Xiao Lin sat nervously on a wooden box, deliberately avoiding eye contact with the elder in front of him, instead he began to take stock of the underground room's environment.

In this thirty-square-meter space, there wasn't much furniture. It looked like a cellar, a warehouse with wooden boxes placed in various corners. He was currently sitting on a stack three boxes high, four steps away from the passage where he emerged.

His feet rested on the box, hands placed on his legs. Flame Swallow, at some point, had blocked the exit. Her slender figure half-crouched at the entrance, silently wiping a spotless sword with downcast eyes. Her jeans had holes revealing smooth skin beneath.

Xiao Lin turned his gaze slowly towards the elder, waiting for him to speak. To pull him out of the police station and concoct this so-called escape incident couldn't just be to have a staring contest. He felt his pockets, realizing he forgot to grab his cigarettes from the table when he came out, suddenly feeling a bit empty and awkwardly rubbing his fingers.

"You've picked up quite a few habits since I let you outside," Xiao Zhenfeng spoke, his tone ambiguous between mockery and praise, which to Xiao Lin was neither. Flame Swallow behind them seemed quite embarrassed, feeling like an unnecessary presence, wanting to leave but unable to.

"Are you sure you want a third party present?" Flame Swallow's awkward expression was fully caught by Xiao Lin, who wanted to laugh because it was genuinely funny, but held it back due to Xiao Zhenfeng's presence. "If you don't think it's embarrassing, then I don't mind." His small threat made Flame Swallow inhale sharply; knowing well this youngster had a wild streak despite his seemingly low profile, a self-deceptive facade that not a single one of his actions could be considered low-key.

Xiao Zhenfeng fell into silence, then suddenly chuckled, dragging a box casually to sit upon it. This put Xiao Lin in a vantage point above him. Seeing this low posture, Xiao Lin involuntarily moved down from the stack to the lowest box, aligning himself on the same level with Xiao Zhenfeng, who met this decision with a silent smile.

"What exactly do you want?" Xiao Lin didn't mind the presence of outsiders; with the old man indifferent, he needn't consider anyone else. "Is it to successfully get people to think I escaped prison? Is this the kind of manipulation more interesting than just returning?"

"How do you find this place?"

"What?" Xiao Lin raised his voice at Xiao Zhenfeng's non-responsive answer.

"This place where we are now is the entrance to the 'Underground City,'" Xiao Zhenfeng said, handing Xiao Lin a cigarette. "Compared to under the bridge, isn't it much drier here?"

"'Underground City'?" Xiao Lin repeated, taking another look at the warehouse before gazing past Xiao Zhenfeng to Flame Swallow, who nodded. Just then, an overly familiar stray dog ambled over, obediently licking Flame Swallow's fingers. Indeed, how could the entrance to the 'Underground City' be devoid of Human Skin Granny and his dogs?

"By dawn, there will no longer be a Wang Family in Yanjing." Even doing nothing, Xiao Zhenfeng sitting there exercised a formidable presence. The stray dog whimpered as Flame Swallow cradled it in her lap, stroking its fur while it comfortably half-closed its eyes, its tail naturally swaying.

"What did you do to Yi?" Xiao Lin sighed. He suddenly didn't want to know too much, looking at his father, whose hair was graying. He felt an unspeakable sympathy.

Sympathy? How inappropriate to apply this term to someone so close. He didn't pity his father, only sympathized with him. He had many siblings whom he hadn't even met; those scattered everywhere across the land, those who couldn't even claim status, all perished one by one in those experiments. And he was the child born to his father's last officially married wife, more noble compared to those wild flowers and weeds, but his fate was the same.

Was he lucky? Through countless experiments, always believing he would die like all the others, yet he always greeted the dawn of the next day. Only then would his father show a rare smile, patting his head.

Lighting the cigarette, bringing it to his lips. What did his uniqueness bring him? When poisons no longer triggered reactions within his body, when agents in his blood were neutralized, he naïvely thought he could return to his father's side, only to be cast into another cage. After surviving life and death once more, he faced another deadly contest.

"Do you remember what I said to you in front of the wolf den?" Xiao Zhenfeng's tone remained unchanged; perhaps this was a realm where internal emotions had numbed to align with outward expressions.

"I only remember how I twisted those wolves' necks," Xiao Lin almost spat out the words through gritted teeth. The hatred in his eyes instantly froze, while Flame Swallow continued stroking the stray dog, eyes down, unsure how much he heard, or if he was listening at all.

"You should hate me; you were only ten years old then. You should hate me." Xiao Zhenfeng nodded. He had many offspring; to him, those who survived were his children, those who died were merely defective products. "As someone from the Xiao Family, these are inevitable encounters. Shouldn't you now thank me? Would you have achieved what you have without those experiences?"

On a handsome face, a bitter sadness was hard to describe. Flame Swallow felt his heart wrenched by such an expression. He was crying? No, he might be smiling. But he was sad.

"You shouldn't involve those around me." Xiao Lin suddenly felt this person wasn't his father, he shouldn't have this kind of parent.

"Obedience naturally won't implicate more people," Xiao Zhenfeng was indifferent to Xiao Lin's accusation. This was his son, his understanding of him was greater than Xiao himself imagined. So amid everyone's opposition, he alone bore everything, firmly believing there was no one more suitable than Xiao Lin for this position.

"Father, do you want a compliant successor?" Xiao Lin retorted, aware his father would never allow him freedom. Every action was under his watch; this invisible cage was the reason for his disgust. So when he decisively entered the Dragon Soul after his coming-of-age ceremony, was he truly free? The answer was known only to himself. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations or monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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