Cooperation

Knock, knock, knock.

While they were talking, someone knocked on the earthen house's door.

Yu Xing glanced over. Through the old frosted-glass window beside the door, he saw two figures outside, one tall and one short.

The figures were unfamiliar, but the energy about them was unlike that of the villagers. They had the same air as other outsiders.

There was no other possibility, then: the people outside were members of the Widow Investigation Team, who had arrived in Suan Yu County ahead of them. And this time, the visitors were the few Yu Xing hadn't met.

Zhao Mou got up and opened the door.

Song Xue stood outside, wearing a faint smile. She looked a little surprised by Zhao Mou's youthful outfit, then gave a soft laugh and asked politely, "I'm Song Xue. May we come in?"

Zhao Mou's gaze slipped past her, settling on the tall man behind her. He could sense that the man's unstable nature seemed barely contained.

Ah... Nie Lang.

Nie Lang was a special case in the Widow Investigation Team, and in Zhao Mou's intelligence network, he ranked among those who warranted the most caution.

It wasn't that there was anything wrong with Nie Lang himself. His Personality Assimilation Degree was simply too high, keeping him perpetually on the brink of danger. He stayed rational only thanks to the rare items in the shop that lowered assimilation and Song Xue's ability to intervene.

And this wasn't the kind of high degree that meant turning from the Mutation Path to the Fallen Path. Nie Lang had once received a ghost's "blessing" in a deduction, which had robbed him of the chance to enter the Fallen Path. He could only transform directly from the Mutation Path into a mindless, inhuman monster.

When that happened, Nie Lang