The collapsed outer wall was still shedding debris downward. Lu Shangjin braced himself against a deformed steel bar that had been melted and twisted by explosives, scanning toward the horizon. Blood threads spread down his arm, dripping from his fingertips onto the ground below.
He could no longer feel pain. Before his eyes was only a vast, blinding white. An invisible barrier separated him from the outside world. Behind him, chaotic gunfire and the crash of overturned equipment became inaudible—he could hear none of it. All he could see was the insulated glass thermos cup in the ward rolling off the bedside table, the sound striking him like a thunderclap, jolting him awake.
He tracked the faint trace of milk-candy scent lingering in the air—Yan Yi’s pheromones—and used it to lock onto the escape route while sending a message to his assistant.
Outside the ward, PBB operatives were covering the main force’s retreat. Xia Pantian held Doctor Zhong against his shoulder with one arm while gripping the emergency communications device with the other. His furious voice echoed through every surveillance loudspeaker in Anfeia Hospital:
“All security personnel, attention. This is Xia Pantian. Seal all exits. Activate maximum security protocol. All medical staff, remain where you are and crouch down.”
He repeated the order in English. The moment the command was issued, every door in the hospital locked down. Fireproof isolation walls rose rapidly. From the underground levels to the first floor, elevators burst open, and dozens of heavily armed security personnel in bulletproof gear surged out, surrounding the remaining PBB operatives who had not yet escaped.
Lu Shangjin handed the remaining surgical knife to Doctor Zhong. Zhong’s lips were pale and dry, but he still used the blade with practiced precision to extract the bullet from his abdomen. Xia Pantian reloaded his magazine with clenched teeth, simultaneously releasing calming pheromones toward Zhong.
“The hospital losses—I’ll compensate later,” Lu Shangjin said.
“It’s not your responsibility,” Xia Pantian replied, glancing down at Zhong, who was still treating his own gunshot wound.
Zhong’s healing-type M2 ability, “Healing Arts,” allowed self-repair of injuries, but his icy hand still pressed against Xia Pantian’s cheek, mending the abrasion there. Then he placed his hand on Lu Shangjin’s right shoulder, channeling a large amount of glandular energy into the wound. It was only a temporary fix—the residual toxin had not been fully cleared—but at least it prevented massive blood loss.
Lu Shangjin grabbed his wrist to stop him from overexerting himself. Zhong forced a faint smile, his face ghostly pale.
“You need to go rescue them,” he said softly.
Before he could say more, Xia Pantian shouted at him again. Whatever was said was lost in the noise. A group of doctors rushed him into the operating room for emergency suturing. Xia Pantian slammed the wall in frustration, grabbed his gun, and moved with Lu Shangjin through the evacuation passage.
Lu Shangjin sent a message to Bi Ruiqing. With PBB deployed on a large scale, any high-level Omega nearby was in extreme danger.
“What now?” Xia Pantian asked, pressing in a fresh magazine while crouching against the wall. Lu Shangjin glanced at the emergency evacuation map, taking in the entire layout of Anfeia Hospital across its thousands of acres.
He could still faintly sense Yan Yi’s pheromone signal. They had not escaped toward the Pacific. More likely, they had been transported to a nearby PBB base. The closest facility was in Huai Ning City—a place half-destroyed a year ago by a magnitude-class earthquake and tsunami, later plagued by lethal infectious outbreaks and mass ecological invasions, ultimately sealed off and marked for destruction. It was still under reconstruction.
“You guard the hospital’s glandular cryo-storage unit,” Lu Shangjin said calmly.
He flexed his right arm lightly. The wound had mostly closed, but he could still feel the toxin spreading within his bones. A black-painted falcon-marked helicopter was already approaching the rooftop helipad. Assistant Xiao Ning sat at the controls with a headset.
Lu Shangjin grabbed the landing gear and climbed aboard. The helicopter immediately changed course and left Anfeia Hospital.
His phone kept vibrating—messages and calls flooding in. He glanced at it absently, then leaned back against the cabin wall, lost in thought as wind tore through his hair.
From his shirt pocket, he took out a crumpled strip of paper—Yan Yi’s handwriting. A promise that at twenty-seven, he would still love him.
Maybe that love had already faded. But it didn’t matter.
If he could bring Yan Yan and the child back safely, he could stay far away afterward, watching them from a distance without interfering. If Yan Yi wanted to leave, or find someone he loved more, he would accept it. He would no longer shamelessly bind him to his side. He would treat it as punishment for the harm he had caused.
He let go. The paper drifted out into the wind.
Then he kissed the wedding ring on his finger.
The helicopter reached the skies above Huai Ning’s ruins. Weapons and ammunition were airdropped. Lu Shangjin, dressed in black combat gear, descended on a supply crate.
At the base entrance of the PBB Huai Ning division—two kilometers away—he advanced alone.
A guard attempted to stop him. A shot rang out. The guard collapsed with a scorched bullet hole in his forehead.
He moved through the facility with a single MP433 pistol, eliminating surveillance systems one by one. A wanted notice appeared on the screen—his own face, surrounded by activated PBB operative profiles.
He shot the screen apart and took an access card from a corpse.
In the main corridor, he injected chameleon serum to bypass detection systems. Suddenly, the blast doors sealed shut.
Above him, a golden-haired Alpha dropped down.
Pale blue eyes. A forked tongue flicking against a silver lip piercing.
A British PBB operative—codename Serpent, serial 000017, M2 class.
“Young master Lu,” the man said politely. “Your spouse is safe inside. Once the induced differentiation is complete, we will return him unharmed.”
At the words “induced differentiation,” Lu Shangjin’s expression froze.
The next moment, he struck.
The corridor erupted into combat.
In the control room, Lu Lin sat watching the surveillance feeds.
Inside a spherical containment cell, Yan Yi held the newborn child.
And outside, Lu Shangjin was already cutting his way through hell to reach them.