Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Mother’s Longing

The elevator stopped on the tenth floor.

Su Yu Qing didn’t wait for it to rise again—he bolted into the stairwell and ran up.

A crash shook the eleventh floor. It sounded like a door splintering, followed by a nurse’s scream so sharp it turned his stomach.

The alarm bell started wailing, echoing through the building.

Su Yu Qing hit the eleventh floor at a sprint.

The woman was there—standing at the ward door.

Dark red slime spread beneath her feet, half blood pool, half mire. From that slick mass, countless thin, blood-red tentacles uncoiled and whipped upward like leeches.

They were wrapped around Feng Ling.

Layer upon layer.

Feng Ling’s body was pinned and dragged, her limbs bound tight. The tentacles crawled higher, feeding—sucking at her blood, numbing her, corroding her wounds. Feng Ling’s face had gone pale to the point of gray, eyes shut, body slack.

Su Yu Qing’s scalp went cold.

He drew his pistol and fired.

Bang. Bang.

The woman took two hits and immediately yanked Feng Ling forward as a shield. At the same time, tentacles lashed out at Su Yu Qing, and the blood-mire surged across the floor toward him as if it had a mind.

Su Yu Qing retreated fast, eyes locked on Feng Ling.

She couldn’t move. She couldn’t fight. She was being drained right in front of him.

Despair clenched his chest.

I can’t save her.

Then armed guards flooded the corridor, rifles up, muzzles tracking the woman, the tentacles, the crawling slime. Gunfire erupted in a brutal, deafening storm.

The woman snapped back into the ward, dragging Feng Ling into the doorway again as a shield.

The firing cut off instantly.

Inside the ward, the woman’s face twisted with irritation. She needed Feng Ling dead and needed to leave—now. Her ability wasn’t the kind that killed instantly. It was slow, parasitic, draining her target into weakness and death.

The Hidden Boss should be close to expiring, she thought.

She looked at Feng Ling—

—and froze.

Feng Ling’s eyes were open.

Not wide. Not frantic.

Just dark, fixed, and watching her like a predator waking up.

“Why aren’t you dead?” the woman hissed, unease flickering across her features. She forced more leeches forward—

—and saw something that made her breath catch.

From Feng Ling’s bound arm, a third arm pushed out of raw flesh.

It was long and gaunt, slick with blood. In a heartbeat it hardened and reshaped into a bone blade, a curved scythe of bone and violence.

Feng Ling swung.

The blade cut through with cold precision.

The woman screamed—high and tearing.

A third of her body sheared away, yet no blood poured out. Only wriggling insects, boiling under the torn surface.

Feng Ling ripped free of the swarm, staggering upright, the new arm rising again to strike.

The woman didn’t wait.

Her remaining body melted in an instant—collapsing into countless bugs that poured into the blood-mire and shot out of the ward like a living spill.

Outside, gunfire resumed. Slime splattered. The whole floor filled with smoke and the metallic stink of blood.

When the shooting finally slowed, Feng Ling stepped out of the ward.

Su Yu Qing crouched, checked the floor, then stood and shook his head.

“It escaped.”

Feng Ling leaned against the doorframe, pressing a hand to her shoulder. Her lips were pale, but they curved into a faint, mocking smile. Her eyes were cold enough to cut.

Back inside, the doctor returned with trembling hands to redo Feng Ling’s bandages.

Besides the torn shoulder wound, Feng Ling’s skin was dotted with dense bite marks, like a field of pinpricks.

Su Yu Qing watched, tight with tension. “Is it poisonous?”

“The test results aren’t back yet,” the doctor said carefully, “but based on experience, it’s likely a neurotoxin that numbs the nerves. Maybe the exposure time was short—so it didn’t cause major damage.”

Feng Ling listened without speaking.

She’d thought her corrupted Ability Card only made her body stronger. Now it was obvious: her resistance and mend ability were boosted, and she seemed to have immunity to at least some toxins.

If she hadn’t, she would’ve been dead the moment those leeches wrapped around her—paralyzed, helpless, drained dry.

Su Yu Qing didn’t know she had that hidden advantage. He only felt sick with guilt.

“That aberrant can evade pursuit easily,” he said, voice tight. “That’s why it dared attack the bureau so openly.” He looked at Feng Ling. “I’ve increased security on this floor, but I suspect news that you hold two Ability Cards has leaked. Aberrants may come again.”

Feng Ling lowered her gaze. Blood loss left her cold, her head fogged, her limbs heavy. She needed rest—real rest—if she wanted any chance of staying alive.

Being a target felt like rot under the skin. Irritation. Anxiety. Rage. A constant sense of being shoved into a corner.

A nurse finished adjusting the transfusion bag and muttered, almost under their breath, “If Sister Ye were here…”

The room went quiet. Too quiet. Even the doctor paused for a heartbeat.

Feng Ling frowned. “Sister Ye?”

Su Yu Qing answered, “We used to have a very capable inspector named Ye Zheng. Because of outstanding performance, she was transferred to the inspectorate branch bureau in Yun Hai City.”

“Because Yun Hai City is the economic and financial center,” the nurse couldn’t help snapping, “and our Qing Jiang City is a disposable second-tier town. Any inspector with real ability gets transferred out. Recruiting can’t keep up with how fast the higher-ups move people.”

The doctor coughed softly, a warning.

The nurse shut their mouth.

Su Yu Qing gave a bitter smile. “The Aberrant Safety Inspection Bureau has existed for less than half a year. Training and growth take time, and aberrants keep increasing. With limited manpower, we prioritize key cities first.”

He stood, not wanting to dig deeper. “Rest. We’ll investigate the aberrant that attacked you. When we have results, I’ll inform you immediately.”

Feng Ling nodded and watched him leave with the medical staff. The ward door remained open, and she could see armed guards posted outside.

She closed her eyes, exhausted.

Two aberrants had come for her in a row. They’d risked exposure just to kill her.

That didn’t happen for nothing.

Her Ability Card name was corrupted, unreadable. All she could confirm so far was a stronger body, faster recovery, and some degree of immunity.

Compared to invisibility, poison, or blades that could butcher a crowd, what was so special about hers?

It didn’t make sense.

Unless…

Unless what she held was worth dying for.

Feng Ling opened her eyes again, staring at the ceiling.

She hadn’t only used Mantis during the attack.

She’d marked the woman too.

“Mother’s Longing,” Feng Ling murmured, tasting the name like it was a joke and a promise at the same time.

She activated it.

A ribbon of red mist formed in her vision—thin at first, then deepening into a clear trail. It stretched out of the ward like a path drawn in blood, mapping the marked target’s escape route.

Feng Ling’s mouth curled.

“I see you,” she whispered.