Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

"I thought about it yesterday," Siren nodded, "and decided to try to treat her. But I need to confirm the specifics first."

"Of course, of course," David replied readily. "Just tell me what you need."

The two whispered to each other for a moment in front of the door.

Xilun confirmed with David the chieftain's medication records and dietary arrangements for the past six months, as well as the list of personnel responsible for daily care.

David answered each question clearly and logically—he was clearly very concerned about his father's condition and knew every detail.

"it is good."

Xilun pushed open the door.

In the dimly lit bedroom, the air was stagnant and murky, the bitterness of herbs mixed with a faint, rotten sweetness.

The curtains were tightly closed, with only a sliver of light leaking through the gaps.

Chief Link lay in the center of the large bed, a thin blanket covering his chest, his body barely moving.

Xilun walked to the bedside and looked down.

Then he froze.

When we investigated earlier, Chief Link's complexion was sallow, but at least it was normal.

But today—

His face turned black.

It wasn't the pale gray of someone who has lost blood, but a dark, ominous black that spread from her cheeks to her forehead, as if something was seeping out from under her skin.

The changes are too great.

In just one morning.

Xilun's brows furrowed immediately.

David, who was behind him, also saw this change.

"What's going on!"

David's face turned deathly pale instantly. He turned sharply towards the door and shouted:

"Has anyone entered this house since last night?"

The two guards on duty outside the door were startled by the sudden angry shout and quickly shook their heads.

"No, young master! No one has come in since the master left last night; we've been guarding the door the whole time!"

"What happened?" David asked, pointing to his father's darkened face, his voice trembling slightly. "He wasn't like this yesterday!"

The guards looked at each other, then lowered their heads in fear.

Siren did not participate in the questioning.

He was already squatting by the bed, opening the echo chamber, and re-entering his spiritual power into Chief Link's body.

The black parasite discovered during the last investigation is still lurking deep within the heart, with no significant changes in its shape or location.

But besides that—

He sensed something new.

In the blood of the elderly, a tiny, almost imperceptible active factor is being released slowly and continuously.

These factors originate from the stomach and spread throughout the body via the bloodstream, causing cells to be destroyed at an abnormal rate wherever they go.

This is not a parasite.

This is something else.

A virus.

Xilun withdrew his senses and stood up.

His expression turned serious.

"How is it?" David stared intently at him, his voice hoarse.

"It's going to be difficult."

Xilun hesitated for a moment, carefully choosing his words.

"Your father not only has the parasite I mentioned yesterday—he also has a virus. Both are present and are damaging his body from different directions."

"Virus?"

David's pupils suddenly contracted.

His face was even paler than before—not from surprise, but from something deeper.

It was as if they had a premonition of some terrible truth.

"What kind of virus?" His voice was very low, almost as if he were talking to himself.

"A highly active biological agent," Siren replied. "It's destroying your father's internal organs in a very subtle way. His darkening complexion is the most direct sign."

David closed his eyes.

There was a silence of about five or six seconds.

Then he opened his eyes, his voice trembling as if suppressed to the extreme:

"Virus Number One".

"What?"

"It should be virus number one." David's Adam's apple bobbed.

"This is a special biological agent sealed in the Link family's warehouse... something passed down from generation to generation of patriarchs. It is extremely toxic, colorless and odorless, and can completely destroy a person's life functions within half a month."

He paused for a moment, then uttered the most crucial sentence:

"It is sealed in the family's secret vault—only elders have the authority to enter the vault and retrieve it."

The air suddenly felt heavy.

Xilen looked at David, and David looked at him.

Their eyes met silently in the dimly lit bedroom.

"You mean," Siren said slowly, "that someone took Virus Number One from the warehouse and then infected your father."

"I don't know." David's lips trembled. "I can't bear to think about it... but there's no other place besides the warehouse where you could get something like this."

He suddenly turned around, strode to the door, and gave a stern order to the guards:

"From this moment forward, conduct a thorough investigation! From yesterday until now, investigate everyone who has entered or left the storeroom, everyone who has had contact with this bedroom, one by one! Summon the steward and retrieve all the elders' entry and exit records!"

The guards obeyed and rushed off.

David turned around, his face ashen.

His gaze fell on his father's darkened face, and a very low, almost inaudible groan escaped his throat.

Xilun didn't interrupt him; he was also thinking about something.

Virus Number One can only be obtained by elders.

And he—Siren—had an elder's token tucked in his pocket.

What does this mean?

This means that, theoretically, Xilun is also qualified to enter the warehouse and take away the No. 1 virus.

He had just arrived at the manor yesterday when David gave him the Elder's Decree.

This morning, he revealed the token in full view of everyone.

Then--

Chief Link was poisoned.

If someone is trying to frame me...

This timing is absolutely perfect.

Xilun subconsciously touched the Elder's Token in his arms, the cool bronze texture against his chest.

coincidence?

Or was it done on purpose?

"This virus," he suppressed the turmoil in his heart and asked, "is there a cure?"

David took a deep breath, trying to calm his voice:

"Yes. But it's very complicated. The solution to Virus One is to fight fire with fire—it requires another special biological agent to neutralize it. The two viruses react in combination within the body and eventually cancel each other out."

"but--"

A bitter look of near despair appeared on his face.

"During the overlap of the two viruses, the body has to endure an extremely severe rejection reaction. My father's current physical condition... with that thing still in his heart... I'm afraid he won't be able to withstand it."

"At the very least," David looked at Siron, "we need to first dispel the contamination from that parasite and stabilize Father's mental core before we can proceed with the next step of detoxification."

Xilun remained silent.

This is indeed a very difficult problem.

He faced a nested predicament—

To detoxify, the pollution must first be dispersed.

However, when exposed to a virus, the contamination itself becomes more difficult to access.

The virus is destroying the host's body, while the parasite takes the opportunity to absorb more life force, creating a vicious cycle.

He needs to suppress the spread of parasite contamination before the virus can completely penetrate his body, and only then can he begin the detoxification process.

The time window is very limited.

He walked back to the bedside and activated the reverberation chamber again, carefully sensing the rate of virus spread and changes in the parasite's activity.

A few minutes later, he withdrew his mental energy.

"If it were just a parasite problem, three days should have been enough."

His voice was calm, but every word carried the weight of careful consideration.

"Now that the virus is present, it will take at least five days."

He paused.

"Furthermore, with the virus continuing to cause damage, I can hardly guarantee that Chief Link's health will remain intact during the treatment process."

After hearing this, David felt as if his last breath had been sucked out.

He held onto the bedpost and slowly bent down.

His shoulders were trembling slightly.

The eldest son of a viscount family revealed an extremely vulnerable state at this moment.

He grew up under his father's protection.

Although his father was not good with words, he gave him the best education, the strongest support, and the safest environment to grow up in.

Later, his father fell ill, and he took over everything—the family business, personnel, diplomacy, conflicts… All the pressure fell on the shoulders of a young man who was not yet fully mature.

He pulled through.

By gritting their teeth and persevering, they managed to keep the Link family afloat step by step.

But now—

Someone wanted to kill his father.

It wasn't an external enemy, nor a business rival, but someone within the family.

This fact suffocated him more than the virus itself.

The bedroom door was suddenly pushed open.

Two women walked in one after the other; the first one to enter was Risa.

She wore a dark red velvet dress, her hair was neatly styled in a bun, and her face was well-maintained, but the fine lines around her eyes and the slightly downturned corners of her mouth betrayed her age and recent anxiety.

She went straight to the bedside and threw herself on Chief Link.

"Oh God..."

Her voice was sharp and trembling, as if it had been pierced by something.

"Who—who gave you this terrible stuff?"

She turned her head, tears welling in her eyes, and her voice suddenly became sharp:

"Could it be one of the clan elders? Is there a traitor among them?"

The second person to walk in was Daisy.

She stood at the doorway and first saw her father's dark face on the bed, then she saw Xilen standing to the side.

Their eyes met for a fleeting moment across the dimly lit bedroom.

A complex emotion flickered in Daisy's eyes—surprise, confusion, and something deeper.

Then she looked away and quickly walked to her father's bedside.

Risa is still crying.

Her cries were not loud, but they were piercing, like fingernails scratching glass.

After crying for a while, she suddenly stopped.

She looked up.

With tears still wet on his face, a pair of eyes suddenly locked onto Xilun.

"It's you."

Her voice suddenly changed, switching from grief to a sharp hostility.

"It must be you."

Risa stood up and pointed directly at Xiren:

"You just received the Elder's Decree yesterday—and today, my husband has been poisoned! You hold a grudge against me for what I said to you before, so you used the Link family's own virus to harm my husband!"

The air in the bedroom seemed frozen.

David suddenly looked up: "Mother—"

"Shut up!" Risa's voice was shrill and almost out of control. "Look who you brought home! A foreigner! A low-level thug of unknown origin! You actually gave him the Elder's Decree—"

"Mother, calm down." David forced himself to speak. "Mr. Celen came to save Father, he couldn't possibly—"

"Impossible?" Risa sneered. "He only arrived yesterday, and today your father was poisoned. Is there really such a coincidence?"

Her gaze was like a knife, piercing through Xilun.

David opened his mouth, but did not immediately refute.

He glanced at Xilun instinctively.

That look was brief, fleeting.

But Siren caught it.

In that look, there was the same thought as Risa—

What a coincidence!

Although David was unwilling to think this way rationally, he couldn't completely rule out the possibility emotionally.

Xilun stood still, his expression calm.

He was not angry, did not defend himself, and did not show any resentment at being wronged.

He just stood there quietly, like a silent wall.

He only spoke after Risa finished speaking.

"lady."

The voice was soft, but it inexplicably carried a weight that could not be ignored.

"If I wanted to harm Chief Link, I wouldn't need to use such a stupid method."

His gaze swept over Risa, then over David, and finally landed on the darkened face on the bed.

"I mentioned yesterday that your husband has an unidentified parasite in his body. The extra virus today was introduced after I arrived—but I wasn't the one who introduced it. Because if it were me, I wouldn't need to stay here, nor would I need to tell you this."

He paused.

"I could simply do nothing and wait for your clan leader to die on his own."

The bedroom was deathly silent.

Risa's lips trembled slightly, but she didn't utter a single word.

If someone wants to harm a patient, why would they proactively point out that the patient has been poisoned? Why would they stay put and wait to be suspected?

Unless he's an idiot.

But judging from Xilun's behavior since entering the manor, he is clearly not.

Risa gave a cold snort and turned away from him.

David's expression flickered in the lamplight.

Daisy stood to the side, remaining silent.

Her gaze darted back and forth between Xilun and her father, and her hands unconsciously clenched under her skirt.

Several people walked out of the bedroom one after another.

Risa walked at the front, her back ramrod straight, but her steps were stiff and hurried.

She didn't look back at anyone and disappeared at the end of the corridor.

David remained at the door, quietly instructing the guards to strengthen the watch on the bedroom, before hurriedly leaving to investigate the storeroom's entry and exit records.

Only Celen and Daisy remained in the corridor.

Daisy looked at the ground.

The hem of her skirt swayed gently in the breeze.

"What's wrong?" Xilun asked.

Daisy looked up and gazed intently into his eyes.

"It's nothing."

She spoke softly, but without hesitation.

"I just—" Her eyelashes trembled, "I don't know what to do."

She looked down at the tips of her boots.

After a long pause, he finally said, "Thank you."

Then she turned and left.

The white skirt fluttered a few times in the dimly lit corridor before gradually disappearing into the distance.

Xilun stood alone in the empty corridor.

The flame of the gas lamp cast flickering shadows on his face.

His expression remained calm.

But my mind is racing.

Someone wants to harm him.

This can now be basically confirmed.

Poisoning Chief Link was a strategic move, but the target was likely not the chief himself—but rather him, Siron.

Think carefully about the timeline—

He arrived at the estate yesterday evening.

David gave him the elder's decree that night.

Early this morning, he displayed the Elder's Token in the manor, which was seen by Luo Wei and the guards.

Then--

Chief Link was poisoned.

If this wasn't a coincidence, then the person who poisoned them clearly knew that Xilun had obtained the Elder's Decree and deliberately chose this time to act.

What is the purpose?

frame.

This led everyone to suspect that Xilun was the one who poisoned the plant.

Risa's reaction is the best proof—her first reaction was not to suspect others, but to suspect Siron, who had just received the Elder's Decree.

Then——

Who has the ability to enter the warehouse and obtain the No. 1 virus?

Who would have a motive to poison the clan leader at this time?

Who could accomplish all this without alerting anyone?

Only elders are allowed to enter the storeroom.

But David said that current investigations show "no one" entered the warehouse.

This is very strange.

Either the records were tampered with, or someone had access to the warehouse but didn't need to be logged.

Who doesn't need to be recorded?

Xilun thought for a moment, and a name came to mind.

The clan chief's wife.

Risa.

As the clan chief's wife, she was not an elder, but her authority was probably no less than that of an elder.

and--

She was responsible for the clan chief's daily life, including his food and lodging.

The residue he found on the chieftain's stomach wall today indicates that someone has been lacing the chieftain's food or medicine with something over a long period of time.

Who has the best chance of getting access to the patriarch's food?

The answer speaks for itself.

But this is just speculation.

No evidence.