The words of Li Taiming struck Bing Yu with an unimaginable terror. All she had ever known was that she had died miserably and unjustly; she viewed the rebirth granted by the Peach Blossom Pool water as compensation from fate. With the Life and Death Contract, she could kill without reservation those she deemed deserving of death, earning the gifts fate had prepared for her through their punishment. However, Li Taiming’s casual mention of “eternal freedom” suddenly sent a chill down her spine. Was there such a thing as immortal life without freedom? Where exactly lay the trick? He clearly knew, yet he remained stubbornly silent toward her. Why would he deliberately omit such a crucial detail? From that moment, the absolute, one-hundred-percent trust Li Bingyu held for Li Taiming developed a hairline crack. This fissure widened and deepened as her internal speculations grew until one day, she realized the Li Taiming standing before her was an entirely different person. But that, of course, was a story for later.

Shortly after the operating room lights flickered on, they were extinguished again. This time, it was indeed Old He and Xiaoyu who emerged. Both men had gauze wrapped around their heads, and an IV drip was connected to the vein in their left arms. Just as Xiao Shu was about to go check on Xiaoyu, she was arrested by the sight of a familiar face stepping out of the operating theater.

The person wore a full set of blue sterile garments, a cap over their head, and was pulling their mask down from their mouth. That dark complexion and slight frame bore a nine-tenths resemblance to Ah Mang, yet Xiao Shu dared not step forward to confirm. She remembered Huagu saying that Ah Mang was the one who gouged out her eyes, and the person now emerging from the operating room in surgical attire was clearly the chief surgeon. Could it be that Ah Mang was the one performing the eyeball transplants for Xing'er, Xiaoyu, Huagu, Old He, and 9457? If it truly was him, Ah Mang, having followed Huagu from Miao Village all the way to the Reflection Villa, and then committing such a cruel act against her, could only belong to Li Xiaohao’s faction. Only his subordinates would complete a mission by any ruthless means necessary, save for the one with a lingering conscience, Marquis Dayong, who was rumored to have long since passed into the next realm.

Lost in thought, Xiao Shu stared blankly at Ah Mang until he approached her with a deliberate grace, startling her back from her reverie. “You… are…”

Ah Mang smiled openly at Xiao Shu and said, “That’s right, I am the architect of the eye-gouging nightmare! I initially believed that any eye removed within 24 hours could be successfully transplanted. After many experiments, I discovered that the eyes must be harvested simultaneously from living subjects for the transplant to succeed.”

There are many kinds of people in this world: those vain, those who love to show off, those who practice charity, and those who take pleasure in societal antagonism. Hearing this statement, Xiao Shu had no doubt that Ah Mang belonged to the social cancers, the born criminals frequently mentioned in the history of Western jurisprudence. His entire life’s pleasure was not in enjoyment or contribution, but in the glory of challenging the limits of humanity. Seeing his expression of immense pride, Xiao Shu involuntarily shivered. She couldn't comprehend the method Li Xiaohao used to make such a person serve him. Or perhaps it could be reasoned that the cruelty of the employer mirrors the ruthlessness of the subordinate. Seventeen years felt like a dream; he suddenly felt utterly ignorant of that home, that father, that brother, and those two mysterious villas.

What this world truly is, who he himself truly is, why all of this began, and where the truth lies—he resolved that he must slowly uncover it all.