“What about the last phase?” Sister Siwei asked.

“The last phase is the ‘Era of Collapse.’ Extremely strong order will bring extremely strong backlash.” Uncle Wan said. “I’ve already sensed the future of collapse.”

After hearing this, Sister Siwei sighed: “Even if this place really does ‘collapse,’ it will still be something you caused single-handedly.”

“Is that so?” Uncle Wan stood up and looked at us with cold eyes. “You all could have stopped me, but you tacitly allowed me to develop this family to what it is today, didn’t you? Moreover, you’ve been by my side all along. We’re all in this together.”

“Did Hero and I have a choice…?” Sister Siwei said through gritted teeth. “We were assigned to the same room as you… Everyone in the room was brainwashed by you. How were we supposed to leave?”

“You can only blame Zheng Yingxiong himself.” Uncle Wan said. “Who told him to be a ‘Spirit Sniffer’? And you, Little Li—’An ordinary man is innocent, but possessing a jade makes him guilty.’ As long as you stay with Zheng Yingxiong, you’re destined for today’s outcome. So no one can blame anyone for this.”

The scent emanating from Sister Siwei was extremely angry, but I knew she couldn’t do anything.

From the moment Uncle Wan stepped onto this land, she had no way to stop him anymore.

“Brother Wan…” Sister Siwei’s voice softened. “Since you’re about to leave, could you tell them that Hero has lost his abilities and have them let the two of us go?”

“Ha…” Uncle Wan bent down and said softly, “Little Li, I suggest you don’t make this kind of attempt. Once those crazy ‘family members’ learn that Zheng Yingxiong is no longer useful, his situation will be more dangerous than anyone’s.”

The next second, a cold scent emerged from my sister—a scent called “despair.”

“You should have thought of this, right?” Uncle Wan said. “They respect Zheng Yingxiong like they respect a ‘god.’ Having Zheng Yingxiong sniff their scent every morning has become their only hope. Now you want me to personally tell them this ‘god’ has become a ‘human’? Although I’ve always been licking blood off the knife’s edge, I won’t touch such a dangerous edge. They’ll tear me to pieces.”

Sister Siwei swallowed and said: “That means, whether you escape from here or not… little brother Hero can no longer leave.”

“Do you think this is something I should care about? Little Li, I’m leaving.” Uncle Wan reached out and patted Sister Siwei’s shoulder. “Welcome the collapse.”

“Wan Cai…” Sister Siwei called out to him, her tone extremely cold.

“Did you come here in the middle of the night just to threaten us?”

Uncle Wan scratched his head and answered: “How did I give you that impression? I just felt that I was about to leave, so I told you as much as possible about how to survive here. Consider it some life advice.”

After saying this, he walked out of the house and disappeared into the night.

That night I sat curled up against Sister Siwei in the corner. Although the room wasn’t cold, Sister Siwei’s body was very cold.

I didn’t know how to make her warm.

The clean scent on her body kept changing—sometimes becoming murky, sometimes becoming sinister.

She produced one “thought” after another, then they vanished like smoke and clouds.

I was very afraid of this feeling. I always felt she would become a different person when morning came.

When dawn broke, Sister Siwei and I had just opened our eyes when we heard chaos already erupting outside.

She pulled me and we rushed downstairs, only to discover many people gathered in the vault room on the basement level.

I smelled a very uneasy scent. Sister Siwei pulled me through the crowd and walked to the front of the group.

Uncle Wan was kneeling on the ground at this moment, looking at the huge safe in front of him.

I remembered this safe had always been used by him to store “jade,” but the safe was empty inside.

“This… this…” Uncle Wan knelt in front of the safe, his whole body trembling.

“Stop with the ‘this’!” A “team leader” asked. “Brother Wan! Where is everyone’s ‘jade’?! Didn’t you say we’d all put it with you for safekeeping and you would distribute it?”

Uncle Wan turned his head, his eyes completely bloodshot. I clearly smelled the scent of “panic” on him.

“I know now… someone must have stolen the ‘jade’! Who is it? Who has such audacity? Do you not take the family rules seriously?!” His voice was extremely tense, sounding like it was about to break. “Aren’t you afraid of the ‘family rules’?!”

But everyone was very quiet, and no one spoke up.

I could smell that the scent on his body was already filled with “tension,” “fear,” “unease,” and finally some “despair.” He was about to stop thinking.

“Brother Wan, the ‘jade’ has always been kept by you.” A team leader auntie said coldly, the scent of “killing intent” emerging from her body.

After those words, “killing intent” emerged from everyone’s bodies.

“That’s right, weren’t you keeping it for everyone?”

“We trusted you so much that we let you keep all the ‘jade’?” Another team leader asked.

“Did you pocket the ‘jade’ for yourself?”

“How, how is that possible?!” Uncle Wan suddenly stood up and said to everyone, “Am I an idiot? If I really wanted to pocket the ‘jade,’ why would I bring you all here this morning to distribute the ‘jade’?!”

“Then where is the ‘jade’?” The team leaders pressed aggressively, not giving Uncle Wan any chance to explain.

Faced with the completely empty safe, it seemed anything he said would be superfluous.

“How would I know?!” Uncle Wan said. “Don’t you trust me? If I was going to pocket the ‘jade,’ why would I wait until now? I could have pocketed it long ago!”

Just as everyone began to hesitate, Sister Siwei beside me spoke up: “That’s because the amount of ‘jade’ now is about to be enough for one person to escape.”

“Little Li…!” Uncle Wan glared at her with wide eyes. “You… I understand now. When the wall falls, everyone pushes, is that it? Damn it…”

Uncle Wan couldn’t maintain his composure and immediately rushed forward to grab Sister Siwei, but the uncles who had been protecting him all this time blocked him.

“Brother Wan, did you really take the ‘jade’?” Those uncles asked.

“Are you confused too?!” Uncle Wan roared. “Even if I was going to take it, I wouldn’t let you all know!”

“But only you know the password to that safe,” the uncle said.

“I… I…”

The crowd’s “killing intent” spread out, flooding the entire floor.

The people who had once trusted Uncle Wan the most tied him up completely and dragged him to the plaza outside the office building. What awaited him would be the judgment rules he himself had established.

Uncle Wan was going to disappear too?

When this thought emerged, I didn’t feel a trace of sadness, but I felt the scent from Sister Siwei beside me grow stronger.

She didn’t take me to watch Uncle Wan’s execution. Instead, she pulled me toward our room.

“Hero, I will protect you.” Sister Siwei said.

“Protect me…?”

“Yes.” Sister Siwei turned her head to look at me, her eyes full of determination. “I won’t let the ‘Era of Chaos’ happen. Since we have no way to change the current situation, we can only continue to use these people.”