The aftermath of the "accident" was a whirlwind of controlled chaos. Police sirens wailed, emergency response teams cordoned off the area, and a small crowd of onlookers gathered to whisper about the impossible wreckage.
Su Liying stood to the side, wrapped in a thermal blanket provided by a paramedic, giving her statement to a grim-faced police officer. Her voice was calm, her story simple and factual. A truck lost control. A freak structural failure of a traffic pole saved her life. It was a one-in-a-billion miracle.
But inside, her mind was a raging storm of analysis.
She was a healer. An A-Rank Empath. Her perception of the world was fundamentally different from that of a normal person. And what she had felt in that moment was no accident. Just before the steel pole had bent like a piece of wet clay, she had sensed a flicker of immense, unbelievably dense spiritual power coalescing in the air. It wasn't elemental like fire or wind. It was pure, raw, kinetic force, applied with the precision of a master surgeon.
Her mind, a finely tuned analytical engine, immediately jumped to the only known data point she had for such a power: Qin Yue, Qin Mo's fiery younger sister, and her C-Rank "Kinetic Burst" talent.
But the power she had just witnessed was not C-Rank. A C-Ranker might be able to throw a rock hard enough to dent a car door. The force required to bend a solid steel traffic pole in an instant... that was the power of a god, not a student. It was like comparing a child's firecracker to a tactical nuclear warhead.
The logic, however, was inescapable. The texture of the power, the unique signature of the kinetic energy... it was a perfect, amplified, and utterly mastered version of the same energy she had felt from Qin Yue in the past.
Her previous, terrifying hypothesis—that Qin Mo was the dormant Abyssal god—suddenly felt flawed. A sleeping god wouldn't manifest its power in such a specific, derivative way. This was something else. This was the act of a being who could observe a power, understand its fundamental principles on a cosmic level, and then replicate it with divine perfection.
A new, even more terrifying theory began to form. He wasn't the sleeping god. He was something more. A being who could see, copy, and master any power he encountered.
She finally understood. He had been watching her. He had been protecting her. And in that single, violent, miraculous moment, he had just shown her a tiny fraction of his true power.
While Su Liying was grappling with her new reality, the Oracle Alliance was being reborn in fire.
Oracle's declaration of total war had cascaded through the network. The "Sanctuary" initiative was still active, but it was now clear that the best way to protect the flock was to exterminate the wolves. The new bounty, [Operation Serpent's Head], was not a request; it was a call to arms.
All across the Tianxia Concord, the scattered squads of the Oracle Alliance, once a loose coalition of independents, now moved with the singular, unified purpose of an army.
In a darkened warehouse district, AxeManiac and his Berserkers, armed with Hephaestus's Kinetic Breacher charges, blew the reinforced doors off a Prometheus-owned front company, their axes hungry for the blood of traitors. In the south, Old Croc and his Stray Dogs executed a perfect ambush on a convoy carrying illegal experimental materials. In the digital realm, DataGeek and the other analysts of the Outer Court began their own hunt, tracking the financial and logistical footprints of every known Prometheus member, feeding a constant stream of real-time intelligence to the hunter teams on the ground.
The inner circle of Project Zero had become a true command staff. Lin Mei was a whirlwind of commands in the [Channel: Zero], directing squads with the ruthless efficiency of a seasoned general. Old-Man-Jiang was her second-in-command, feeding her strategic analysis and coordinating the movements of dozens of teams simultaneously.
They were all shocked by the sudden, brutal shift in Oracle's strategy. But they did not question it. Their faith, forged in the fires of impossible victories, was now absolute. They were the instruments of his new, terrible will. They were the sword of his righteous fury.
The next day at school, the atmosphere between Qin Mo and Su Liying was charged with an unspoken tension that was so thick, she felt she could taste it. She knew. And she knew that he knew she knew. The game of hiding and seeking was over.
He had saved her life. He had revealed a part of himself. Now what?
She found him in the library during the lunch break. He was sitting at a secluded table, seemingly reading a book on pre-Revival history. She walked up to his table, her heart a steady, determined drum, and sat down in the chair opposite him.
He didn't look up from his book. She didn't speak. For a full minute, they sat in a profound, shared silence.
Finally, he closed his book, his finger marking his page, and looked at her. His eyes were the same as always—calm, deep, and utterly unreadable. "You seem distracted today, Chief Analyst," he said, his voice a quiet, even tone. He had never called her by her title in person before.
The acknowledgement sent a shiver down her spine. "I saw something impossible yesterday," she replied, her voice equally quiet, her gaze locked with his. "A demonstration of... incredible power. The kind that doesn't seem to follow the known rules of spiritual energy." She was talking about the traffic pole. But she was asking about him.
He held her gaze. "The universe is full of things that do not follow the rules," he said, his voice a placid river. "That is what makes it interesting to observe." He wasn't denying it. He was confirming that there were greater powers at play.
"This power..." she pressed, choosing her words with care. "It felt familiar. Like a song I have heard before, but played by a true master." She was telling him she had recognized the kinetic signature. She was telling him she knew the power was connected to his sister.
For the first time since she had met him, the corner of Qin Mo's mouth curved into a minuscule, almost imperceptible smile. It was not a smile of warmth, but of profound, ancient amusement.
"Even a simple song," he said, his voice a near whisper, "can shake the heavens, if it is played with enough intent."
With that final, cryptic, and earth-shattering statement, he stood up and walked away, leaving her alone at the table.
Su Liying sat there, her mind reeling. He hadn't admitted a thing. But he had confirmed everything.
The game of cat and mouse was over. He had just formally acknowledged her as a player in his world. She was no longer just the brilliant analyst, the curious classmate. She was something more. She was the one who knew.
A new, profound sense of purpose settled over her. Her path was clear. The world was about to be plunged into a brutal, secret war, orchestrated by the quiet, unassuming boy who had just walked away. And she would be by his side.
Not just as his analyst. Not just as his commander. But as his accomplice. His partner. And the only person in the universe who could see the dragon hiding behind the mask of a zero.