Chapter 219: The Weird Controller's Plan

Beside the national highway, an abandoned gas station.

The rusted iron roof groaned "creak, creak" in the night wind, like the sigh of a dying old man.

Chen Yao woke up.

She was wrapped in her brother's oversized shirt, her small body curled on the concrete floor, her big eyes blinking in the darkness, still dazed from sleep.

She neither cried nor complained of cold.

After prolonged illness and constant displacement, the little girl had long learned to stay quiet.

She merely turned her head, looking at her brother sitting beside her, poking the fire with a stick.

Firelight played across Chen Shao's face, shifting between light and shadow.

One half of his face was gentle, the other half hidden in deep shadow, indistinct.

Especially his left eye, even in the firelight, held an indelible scarlet.

"Brother."

Chen Yao's voice was tiny and soft.

"Huh?" Chen Shao turned his head; all sharpness in his gaze instantly retracted, leaving only gentleness.

"Um..." Chen Yao hesitated, clutching the hem of her brother's shirt, "Where did that fierce brother go?"

Chen Shao's motion of poking the fire stopped.

The tip of the stick halted in the flames, quickly turning to charcoal.

He remained silent for a long time.

Wind swept through the dilapidated gas station, kicking up dust and scraps of paper.

"He... left."

Chen Shao's voice was soft, yet clear.

He tossed aside the stick in his hand, reached out, and gently stroked his sister's head.

His hand was steady.

"He left everything he had to me."

"From now on, there's only brother."

"Brother alone will protect you."

Chen Yao shed tears, understanding what had happened.

She closed her eyes and soon fell asleep again.

Chen Shao looked down at his sister's peaceful sleeping face; the pain in his eyes flickered and was instantly replaced by an unshakable resolve.

He stood up, walked to the edge of the gas station, and gazed into the distance.

At the horizon's end lay the brilliant lights of Tai Tao City.

That forest of steel and glass, that agglomeration of human civilization, resembled a beast sprawled in the night—magnificent yet cold.

There, there were warm wards, clean beds, and the strawberry cake his sister loved most.

There, too, was a Heaven-Earth Net warrant for his arrest.

There, there was no room for them as siblings.

"Hide?"

"Where could they hide? In this world, as long as they remain under human rules, they are like rats crossing the street."

Chen Shao's left eye, that scarlet vortex, began to turn slowly.

In his vision, the distant city's outline began to distort and resolve.

Skyscrapers were broken down into basic reinforced steel and concrete; the dazzling neon lights turned into strings of jumping electrical data.

The whole world, in his eyes, became a massive program that could be read and rewritten.

This is the true power of "Dominion."

After merging with Li Renge and fully mastering the Demon Eye, what he saw was no longer the world of ordinary mortals.

He saw the rules.

He also saw...... the possibility of breaking the rules.

"Since this world has no sanctuary for us......"

He whispered softly, as if speaking to his sister, and also to himself.

"Then we'll create one."

"A sanctuary that no one can ignore, and that everyone must even look up to......"

He wanted to establish an organization.

"An organization made up of us 'monsters'."

"An organization operating outside federal law, yet possessing enough power to stand toe-to-toe with the federation."

"As long as the organization is vast and strong enough."

"Strong enough that those high-and-mighty senators and generals must consider their stance before making decisions."

"By then, a mere wanted poster would amount to nothing."

"By then, he could mobilize the organization's full power to find his sister the best doctors, the best medicines, and the most stable living environment in the world."

"He could give her everything she wanted."

"That crazy notion, like a seed, sprouted in his heart and grew at an unstoppable pace, instantly becoming a towering tree."

The night wind lifted his hair; on his refined face, there was no trace of timidity left.

"Taking its place was an almost godlike indifference and resolve."

Federal Weird Investigation Bureau headquarters.

Top floor, Director's Office.

Wei Gong stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window.

He did not turn on the lights.

The only light in the office came from the few floating holographic screens on the desk.

On the screens were three files.

The first, Lin Fan.

In the photograph the young man had delicate features, but his right eye was an eerie deep blue. The file clearly recorded his symbiosis with the Suffocating Ghost Girl Ling Xinyu, the entire process of revenge, blood debt repaid in blood.

The second, Jiang Yuan.

In the photograph the young man wore a resolute expression, his eyes clear. The file highlighted his experiences in the Forbidden Land Saint John Hospital and how he reversed control over the Shadow Ghost, becoming the Federation's first true Yugui Zhe who wielded the weird with human will.

The third, Chen Shao.

Codename "Demon Eye".

The photograph was still that frail wanted poster, but next to it was a video clip highlighted in red.

In the video, atop a rain‑soaked ruin, the youth indifferently uttered a single word, and Federation ace Ouyang Feng flew out like a kite with its line cut.

When a thought crossed his mind, the gun's chamber exploded, and the bullet froze.

He caused those elite Special Forces members to fall into hallucinations, killing each other.

He was the sole god of that area.

Wei Gong stood with his hands behind his back, silently watching the three files.

These three people, three different experiences, yet they headed toward the same end.

They, each with mortal bodies, reached for powers that should not belong to humanity.

They walk on the edge between humans and ghosts, the three Damocles Swords hanging over the head of human civilization.

At any moment they could sever humanity's fragile order.

And also at any moment... could become humanity's sharpest blade against the darkness.

The office door was knocked.

Wang Zhangzhi pushed the door open and walked in; he first glanced at the three files, then placed a File on Wei Gong's desk.

"Director, Ouyang Feng's psychological assessment report is ready."

"Speak," Wei Gong said without turning.

"The assessment result... is poor," Wang Zhangzhi said with a heavy tone, "The report recommends forced leave for him, with at least three months of psychological intervention."

"What about him himself?"

"He refused," Wang Zhangzhi sighed.

Wei Gong turned around.

In the darkness, his aged eyes shone unusually bright.

"In this era, the sober suffer, while the mad live longest."

He walked to the desk and turned off the three screens.

The office instantly fell into deeper darkness.

"Lin Fan, turned demonic for love, symbiotic with ghosts."

"Jiang Yuan, born from death, mastering darkness."

"Chen Shao, fallen for protection, becoming Rules."

Wei Gong's voice echoed in the spacious office, each word as heavy as a thousand pounds.

"Zhangzhi, have you noticed that this world... is forcing humanity to choose."

"Either become monsters under the weird erosion, or..."

He paused, reached out, and grasped the void with a firm grip.

"Or become something more terrifying than monsters... the New Human."

Wang Zhangzhi's heart leapt sharply; he looked at Wei Gong with startled awe.

From his old superior's tone, he heard a long‑suppressed... ambition.

Wei Gong pulled open a drawer and took out a sealed kraft paper bag from the deepest part.

The bag's seal bore a deep‑red "Top Secret" stamp representing Highest Authorization.

He tossed the bag onto the table.

Snap.

The crisp snap rang especially loudly in the silent office.

"The times have changed; our thinking should change as well."

Wei Gong's gaze fell on the bag, his eyes as deep as a bottomless sea.

"Blocking is worse than diverting."

"Since this power cannot be eliminated, we must find a way... to control it."

Wang Zhangzhi's breathing grew rapid; he stared intently at the kraft paper bag.

Wei Gong slowly extended his hand and tore open the seal.

He pulled out a File from inside; its cover bore plain black type, with no extra decoration.

Only five characters.

Yet they weighed on Wang Zhangzhi's nerves like five massive mountains.

"Yugui Zhe Project"