Staring at the unconscious Jiang Zhaohe with a coffee mug tightly clamped in his palm, Xinyuan forced his muscles to lock.

He consciously tried not to put too much pressure on the glass to avoid shattering it into pieces, but the frustration burning in his chest was agonizing.

It felt exactly like he was going through withdrawals. As he was being ripped away from his favorite drug and forced to survive without him.

His left eye glowed a dim red. And apart from the black chain markings that had wrapped aggressively all the way down his forearms, a grave aura of raw hostility oozed out of his body. Yet, he was maintaining a semblance of control.

Right then, Doctor Ruixin stepped into the lab. Judging by the lack of surprise on her face at seeing him there beside Zhaohe, it was obvious this had become routine.

"Is she awake?" the doctor asked quietly.

"I am meant to ask you that, Doctor," Xinyuan rasped. "It’s been what? Three days? Why isn’t she awake if all her vitals are perfectly stable? I mean, she’s an SSS-rank Esper. I don’t expect her to fall into a coma from a petty blow to the head."

Doctor Ruixin took a cautious, measured step toward him. "She will wake up soon. The others have returned with news."

She kept her composure, deliberately avoiding direct eye contact with Xinyuan.

Xinyuan remained silent, staring at the side of Zhaohe’s face for a long, heavy moment. Finally, he rose to his feet, gripped his mug, and marched straight out of the lab.

The moment the doors swished shut behind him, Doctor Ruixin pressed her palm flat against her chest, letting out a massive, trembling breath of relief.

Xinyuan strode down the corridor leading back toward the main hall. As he turned the corner, he ran directly into Gu Luhan.

The Guide froze mid-stride, his expression shifting into instant surprise and awkwardness.

"Oh..." Gu Luhan stammered, raising a hand. "I was... I was actually just coming to get you. We have news."

Xinyuan didn’t slow his pace, nodding curtly. "Can you tell me what I need to hear?"

He brushed past him, and Gu Luhan immediately scrambled to keep up, hurrying to walk alongside him.

However, Luhan was forced to keep a significant distance between them; the oppressive wave of hostility lashing out of Xinyuan’s frame was practically physical.

Luhan tried to maintain his stride, but within seconds, the raw pressure of the Esper’s unguided energy began to choke his senses.

His face creased in genuine pain, and he quickly pressed his back nearly flat against the corridor wall just to put a few more feet of safety between them.

"About sixty percent of the dead belonged to us," he explained, his fingers clenching into tight fists against his sides. "The rest belong to the factions who were camping along our space, and the CEA units. There are zero survivors from the blast radius. Everyone who was rushed to emergency has passed away. But... Fu Muhan, Duan Ze, Ru Yi, and Hanmei are formally reported as missing."

Xinyuan stopped walking and his shadows exploded.

They lashed out violently, wrapping around Gu Luhan’s throat and body before slamming him hard into the wall.

Luhan choked at the impact, his boots dangling in the air as his eyes widened in panic.

Xinyuan’s voice dropped into a growl. "You still haven’t told me what I want to hear."

Luhan’s chest heaved frantically against the crushing weight of the shadows. "I... there is... there is no identification for Lin Wenzhi!" he gasped out, clawing at the dark mist around his neck. "He wasn’t among the dead! He didn’t leave with any of the teams before the explosion! He is officially listed as missing too!"

The dark shadows vanished instantly, snapping back into Xinyuan’s skin. Luhan dropped heavily to the floor, coughing and drawing in ragged breaths.

Xinyuan didn’t look back. He brought a trembling hand to his face, rubbing his eyes roughly before running his fingers through his dark hair.

Without a word, he turned on his heel and walked away, his heavy strides carrying him up the stairwell and straight into the private elevator.

Gu Luhan sat in the empty hallway, his breathing shaky as he rubbed his bruised back. A deep, bitter frown settled hard on his features, his jaw locking in resentment.

Pushing himself off the wall, Luhan turned around and marched straight back down the corridor, entering the lab.

Doctor Ruixin was currently leaning over Jiang Zhaohe, checking her pupillary response with a small penlight. She turned her head, surprised to see the Guide.

"Is she awake?" Luhan demanded, bypassing any pleasantries.

"No," Doctor Ruixin sighed, clipping the light back onto her pocket. "I know I am the doctor here, but I honestly do not know what is delaying her consciousness either. Is that why you are here, Guide Gu Luhan?"

Luhan walked closer to the examination table, his posture rigid. "I want to know if there is something wrong with me."

Doctor Ruixin raised a skeptical brow. "Something like what? Are you running low on guiding energy?"

"No, no, I’m..." Luhan cut himself off, pausing to take a deep, sharp breath to steady his rattling nerves before he spoke. "My wavelength and my guiding energy.. I need you to run a test to see if there is an issue with my compatibility methods.... Because Shao Xinyuan..."

He swallowed hard, his expression twisting into something ugly. "Wang Chenxi is still drowning in grief over his dead guide, and... everyone keeps acting like I’m defective because of Lin Wenzhi."

Doctor Ruixin gave him a long, measuring look. "I do not think there is anything wrong with you, Gu Luhan. But if it will calm your nerves, I will run the test."

Gu Luhan nodded quickly, stepping back to give her space. He walked a few paces away, his eyes landing back on Jiang Zhaohe’s motionless form. "Do you have a theory on why exactly she isn’t waking up?"

"Truthfully..." Doctor Ruixin paused. She looked at Zhaohe with a deeply uneasy expression, then walked over to Gu Luhan, leaning in to whisper directly into his ear. "I think she is the one withholding her own consciousness."

Gu Luhan stared at her in utter surprise. "Why would she do that?"

"I do not know, but..." Doctor Ruixin took a cautious step back, her voice returning to its normal volume. "I do not want to guess. We just have to wait."

Gu Luhan’s frown deepened. "I doubt anyone has the luxury to wait. Especially Xinyuan. His entire core is completely unstable. He needs to be guided soon. With the red zone corruption spiking and the circumstances surrounding how violently Wenzhi was ripped away from him... Doctor, do you have an underground bunker?"

Doctor Ruixin let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "If Shao Xinyuan goes into a full Disaster-Class breakdown, I do not think a bunker will save any of us."

Gu Luhan sighed, looking down at his hands. "I really wish I could help him. But it’s not possible... not with the fact that he already imprinted on Wenzhi. And I doubt he would ever agree to a temporary arrangement even if he hadn’t..."

Doctor Ruixin looked at him, a small, slightly pitiful smile playing on her lips. "You know, you need to lift yourself up rather than pine after an Esper who will never notice you. Even if Lin Wenzhi vanishes for good, what they have is permanent. You saw the rate of their compatibility."

Gu Luhan didn’t say anything to that. He tightly closed his mouth, turned on his heel, and left the lab.

He moved down the corridors until he reached the main hall. The atmosphere inside was suffocatingly dense. Xinyuan, Chenxi, Kaiwen, Yuzhen, Zhiyao, Mo Heyun, and Zining were all gathered around.

"So, what now? Are we just going to halt everything we’ve been building?" Mo Heyun asked, looking around the room.

"No," Chenxi breathed, his voice exhausted as he rubbed his face. "We can’t stop. We just have to solve this and—"

"The CEA," Xinyuan interrupted, his voice low. He didn’t look up, his eyes pinned to the coffee mug tightly gripped in his fist.

Kaiwen, who was leaning against the wall in the farthest corner with pure gloom written all over his face, shifted slightly. "You think they took him and Ze’er?"

"No!"

The heavy doors to the main hall suddenly hissed open. Jiang Zhaohe burst into the room, leaning heavily against the frame and breathing hard.

Her hair was disheveled, and Doctor Ruixin was rushing in right behind her, looking frantic as if she had been chasing her all the way down the hall.

Zhaohe gripped the doorframe, her face pale but her eyes completely sharp as she locked gazes with Xinyuan.

"It’s not the CEA," she gasped out, her voice echoing in the dead silence of the room. "It’s the Old Blood."