‘So fast!’

Carrying Lin Zichen, Yuan Dongzhi blasted through the water at extreme speed. He could clearly feel that her underwater speed was more than ten times his own.

In just an instant, they shot hundreds of meters away, ditching the hunchbacked masked man with ease.

Bear in mind, the masked man was also a Rare‑Tier powerhouse and his overall strength exceeded Yuan Dongzhi’s.

But right now, in terms of pure travel speed, he couldn’t compare to her at all.

The reason boiled down to terrain.

On land, the masked man would crush Yuan Dongzhi for speed.

Unfortunately for him, they were now in the ocean—Yuan Dongzhi’s absolute home ground.

A dozen seconds later, she had taken Lin Zichen nearly ten kilometers, from deep water into the shallows, completely shaking off the pursuit.

Splash—Yuan Dongzhi broke the surface.

She burst up with Lin Zichen, throwing sheets of spray, then landed drenched, atop a towering giant tree.

On an ordinary day, no matter her speed, she could surface as calmly as a mirror, leaving only faint ripples.

But now her condition was poor; she couldn’t precisely control every part of her body.

During the earlier battle with the masked man, she had over‑activated her aberrant beast genes, pushing her body toward mutation and losing some control.

This is a gene fuser’s weakness: while gaining power from aberrant beast genes, one must also bear the risk of backlash.

“We’re safe.”

She set Lin Zichen down, pale‑faced.

Lin Zichen steadied himself against the trunk, just as pale, a bit dizzy and nauseated.

She was unwell from gene backlash; he was reeling because their underwater pace had exceeded his body’s limits, throwing his vitality into disorder and making him woozy.

“Xiao Chen!”

A worried voice sounded.

He took a breath, looked toward it and on a nearby tree finally saw the one he’d been thinking of—Shen Qinghan.

Above her hovered more than a dozen military cyborgs, two armed helicopters and a massive mecha.

‘Rescue from the Military District had arrived. No wonder Principal Yuan said it was safe—reinforcements had finally come…’

Lin Zichen let out a breath.

Swish—leaves rasped crisply.

Shen Qinghan had found a sturdy vine from somewhere and swung to him across dozens of meters.

Lin Zichen caught and held her.

Soon, Lu Tianrong, Li Moyu and the others followed one after another, gripping the vine and swinging across.

All of them were soaked; they had clearly only just left the water.

They must have seen the rescue arrive, stopped fleeing through the flood and climbed up to wait.

“Principal Yuan, are you all right?”

Lu Tianrong approached Yuan Dongzhi. Seeing her pallor, he asked respectfully.

“I’m fine,” she said evenly.

“Why are there only you few? Where are the other trainees?”

“We were ambushed by a fox‑eared girl,” Lu Tianrong said, self‑reproachful, “Everyone got separated. We haven’t found them yet.”

“I see,” Yuan Dongzhi nodded, asking no more.

It didn’t matter—so long as her five Shanhai University students were together.

Meanwhile, Shen Qinghan slipped from Lin Zichen’s arms, tears in her eyes, “Xiao Chen, I was so worried, so afraid the Divine Plant Cult’s traitor would take you. Let’s never do these dangerous training missions again, okay?”

“Mm. We won’t do them again,” he said, wiping her tears and agreeing without thinking.

He didn’t know if he could keep to that promise, but he knew she needed to hear it now.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Just some scrapes, already healed.”

“Where? Let me see.”

“They’ve already healed.”

“Healed or not, I want to see.”

Lin Zichen could only hold out a hand helplessly, “I hurt my wrist earlier—the vines cut the skin and drew blood. But it’s all healed now; you can’t even tell.”

Shen Qinghan lifted his hand and examined his wrist carefully.

Lin Zichen let her look, then glanced up at the reinforcements overhead.

Not a single gene fuser—only cyborgs, two armed helicopters and one massive mecha.

His eyes settled on that lone mecha—the Shanhai unit he’d seen at the Military District, a ten‑meter‑tall behemoth.

Back then, the pilot who’d flown the university students in had given a brief intro: named after Shanhai City, the mecha’s combat power could rival a Rare‑Tier lifeform.

Vrrrr—the thrusters howled.

The Shanhai mecha moved.

It drifted toward their tree and hovered level before Yuan Dongzhi.

Seconds later, a hatch opened in its chest, revealing a cyborg whose body was mostly metal—a man with a full beard.

“Principal Yuan, over an hour ago the Military District received your SOS,” the man said, “You said the Divine Plant Cult’s Ninth Elder led an attack on the trainees and you moved to stop it. What’s the situation now?”

Yuan Dongzhi ignored that and asked icily, “You know it was over an hour ago—why are you so late?”

“There was an incident at the Military District,” the man said apologetically, “Cultists who had been undercover for years struck at once to block our rescue.”

Yuan Dongzhi frowned, “How capable are these cultists, to delay you so long?”

After a brief pause, he lowered his voice, “You may not believe this, but the Deputy Commander Chen is a Divine Plant Cult plant. The crisis isn’t resolved—Commander Yao is still in a standoff with him at HQ. It took no small effort for me to bring Shanhai here at all.”

“...Deputy Commander Chen is a cultist?”

Lu Tianrong stared, dumbfounded.

‘How could a Military District deputy commander be a cultist? And was the Divine Plant Cult insane? Just to snatch Lin Zichen, they’d pay a price this huge—exposing a plant who’d risen to deputy commander? Was it worth it? Could there be some secret in the path of pureblood humanity, so vital that they’d stop at nothing to take Lin Zichen—even burning a deputy commander to do it?’

His thoughts whirled.

The pilot continued, “Principal Yuan, what exactly is your status on this end now?”

She didn’t answer the question and instead said, “The Military District is in chaos; we can’t return. Lend me an armed helicopter. I’ll get my Shanhai University students out first.”

“That’s not wise,” the man said, “The trainees from Kyoto University, the Machine God Group and our own Military District still haven’t been found. How about you work with me to gather them, then we leave together? With you here, if the Ninth Elder comes, we could take him together. If you go and he shows up, I’m afraid this one Shanhai mecha won’t be enough.”

“You’re overthinking it,” Yuan Dongzhi said, “Their goal is to seize Lin Zichen. If he leaves, the other trainees will be safe.”

“That may be,” the man said, troubled, “but we can’t rule out the worst. Principal Yuan, please stay and act with me.”

Before he finished, faint tearing sounds drifted from far ahead.

Buzz—

At once, Lin Zichen and Yuan Dongzhi looked toward the sound.

With Eye of the Sky and Rare‑Tier spiritual perception, both saw the incoming figure over a kilometer away.

The hunchbacked masked man!

He was leaping swiftly from treetop to treetop, coming straight at them!

Within moments he’d closed several hundred meters—now visible to everyone.

“Principal Yuan, the Ninth Elder is here!” the pilot said tensely.

He sealed the hatch and set the mecha into combat mode.

The other cyborgs too, turned grimly toward the attacker.

Yuan Dongzhi’s brows knit as she watched him close in, puzzled.

‘Couldn’t he see the giant mecha? How did the Ninth Elder dare rush in alone with Military District aid present? Was he not afraid of being swarmed? A mecha’s power rivals a Rare‑Tier. Where did he get the confidence to face both a Rare‑Tier mecha and a Rare‑Tier cultivator alone?’

As she thought it through, her face suddenly changed.

She grabbed Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan and leapt into the water, blood‑energy and spirit flaring as she fled at top speed.

‘There were moles among the reinforcements! They were with the Divine Plant Cult! Otherwise, why would the Ninth Elder dare to charge in alone in front of Military District aid? Was he insane—here to die? That was impossible. The only possibility was a mole to cooperate with him. And that mole was likely the mecha pilot. He had babbled to stall for time, waiting for the Ninth Elder to arrive and then join forces to take Lin Zichen…’

Thinking this, Yuan Dongzhi tore through the water with the two in tow.

She wanted to take the others as well, but she simply couldn’t carry so many.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom...

The very next second, every cyborg hovering in the air plunged into the water.

Even the helicopter pilots engaged autopilot and dove in after.

At the same time, the distant masked man—and the massive Shanhai mecha—splashed in as well.

All of them moved so quickly for one purpose: to chase Yuan Dongzhi and her two students.

More precisely, to chase Lin Zichen whom she carried.

Yuan Dongzhi realized she’d been wrong about “some” moles.

It wasn’t that there were moles among the reinforcements.

The reinforcements were all moles.

“What is happening?”

Up in the tree, Lu Tianrong was stunned.

He had just been thinking the masked man was courting death, only to see Yuan Dongzhi suddenly dive with Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan.

Then the masked man and all the Military District reinforcements dove after them.

In a flash, almost everyone was gone.

Only four were left on the tree, bewildered.

‘Don’t tell me... the reinforcements were all Divine Plant Cult?’

The thought chilled Lu Tianrong to the core.

Li Moyu, Ma Xiwei and Luo Yongjian all blanched.

“Go—we need to leave now,” Lu Tianrong said quickly, “If I’m right, staying here could get us caught in the crossfire!”

No sooner had he spoken than the water a few hundred meters ahead erupted in a geysering crash.

Yuan Dongzhi had burst from the water with Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan, rocketing skyward and flinging sheets of sea behind her.

Then—multiple concussive booms.

The cyborgs who had followed her into the flood, the Shanhai mecha and the Ninth Elder all surged out and encircled her.

Faced with the ring of foes, Yuan Dongzhi’s face was grim.

‘There’s no escape!’

There was no way to dive and run—blood‑red vines were woven into nets everywhere, sealing every path.

“Principal Yuan,” the masked man called, “it isn’t easy to evolve to Rare‑Tier. There’s no need to fight to mutual destruction. Hand Lin Zichen over and we won’t trouble you.”

Though they now had numbers—and two Rare‑Tier combatants—if a Rare‑Tier chose to fight to the death, there was still a high chance of trading lives for a kill.

The masked man didn’t want to pay that price. He wanted to finish the mission without losses.