (young fish) among all King Fish with the strongest evolutionary ability and the strongest final form.]

Lu Yan took out the detector to measure his physical state.

Spiritual power threshold: 1,450. Mutation level: 10.2.

He swallowed a special medicine issued by the Prevention and Control Center, which brought it down to exactly 10. He swallowed another one, but the value didn’t drop any further.

“How many are there in total?” Lu Yan asked.

Then, he received an unsurprising number: “7.”

The organization’s grand plan for a blind date was aborted due to the “Tyrant’s” non-cooperation.

Headquarters had no choice but to change the way they arranged things for Lu Yan.

At the K City Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center, Director Li adjusted his bowtie, waiting for Lu Yan’s arrival.

On the first day Lu Yan returned from Dragon Lady Village, Director Li had sent an invitation, but the other party said he wasn’t free for the time being. Therefore, it wasn’t until three days later that they had the opportunity to meet officially.

Director Li had heard that Lu Yan liked good-looking men. He had been a “flower” of the Prevention and Control Center when he was young, but now, in his forties, he was balding due to years of busy work, so he was inevitably worried.

The organization believed that Su Fufeng was no longer suitable to be Lu Yan’s liaison. Therefore, this role was temporarily taken over by Director Li, who had had a phone connection with Lu Yan.

Unlike Su Fufeng, who only knew Lu Yan was an Awakened, Director Li also knew that Lu Yan was a very precious Healing-type Awakened. Although still in the growth stage, his future was limitless.

Being a liaison for an Awakened—especially a powerful one—was a very promising job.

For instance, Tang Xun’an’s former liaison had already been promoted to the management of the Special Operations Department.

Therefore, Director Li still wanted to leave a good impression on Lu Yan as much as possible.

Half an hour later, Lu Yan arrived at the Prevention and Control Center office right on time.

Director Li beamed: “Mr. Listen, you’re here.”

Lu Yan nodded: “Just finished a surgery, and the traffic was a bit heavy on the way. Sorry about that.”

“No problem, no problem. Actually, there’s no major business in asking you here today.” Director Li said cheerfully; with his slightly balding head, he looked just like the Maitreya Buddha. “Due to a work error, your information was accidentally leaked. Fortunately, when it was discovered, the range of dissemination was not wide. The higher-ups have already sent people to complete memory wiping.”

“To prevent this from happening again, the organization decided to change your information in the files, from Special-type to Auxiliary-type. We hope you can go to the Research Institute to receive a talent transplant surgery to transplant the ‘Swift’ talent for you.”

Swift, Talent 679. It can ignore factors like gravity and buoyancy, allowing one to run on different planes at extremely high speeds.

This was also the talent listed in the forged file the headquarters made for Lu Yan.

“Besides this, the Special Operations Department headquarters is about to launch a new round of skills training for newly hired Awakened, lasting three months. This is something all newly hired Awakened must participate in. As it happens, Mr. Zhou Qiming is going to A City to sign a contract. You can go together.”

Lu Yan’s eyebrows shot up high: “Talents can also be transplanted?”

Director Li didn’t know much about talent transplant surgery and could only vaguely say: “I heard it’s the latest technology from the First Research Institute. No pollution after surgery, no backlash. The effect is very good. But it can only transplant some talents that rank lower in the sequence or are not very important.”

I don’t know if it was Lu Yan’s imagination.

In that instant, he heard the system let out a cold, chilling sneer.

*Excerpted from “Answer,” by the poet Bei Dao. Some words deleted.