The thought was insane, yet like the only flame in sudden darkness, illuminating his heart. Surging anger and pain drove him to wrap his hands around Li Mingdi’s throat. As he felt Li Mingdi’s struggle and life force gradually fading, a strange pleasure and sense of impending release silently grew within him. Though he stood still, it felt as if he had fallen back dozens of meters, about to tumble into a silent, vast world.

Until the commotion behind him and Xu Mengshan’s shout jolted him awake. When he turned around, the grave mistake had already been made, the outcome inevitable.

But in some places, once your heart has reached them, it can never truly leave.

Some actions, once you’ve finally taken them, you’ll forever remember the trembling sensation in your fingers.

These days of fleeing, his subordinates’ anxiety and desperate efforts, the police pursuit, the arduous journey—all this both disturbed Yin Feng and filled him with unprecedented shame. He remained silent, letting them take him wherever they would. Yet that quiet thought would occasionally creep into his mind. It had haunted him before, but never as persistently and powerfully as now, as if reborn.

It said: Just accept it, admit it, submit. Since you’ve already done it since you can never escape the guilt, why keep fighting? Like finally laying down the heavy shackles you’ve carried for thirty years. Whatever kind of person you are, that’s who you should become. When you killed, when you released your true nature, you felt that long-lost pleasure and different kinds of freedom. Even though these feelings came with bone-deep pain.

But if there wasn’t You Mingxu.

If there weren’t all those past days.

If there weren’t Tu Ya, Xiao Yan, Champion, Chen Feng, and Old Nine, who wholeheartedly followed him to prove the right path.

He might truly have wanted to give up.

These were all his lights. That night, they had almost all slipped through his fingers. His soul questioned him: would he fall easily into darkness, or bear greater torment to crawl back from the corpse-filled swamp beneath his feet into the warm, bright world of the living?

In truth, he had never had any other choice.

Never had any other answer.

Yin Feng’s nose stung, but his heart felt as if it had returned to those quiet nights lit by orange lamps, talking with You Mingxu. Even this brief conversation, seeing only words without faces, strangely restored him to his former self. Those evil thoughts, those long-suppressed desires, gradually sank to the cold depths before her.

He said: “I won’t put you in a difficult position. If the final investigation proves the culprit is still my second personality, we haven’t taken any detours—we’ll treat him as our enemy and send him to prison or death.”

You Mingxu had felt better when he hypothesized the second personality didn’t exist. But now he had circled back, his tone so calm and detached, she suddenly felt waves of bone-chilling cold creeping in.

So he wasn’t certain either.

You Mingxu said: “Fine, I understand.”

Yin Feng’s fingers hovered over the keyboard.

Usually, the two of them had endless casual conversations, but now they were choked with unspoken words.

On the other end, Yin Feng collected himself, looking at the dense chat records filling the screen. Suddenly, his previously empty heart seemed silently filled with something. He smiled, and in that instant, his handsome face and deep eyes seemed to recover their usual cold, profound light.

He said: “A Xu and I have joined forces many times, and this time too, we’ll kill gods if we meet gods, demons if we meet demons. Now, both you and I have been removed by the Punisher, cleared away as obstacles. I think this confirms my original hypothesis—they’re about to act. It’s not as simple as cultivating a few seeds or hunting down a few criminals. This move against me, which they buried for so long and were willing to sacrifice, shows they’re planning something big. If I were the Punisher’s leader, it would be something that could thoroughly express my will, something that could affect many people, even let the world know the Punisher’s purpose. Only then would their desperate struggle be worth it, without regret. I think he must think the same way.

Moreover, if this thing succeeds in the end, it can be pinned on me—aren’t I a fugitive? While the real Punisher leader never appears. Then their organization can continue forever. After a few years, he can cultivate new Punishers.”

His tone was calm, but You Mingxu found it heart-stopping. She had to admit Yin Feng made sense. The opponent’s willingness to sacrifice Su Ziyi and Li Mingdi meant they were showing their hand. They must be preparing their final counterattack. However, even guessing their intentions, we’re in the light while the enemy lurks in the darkness. As the saying goes, there are hundred-day thieves but no thousand-day guards. In this vast city of ten million people, anyone could be the Punisher’s target. Even the gods couldn’t predict their specific criminal plans.

At this thought, You Mingxu’s heart suddenly sank. Yin Feng had contacted her today and said this much—he must have a plan.

She immediately asked: “What do you plan to do?”

On the other end, Yin Feng was silent for half a minute before replying: “There are ways to discover their plans.”

You Mingxu said: “No! I don’t agree! If the second personality is just a frame-up, they’ll trust you even less. Maybe your doing this is even part of their plan, sacrificing yourself! Don’t forget how much Yin Chen wants to destroy you!”

Yin Feng remained silent.

You Mingxu’s mind raced. If she couldn’t think of another way, given Yin Feng’s arrogant nature and how the Punisher had ground him down to this state, he might try to throw himself to the tigers. Whether through disguise or deception, he would take enormous risks to gain the Punisher’s trust. He might even truly be labeled a Punisher, turning innocent to guilty, never to be cleared. He might not care anymore. But how could she watch him walk a path of mutual destruction?

He was her Yin Feng. Even with his rebellious nature, she had to desperately protect that pure heart, not watch it become stained with mud and filth.

But now, without any clues, how could they counter the Punisher’s plans?

You Mingxu was the type whose courage rose when pushed to extremes. Suddenly, something her mentors often said when she first started flashed through her mind: Sometimes when a case seems completely without leads, impossible to tackle, you have to return to the source. Often where something happened holds the root of the crime.

You Mingxu’s heart stirred, and she urged: “Yin Feng, don’t rush to get yourself killed. Let’s first figure out how they got to you in the first place?”

On the other end, Yin Feng remained silent.