“Lin Yumo?” In a small room, beams of mixed light swept over the girl’s ink-green hair like brush strokes on silk.

“I’m here…” Her voice came out soft. Her hands knit together like two timid sparrows. Crimson eyes flicked around the strange machines, uneasy as storm-tossed koi.

“Scan complete. Your ability’s grown a lot. If you stay by the Young Master, you’ll be real help.” A woman’s voice crackled through the speaker, like rain on tin.

“Mm-hm. I’m working hard for the Young Master.” At the name Lin Fan, light bloomed in her eyes like lanterns kindled at dusk.

Snick—the door slid open. She stepped out in thin clothes, bare as spring bamboo. The first face she saw was—

“Master…!” She pressed a hand to her chest, shy as a doe. Clothes still traced her graceful lines. Her cheeks flushed and her gaze dipped like a petal falling.

“I wrapped things up over there. Thought you might get scared alone, so I came first.” Lin Fan scratched his head, then turned to chat with the testers, calm as a rock by a stream.

Seeing his attention shift, Lin Yumo breathed small and careful. She slipped into a side room, changed, then returned to stand quietly at his side, still as moonlight on water.

“You really haven’t changed at all.” Lin Fan tilted a glance at the girl half a step behind him and smiled. “Got a codename yet?”

“Yeah. Nether Butterfly.”

“Nether Butterfly, huh. Good name. Your ability matches it perfectly.” Lin Fan looked to the registrar. “Register her codename.”

“Yes, Sir Lin Fan.”

They left the registration floor and stepped into the elevator, steel doors closing like calm eyelids.

“Master, what do we do next?” Lin Yumo toyed with her black-and-white bear plush, the little thing bobbing like a panda lantern.

“We’ll first see what we can take on.”

—

“Sir Lin Fan, emergency!” The moment they entered the central hub, a strip of blue light flashed—whoosh—and pulled them into the emergency zone like a riptide.

“What’s so urgent?” Lin Fan grabbed a pair of glasses from the rack, cold as moon discs, and nodded for Lin Yumo to put hers on.

The dark, empty room unfurled into a full conference space, a table blooming in front of them like a stage set dropped in an eyeblink.

“Sit. We’ve got an urgent case.” A middle-aged man appeared as a virtual avatar, his tone clipped like a commander under pressure.

They sat. A video sprang into being, crisp as frost.

“Boom! Hahaha!” A peaceful street erupted. The lens pulled in on a man: hair ragged like weeds, clothes cheap and thin, a twisted grin coiled under shadowed eyes.

“What’s going on?” Lin Fan frowned, thoughts taut as wire. “A newly emerged ability user?”

“Yes. We tried talking. No effect.” The avatar rubbed his temple, headache heavy as a storm front. “We sent local espers to suppress him. They got hurt—badly. His ability’s bizarre.”

“High-end combat power nearby is tied up. Only you two can be assigned.”

Lin Fan tapped the table, fingers beating like a quiet drum. “What about the Ouyang Clan? Don’t tell me they’re too busy.”

He remembered what just happened. Ouyang’s top fighters hadn’t shown at the base, except Ouyang Si. Meanwhile, the Tang and Lin families had sent a bunch.

“The injured we sent belonged to Ouyang, plus a few free espers, so…” The man trailed off, words thinning like smoke.

“Fine, I get it. Give me the details.”

“Sir Lin Fan, you’re the nearest high-end combatant. The target has seized part of the city and is pressuring the government. A lot of criminals have joined him, wrecking the place. The government’s still pushing the news down. Outside that city, nothing has spread.”

He opened a map and tapped the red-circled district, the mark like a wound. “We need speed. The army can’t get in. If he wills it, it explodes—anywhere—so no defense holds. Objective’s simple: capture alive if you can. If not…”

“Black Eagle’s on the pad. Good luck.” His words fell, and the room peeled away like paper in fire.

Lin Fan slipped off the glasses and stood, back straight as a pine.

“Master…”

“We’re moving.” “Mm.”

They rushed to the rooftop. A jet-black helicopter waited, sleek as a hawk at dusk.

“Sir Lin… and Nether Butterfly?” Uniformed controllers checked their IDs, then waved them through, gestures crisp as sabers.

“Good luck to you both.” They hauled the gear aboard, saluted, and watched the helicopter rise, climbing into the sky like an ink stroke lifting off rice paper.

“Didn’t expect Lin Fan to be sent. Is that exploding lunatic really that strong?” As Black Eagle vanished into the distance, chatter rippled like wind through reeds.

“I heard several espers got hurt. One from the Ouyang Clan almost didn’t make it—body nearly blown apart. Only because Tang Ling happened to be at the stronghold did he survive.”

“That’s terrifying. Who’s the girl beside Lin Fan? Never seen her.”

“No clue. Her file just hit the database. Supposedly, her ability’s strong.”

“With those two, we might win back our face. Otherwise, people will look down on us.”

Meanwhile, in the sky—

“Master, what’s our plan when we arrive?” Lin Yumo held a tactical pad, eyes skimming details like swallows over a lake.

“We’ll ease in from the outer ring. Clean out the thugs on the way. Less work later.” Lin Fan handed her a fresh-drawn map, lines neat as bamboo.

“This is our first mission together…” She hugged her custom-modified Barrett, polishing it with care, hands steady as petals in a calm breeze.

“This one won’t be hard. Yumo, follow my calls.”

Riding the cutting-edge Black Eagle jet helicopter, they flew fast toward the scene, the machine slicing clouds like a black blade.