Chapter 374: Collision of Determination

Qin Zhixia moved.

It wasn't a retreat, it wasn't hesitation; she pressed her left index finger onto the injection interface of the Exoskeleton on her right knee, and "Wu Ming" seeped from under the skin into every crevice of the metal joints.

The Exoskeleton emitted a crisp sound like a bone cracking.

That was the sound of the equipment's lifespan burning.

The lightweight armor, originally able to support three hundred hours of combat, began to age rapidly the instant "Wu Ming" was infused; the metal surface sprouted dense oxidation patterns, while the joints unleashed driving force far beyond their design limits.

Qin Zhixia's figure vanished in place.

The three most recent Mutated Believers didn't even have time to blink before their chests were pierced by Alloy Bayonet. Qin Zhixia's trajectory wasn't a straight line but a jagged polyline—each change of direction landed in the gaps of the believers' lunges, precise not as a reflex but as a pre‑calculated path.

A bayonet broke; she reached behind her waist and drew a second one.

When the second bayonet pierced the skull of a believer whose body was covered with Compound Eyes, its blade shattered; she smoothly extracted the opponent's mutated Bone Spike from the corpse and thrust it into the throat of the next target.

Seven seconds.

Eleven corpses.

Qin Zhixia tore a three‑meter‑wide Blood Road through the crowd of believers, her combat boots treading warm entrails, the arc of her high ponytail flinging blood droplets.

Xiao Zhang's pupils contracted for an instant.

He stepped back half a pace—not out of fear, but a reflex. Back in the police force, Qin Zhixia's draw speed was first in the whole unit.

But half a step wasn't enough.

Qin Zhixia's third bayonet had already reached his Adam's apple.

The tip of the blade sank half a millimeter into his skin, a drop of blood trickling down the blade. The blood's hue was off—not the normal bright red, but a dark red tinged with black, matching the color scheme of the Mutated markings on his hand.

The distance between them was close enough to hear each other's breathing.

Qin Zhixia smelled the scent of Vietnamese G7 coffee.

Xiao Zhang smelled gunpowder and rusted iron.

"You've gotten faster, Qin Team."

Xiao Zhang didn't dodge. The wound on his neck was healing at a visibly rapid pace, fresh granulation tissue pushing the blade tip outward.

Qin Zhixia applied more force, and the tip re‑entered.

"You too," she said, "you used to tremble even as a gunman."

"People have to grow up eventually."

Xiao Zhang's right hand slipped out of his pocket, fingers splayed, palm up—the "I have no weapon" gesture they used during the old capture.

But Qin Zhixia noticed his left hand was still in his pocket.

She didn't give him a chance to draw his left hand.

The bayonet sliced horizontally, cutting half of Xiao Zhang's neck. For a normal person that cut would sever the carotid artery, yet Xiao Zhang merely staggered back two steps, the wound flooding with dark granulation tissue that sealed quickly.

His left hand finally emerged from the pocket.

At his fingertips he held a scarlet Seed.

"Qin Team."

Xiao Zhang's voice became very soft.

"Do you know how many desperate people this thing gave a second chance to?"

"I know how many innocent people this thing turned into monsters," Qin Zhixia said as she drew her fourth bayonet.

The distance between them widened to five meters. The surrounding Mutated Believers no longer surged forward—the gesture from Xiao Zhang halted them.

This was the dignity he left for his teacher.

It was also his pride.

"You say I'm just like those aristocrats," Xiao Zhang tilted his head, the motion carrying an indefinable grievance and stubbornness, "but have you ever thought that anyone inside the system truly cared?"

"Team Zhou cares."

"Team Zhou is dead."

"So you chose to become the kind of person who desperately tries to stop what you become?" Qin Zhixia asked.

Xiao Zhang's face twitched.

Qin Zhixia gave no breathing room for that reaction.

"You say the law's blade can't reach their heads," she stepped forward, the Exoskeleton joints emitting a metallic fatigue sound that made teeth ache, "then I'll cut."

"You?"

"I'll climb to that spot. Agent, Captain, Core Captain, Deputy Director, Director—I'll ascend level by level until I reach the place where I can change the Rules," Qin Zhixia's Crimson Phoenix Eyes held no fervor, only a near‑cold certainty, "Then I'll personally unscrew those rotten parts and replace them with new ones. I'm already a Core Captain now."

"Do you think the system will let you climb?" Xiao Zhang laughed, his smile tinged with pity, "Qin Team, do you think Team Zhou never considered this path?"

"Team Zhou doesn't have the Weird Investigation Bureau's staffing."

Qin Zhixia pulled out a fifth bayonet.

"The world has changed, Xiao Zhang. The old Rules are shattered, the new Rules haven't been erected yet. This is a once‑in‑a‑millennium window—before the new order solidifies, I have a chance to nail myself into the skeleton of the power structure."

"And then? Can you guarantee you won't be corroded by the poison of power and become the next Qian Jingzhi? The next Cui Yong'an?"

"Can't guarantee."

Qin Zhixia's answer was so clean it left Xiao Zhang momentarily stunned.

"But at least I'm willing to go all out, and I've resolved that if I become that, I'll ultimately hold myself accountable. What about you? What are you going all out for? Betting the Seed can tell good people from bad? Betting the Mutated Entities won't go out of control? Betting your believers can keep their bottom line after gaining power?"

Xiao Zhang was silent for three seconds.

"Ha ha... then give it your all, Qin Team."

He said.

"Use your strength to shut me up. If you can't even kill me, what will you use to change those things a hundred times harder to deal with than me?"

When those words landed, the Exoskeleton on Qin Zhixia's right knee let out a crisp, muffled crack—"Wu Ming" had been overdrawn to its limit.

She made a move that no one had expected.

She pulled the "Oblivion" out of the Exoskeleton.

Then she injected it into every remaining piece of equipment on her body.

The magazine at her waist. The arm armor. The bayonet rack on her back. The combat boots on her feet.

All the metal items simultaneously emitted a creaking of aging corrosion, their surfaces developing a gray‑white oxide layer, yet at the same time each piece of gear's performance surged wildly toward the brink of self‑destruction—armor hardness tripled, the boot soles' traction coefficient exceeded the theoretical limit of material science, and even the bayonet's edge glowed with a faint blue light.

Qin Zhixia was enveloped in a pale blue halo, like a sword burning its own scabbard.

She charged forward.

Xiao Zhang met her head‑on.

The two fought wildly on the semi‑open floor of the seventh story. Xiao Zhang's regenerative ability was terrifyingly extreme; Qin Zhixia chopped off his right arm, and it regrew within three seconds; she pierced his abdomen, and the wound sealed the instant the blade tip was withdrawn.

But Qin Zhixia was faster.

The equipment, overdrawn to the limit by "Oblivion", granted her mobility far beyond normal humans—each step shattered the concrete beneath her feet, each slash carried a blue arc of energy released just before the gear self‑destructed.

Xiao Zhang was forced to the edge of the floor.

Behind him was a void seven stories high.

Qin Zhixia's bayonet entered his chest for the seventeenth time, the tip now only two centimeters from his heart.

Xiao Zhang lowered his head to glance at the hilt, then looked up at Qin Zhixia.

Then he smiled.

That smile sent a chill down Qin Zhixia's spine.

Xiao Zhang's left hand formed a grasp in the air.

A sound of a rope snapping came from above.

Among the five hanging dignitaries, the leftmost—Vice Chairman Cui Yong'an—plummeted from mid‑air, and Xiao Zhang seized his collar, shielding himself and Qin Zhixia.

Cui Yong'an, face streaming with tears and snot, shouted at Qin Zhixia, "Save me! I am—"

Xiao Zhang pinched the Crimson Seed, slowly raising it to Cui Yong'an's lips.

The seed was less than a centimeter from Cui Yong'an's lips.

"Qin Team."

Xiao Zhang's tone returned to that unsettlingly calm manner that made one's teeth tingle.

"I'll give you two options."

"First, you swallow the seed yourself. Prove the will and legal order that humanity prides itself on, prove your resolve to protect the people. Then I'll spare him."

"Second, you watch me feed the seed to Vice Chairman Cui." He patted Cui Yong'an's face. "After he mutates he won't recognize anyone; then will you kill him, or be killed by him?"

"Faced with a choice between justice and victory, what would you choose?"

Cui Yong'an was already trembling all over with fear.

Xiao Zhang looked down at him, his tone laced with genuine disgust.

"To be fair, this Vice Chairman caused two deaths and has never been held accountable. Qin Team, under your laws, he should be protected, right—"

"Feed him."

Qin Zhixia's reply came so fast it seemed she was waiting for the question.

Xiao Zhang's hand halted.

"What?"

"I said, feed him."

In Qin Zhixia's Crimson Phoenix Eyes there was no struggle, no hesitation, no conflict that a "justice envoy" should have.

Her gaze passed over Cui Yong'an to Xiao Zhang, and the corner of her mouth even twitched slightly—not a smile, but a resolve cold to the bone.

"You think I'd be tripped up by your trolley problem?"

"Xiao Zhang, I'm long past the Qin Zhixia in your memory who would pour water for suspects in the Interrogation Room."

"He's guilty. If you let him mutate, he ceases to be human, becomes Weird, and is my target for shooting."

"You're saving me the procedure."

Xiao Zhang stared at her for five seconds.

Then he shoved the seed into Cui Yong'an's mouth.

Cui Yong'an's scream lasted less than two seconds—the Crimson pattern erupted from his throat, racing wildly through his vascular network, his skin bulged then ruptured, and his bones inside emitted a series of popcorn‑like crackles.

He is mutating.

At an extremely rapid speed.

Qin Zhixia no longer looked at Cui Yong'an.

She pressed her left hand onto the gun holster at her waist.

As the Tail-Head Snake was drawn, a strand of faint blue energy from "Oblivion" poured from her fingertips into the barrel.

The special pistol's metal frame instantly became covered with cracked oxidation patterns—this gun would be completely ruined after firing the next bullet.

But one shot is enough.

Cui Yong'an's body had swollen to three times its original size, uneven bone spikes erupted along his back, his eyeballs were forced out of their sockets to hang on his cheeks. He opened his fang‑filled mouth and lunged at Qin Zhixia.

Qin Zhixia raised the gun.

No aiming motion.

Not needed.

At this distance, even with eyes closed you couldn't miss.

She pulled the trigger.

A bullet wrapped in a faint blue halo burst from the muzzle, its speed so great that the naked eye could only catch a fleeting teal streak.

Cui Yong'an's head, undergoing mutation, exploded into fragments that filled the sky.

Bone shards, brain matter, and dark‑red tissue fragments that hadn't finished mutating scattered, and a few splashed onto Xiao Zhang's combat jacket.

The headless body lunged forward two more steps, then, like a puppet whose strings had been pulled, crashed to the ground.

The Tail-Head Snake's barrel shattered into three pieces in Qin Zhixia's hand, and scorching metal fragments fell to the ground, steaming with blue smoke.

Qin Zhixia tossed the scrap metal away.

She stared at Xiao Zhang.

Xiao Zhang stared at her.

The draft through the crumbling rear building swept between them, mixing the scent of blood with the aroma of Vietnamese G7 coffee.

Xiao Zhang's lips moved.

No sound came.

Qin Zhixia reached behind her waist and drew the second‑to‑last Bayonet.

"Is there anything else to test?"

She asked.

Xiao Zhang lowered his head, glanced at the bloodstain on his combat jacket, and brushed it with his thumb.

Then he lifted his head, and his dark‑red pupils reflected Qin Zhixia's image.

The reflected image was drenched in blood, hair half‑disheveed, the Exoskeleton on his right knee reduced to a frame, and he clutched a nearly discarded Bayonet.

He was in utter disarray.

Yet the reflected figure stood perfectly upright.

Xiao Zhang's Adam's apple rolled slightly.

"...... Qin Team."

"You really... have changed a lot."