The Snake Qi Eight Clans' Response

Tokyo, Genji Heavy Industries.

9:00 PM

The entire building was still lit up. Night rain streamed down the glass curtain walls like countless black snakes crawling down from the heights.

The main lights were off in the conference room on the top floor of Genji Heavy Industries. The projection screen at the center of the long table cast a cold, pale glow over silent faces.

Displayed on the screen was an encrypted letter from Cassel College headquarters. The opening words alone—"Molotov Cocktail"—were enough to make the clan heads present feel a chill run down their spines.

The Inuyama Family head was the first to raise his head, his expression dark as he looked at the executive secretary standing behind him.

"Where was this discovered?"

"Los Angeles," the secretary said quietly. "Headquarters' Executive Department has already intervened. Schneider is personally directing the operation, and Cassel College students have also been sent to the scene under the name of the War Practice Class."

"Students?" Someone suddenly sneered. "Headquarters treats something like this as student fieldwork?"

Someone should have chimed in, mocking Cassel College for raising a pack of unruly actors, but the patriarch seated in the shadows at the end of the table spoke first.

"Just twelve hours ago, a true 'demon' was born in Los Angeles. It injected itself with at least five bottles of Molotov Cocktail, and its high-risk bloodline temporarily reached A-rank. It also possessed Word Spirit: Time Zero."

"But it was suppressed by a freshman sent by the Executive Department so completely that it could not even make a final struggle."

The clan heads fell silent. Inuyama He in particular, who also possessed Word Spirit: Time Zero, knew only too well how much destruction a Dead Servant immune to pain could inflict in an urban area after gaining Time Zero.

The patriarch's sharp gaze swept across the room.

"A batch of drugs capable of forcibly contaminating ordinary human bloodlines and pushing hybrids toward the critical bloodline threshold has been smuggled out of Japan through The Ghosts, crossed the Pacific, and caused dozens of deaths in Los Angeles... Yet the Secret Party knew of its existence before we could investigate and deal with it."

The Snake Qi Eight Clans were the emperors of Japan's underworld and also the Secret Party's Japan Branch.

Japan's hybrids, criminal organizations, underground hospitals, alchemical material circulation, and illegal bloodline trade—everything, in theory, was under their watch. Even the lowest street gangs knew which things could be touched and which would get them uprooted by the main family.

Yet now, a group of demons who had escaped the families had actually delivered drugs that so gravely crossed the red line right beneath the Secret Party's nose, even causing the tragic death of an Executive Department agent.

To outsiders, it looked like the Snake Qi Eight Clans had secretly been conducting dangerous research into bloodline refinement technology and spreading the drugs on a massive scale, using ordinary people as lab rats...

The clan heads present could not even immediately declare that it had nothing to do with the Japan Branch.

The patriarch clapped his hands. "Kaguya-hime, display the Secret Party's letter of inquiry for everyone."

Black words on a white background rapidly appeared on the screen, making everyone's hearts pound.

[Given that the drug bears clear traces of its origin, headquarters requires the Japan Branch to submit the relevant investigation results within twenty-four hours and assist in confirming the drug's development, circulation, and smuggling chain. Should the Japan Branch fail to obtain investigation results within the allotted time, headquarters' Executive Department reserves the right to directly intervene in investigations within Japan—Hilbert Jean Angers]

"Directly intervene in investigations within Japan." Those words were more serious than any accusation. They meant that the buried corpses and sealed secrets could all be unearthed by the Secret Party once more.

"He's threatening us," someone said quietly.

"No." The patriarch said, "He's notifying us."

The conference room fell silent again.

The patriarch's profound gaze settled on Angers's handwritten signature on the screen, and he swiftly made his decision.

"Pass down the order. Seal off all underground medical networks in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and Kobe. Investigate records from the past year concerning the circulation of abnormal blood products, alchemical reagents, and dragon tissue samples. All peripheral members with biological laboratory backgrounds must undergo a complete review."

"No one could possibly flee Japan carrying something like this out of thin air. If he obtained the drugs, then someone must have cleared the way for him. Either they think the main family has gone blind, or The Ghosts' influence has been expanding in secret to a degree beyond anything we imagined..."

At that, Genji Shisheng, seated at the other end of the long table, rose to his feet. He took his trench coat from the back of his chair and draped it over his shoulders. The girl waiting at his side respectfully handed him a long sword.

"Contact the Executive Bureau and have them depart at once. At the same time, invite the four students involved in this incident to the branch as exchange students. Before Principal Angers personally sets out, we need to give the Executive Department's decision-makers an outlet for their anger."

"Yes, young master!"

The clan heads stood and answered in unison. They deeply bowed toward Genji Shisheng as he walked out.

Outside the window, Tokyo was still raining. Water slowly slid down Genji Heavy Industries' glass curtain walls. The whole city looked clean, quiet, and perfectly orderly, like a Japanese sword sheathed in black.

But from within the sheath came the sound of flames burning.

It had been nearly a week since the War Practice Class ended.

Li Lin and Caesar had both become heroes, handling major situations that even veteran agents could not resolve. Li Lin had subdued an A-rank Dead Servant with Word Spirit: Time Zero by himself, while Caesar had charged in and out of a gang's criminal den seven times alone, capturing every gang leader who knew anything alive.

At the time, many people compared Li Lin and Caesar. Students tended to underestimate the danger posed by Dead Servants with certain Word Spirits, and they also tended to underestimate the firepower suppression a fully armed local gang could bring to bear.

In the end, Caesar personally made a statement on the Night Watchers Forum, declaring that his achievements in the course were indeed inferior to Li Lin's. He then spared no effort in praising Li Lin's excellence, thus putting an end to the online dispute.

Amber Hall still held victory banquets every night. Fingel still clutched a camera and led the News Department paparazzi as they eagerly trailed behind Li Lin. Li Lin and Xia Mi still tossed little paper balls at each other during class.

Ordinary campus life continued until ten o'clock that evening, when Angers appeared across from Li Lin at the dining table with a tray in his hands.

Even while having a late-night meal in the student cafeteria, the elderly man in his immaculate suit did not forget to tuck a vivid red rose into his breast pocket.

"Good evening, Principal." Li Lin and Xia Mi exchanged a glance before greeting Angers.

Angers looked at the young man and woman exchanging flirtatious glances across from him, then asked with a warm and elegant smile.

"I heard the two of you are dating. Would you like to travel to Tokyo together for a few months?"

"The principal is actually this gossipy?" Li Lin was stunned. He had thought Angers spent every day in his office, elegantly drinking tea while reading the memorials sent over by the Executive Department.

"After all, the professors have been talking about it lately. They all say the new young people know how to have fun. They even renovated Norton Hall into a marital home for cohabitation... Of course, the school does not mind. After all, you won Norton Hall this year."

With just one sentence, Angers turned Xia Mi's entire face the same color as the rose in his pocket.