He has been reincarnated through countless worlds, adorned with billions of mythological terms!

Yun Yi glanced at it; Yun Jin was still excited.

He quickly scanned his surroundings, and after confirming that there were no means of tracking him, he looked away and casually stuffed the tablet into Yun Jin's backpack.

Then he walked to the lab bench, put several key drawings into a drawer, and locked it.

"Sister, stay close to me."

His tone was calm, yet it carried an unprecedented seriousness.

Yun Jin was stunned for a moment.

She knew her brother—he would never speak like that.

"What's wrong?"

She lowered her voice.

"It's alright." Yun Yi smiled. "Keep an eye on Sister Yao Yao."

Yun Yao hugged the rabbit, blinked blankly, but seeing her sister's expression, she became nervous and obediently grabbed Yun Jin's clothes.

Yun Yi walked ahead, pushed open the iron gate at the end of the corridor, and went up the stairs.

The basement staircase is very long.

The motion-activated lights turned on one by one, illuminating the narrow stairwell.

Footsteps echoed: tap, tap, tap.

Yun Jin and Yun Yao followed behind.

Halfway there, Yunyi suddenly stopped.

"younger brother?"

"It's nothing."

He continued walking uphill, his pace and rhythm unchanged.

But he already knew the answer in his mind.

nine.

Nine reincarnators were distributed around the stairwell exit—two behind the flower bed on the left, three in the shadow of the garage, one crouching on the second-floor balcony railing, and three hiding in the trees outside the villa's wall.

My breathing and heartbeat are both wrong.

Too fast, like a wild beast.

Yun Yi pushed open the last door and stepped out onto the ground.

The night was thick.

The landscape lights in the villa garden cast a dim, yellowish glow, elongating the shadows of the flowerbeds, paths, and fountain.

The wind was gentle, but it was too quiet.

There were no insects chirping, no birds singing, and even the occasional sound of cars passing by on the distant highway had disappeared.

Yun Jin and Yun Yao followed them out.

"Little brother, why aren't you coming back—"

Before she could finish speaking, her pupils suddenly contracted.

Behind the flower bed, two figures slowly stood up, like cheetahs rising from their slumber.

They were about eighteen or nineteen years old, but their faces were disproportionate to their age—their skin was taut on their cheekbones, their eyes were sunken, and the muscles at the corners of their mouths twitched slightly, as if they were enduring continuous pain.

The body proportions are also off: the arms are too long, the shoulders are too wide, the spine is slightly curved, and the whole person presents a deformed feeling of being forcibly stretched.

The dark sweatshirt and sweatpants were stretched taut by the muscles, and the abnormal muscle outlines were vaguely visible under the fabric.

Immediately afterwards, three people emerged from the shadows of the garage.

The person on the second-floor balcony flipped and jumped down, landing with their knees almost bent.

Three people scaled the wall and entered, their movements so swift they seemed inhuman.

Nine of them appeared.

They formed a loose encirclement around Yun Yi and his two companions.

Yun Jin's lips trembled, but her first reaction was not to scream—she reached out and pulled Yun Yao behind her, while her other hand gripped Yun Yi's shoulder tightly, trying to pull him toward her.

Yun Yi didn't move.

He looked at those "teenagers"—if they could still be called teenagers—with a gaze as calm as a stagnant pool.

Who are you?

No one answered.

The lead hunter tilted his head, as if examining an interesting piece of merchandise.

His hair was gray, his eyebrows were sparse to the point of disappearing, his lips were chapped, and there were dark red scabs at the corners of his mouth.

His eyes were bright, abnormally bright—not a healthy glow, but the last madness before a breakdown.

"You noticed."

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against glass.

Yunyi did not deny it:

"You used gene-editing agents."

"Forced use".

"Without any adjustments or genetic screening, it is injected directly into the body in the most primitive way to obtain ultimate physical strength."

"Even at the cost of distortion, it is still in use."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over them one by one.

"The price is lifespan."

"Your cells are dividing at a rate far exceeding the normal range, and telomeres are shortening at a rate visible to the naked eye."

"You won't live more than a year."

The hunters did not react.

"Why?" Yun Yi asked. "Do you know me? Have I offended you? Is it worth going to this extent?"

The leader of the hunters laughed.

The smile bloomed on her chapped lips, like a flower about to wither.

"Authorized user".

When he uttered those three words, his voice carried a strange reverence, as if he were reciting a sacred name.

"We know you guys are awesome."

"The Paradise of Reincarnation, the Reincarnators, the Authority Holders—the edge we've never reached even after reincarnating through hundreds of worlds, yet you were so lucky to obtain it."

"This is the best of times."

Another hunter spoke, his voice muffled, as if squeezed from his chest, "The suppression of cultivation power is too strong, so strong that we can't use anything, and we can't cultivate anything."

"But you are the same."

"You have also been suppressed."

"You're not much better than us."

The third hunter chimed in.

His neck was thick, with bulging veins that looked like earthworms crawling under his skin.

We watched your movie.

Yun Yi didn't speak.

"Xi Sheng Yuan Tong".

As the lead hunter uttered the name, a strange light flashed in his bloodshot eyes. "You acted very well."

"So good that we know—you're not just an actor."

"You publicly stated your age as six. You filmed that movie when you were six, and it was released when you were seven."

"A six-year-old child cannot portray that kind of look, nor that composure beyond his age, nor that divine expression."

He took a step forward, his boots making a dull thud on the cobblestones.

"We bet you're not a local, we bet you're an authorized person."

"Even if you have a high status and your stated age doesn't match, we still took the gamble and came."

"You haven't grown up yet."

"Now is the best time to kill you."

Yun Jin finally understood.

She didn't understand what "authority holder" or "reincarnator" meant, but she understood the last two words: "Kill you."

Her face turned pale instantly, and she instinctively pulled Yun Yi back.

Yun Yi remained motionless.

He stood there, dressed in ordinary home clothes and cotton slippers, his hair slightly disheveled by the night breeze.

Faced with nine utterly crazed hunters, he looked like a helpless little animal.

Then he spoke.

"Although I don't understand what you're talking about," Yun Yi said softly, "I'm warning you—if you really fight, you will die."

Upon hearing this, the leader of the hunters not only did not retreat, but instead laughed.

The laughter squeezed out of his parched throat, like a rusty hinge turning.

"Look." He turned to his companion behind him, spread his hands, and said with an almost morbid excitement, "I wasn't wrong, was I?"

"That tone, that expression, that certainty that 'you will die'—this is something a six-year-old child could say."

The other hunters laughed too.

Laughter rose and fell in the night wind, like the howl of some nocturnal animal, sharp and piercing, carrying a long-suppressed madness.