"Hmm!"
Shen Potian nodded. "That Mirror Arcane Yuan Coin has a message from your father!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Yun Yao eagerly took it to examine.
The mirror surface of the Mirror Arcane Yuan Coin didn't contain many words, only a few lines. They were written very sloppily, indicating the writer was in a state of urgency and panic. "Father, take good care of Yao Yao. I have no hope of survival. Even if you truly see 'me' again, it will definitely not be me. Never trust 'me'... Shen Lang's last words!"
Upon reading the end, Shen Yun Yao could no longer suppress her emotions, and tears began to fall like pearls.
"Grandpa... do you think... Father might have... made a mistake in his judgment? Maybe he..."
Shen Yun Yao's words were jumbled, clearly indicating her unwillingness to accept the reality.
"Yao Yao, calm down!"
Shen Potian slightly raised his voice. He took a deep breath, as if to steady his own emotions. "Yao Yao, of course, I wouldn't make a judgment based on just one message!"
"During the years your father was missing, I sent out many people, both openly and secretly... I even risked leaving Mecha City..."
"Finally, I found something..."
As he spoke, a flash of light appeared in Shen Potian's hand, and a video recorder materialized. "Yao Yao, this was also left by your father. After you watch it, you'll understand why I said your father couldn't possibly still be alive!"
Shen Potian's expression was filled with grief. He operated the video recorder and then handed it to Shen Yun Yao.
"This... this person in the video is Father?!"
Seeing the familiar yet strange figure on the video recorder's screen, Shen Yun Yao was both surprised and agitated.
Shen Potian nodded gently, remaining silent.
In the video, Shen Lang was panting, half-reclining against the base of a tree. He was covered in blood, and his left arm, along with most of his shoulder, was gone.
Shen Lang's face was extremely pale, his eyes filled with terror and hatred as he stared straight ahead. Moments later, his body went limp and he became still...
Seeing this, Shen Yun Yao felt a pang in her heart. The hand holding the Mirror Arcane Yuan Coin trembled slightly, and her face turned pale.
The video paused for a moment, and then an arm, including the shoulder, appeared in the frame from the direction Shen Lang had been looking. Judging by the clothing on the arm, it was Shen Lang's severed limb.
The arm and shoulder were oriented towards the video recorder, bloody and appearing to be held by someone or something and moving towards Shen Lang...
Finally, a blurry dark figure slowly emerged. Shen Lang's arm was indeed being held by the dark figure.
The blurry dark figure in the video was impossible to discern any features from. The entire body was a black, indistinct mass. Leaves fluttered down, passing straight through him as if he had no substance.
Under the watchful eyes of Shen Yun Yao and Shen Potian, the blurry dark figure gently placed Shen Lang's arm on the ground and then moved towards Shen Lang, pressing down on him...
The dark figure writhed on Shen Lang's body, eventually merging into it...
The video froze for a moment, then the eyes that had been closed suddenly opened. Shen Lang, who had been motionless, jolted to life...
What was different now was that Shen Lang's eyes were filled with swirling black mist. He moved his body like a robot and finally stood up from the ground.
The figure, now referred to as "Shen Lang," moved his limbs a bit more. Once his movements became less robotic, he walked over to the nearby arm, picked it up, and brought it to the bloody wound on his left side.
Dark mist immediately emanated from the wound on "Shen Lang's" left arm... In a short while, the severed limb was reattached. He even moved his arm and wrist a few times...
The scene was eerily bizarre!
Subsequently, "Shen Lang" walked around the vicinity for a bit and then left with a somewhat mechanical gait...
"Grandpa... this... this..."
After watching the video, Shen Yun Yao opened her mouth, wanting to say something but unsure of where to begin.
"This recording might be the meaning behind that line in the Mirror Arcane Yuan Coin: 'Even if you truly see 'me' again, it will definitely not be me. Never trust 'me'!' "
"To be honest, I didn't quite understand the meaning of that sentence before, not until I saw this recording!"
Shen Potian let out a long sigh and spoke.
"Grandpa... what was that dark figure? It seemed to have no physical form... was it some kind of monster?"
Shen Yun Yao remained silent for a long while, then looked at Shen Potian with a questioning gaze.
"I don't know either!"
Shen Potian shook his head and changed the subject. "Yao Yao, did you ask Ye Feng if the person he called Li Goudan looked like the person in the photograph, or if he looked exactly like the person in the photograph?"
"This... I didn't completely get that information out... but he must have seen someone who resembles Father. However, for some reason, he didn't tell me!"
Shen Yun Yao thought for a moment and replied.
"Phew!"
Hearing this, Shen Potian breathed a slight sigh of relief. "It seems the situation isn't as bad as I thought!"
"Grandpa, you..."
Shen Yun Yao looked at her grandfather with considerable confusion.
Shen Potian didn't explain, but smiled at his granddaughter. "Yao Yao, do you think Ye Feng is trustworthy?"
"This... he... should be okay..."
Shen Yun Yao pondered for a moment. "Although he has many secrets, he doesn't seem like a treacherous person. I enjoy spending time with him and the young girl by his side."
"Grandpa, do you have some plan?"
Shen Yun Yao added at the end.
She had a premonition that Shen Potian had a plan, a plan of great importance, and one that likely involved Ye Feng.
"Yao Yao, let's not talk about that."
Shen Potian neither confirmed nor denied. "Tell me about last night. How did you suddenly encounter a fifth-tier nascent zombie, and how did you get bitten!"
Seeing that her grandfather wouldn't elaborate, Shen Yun Yao didn't press further. She recalled the events. "Last night, I was walking on the road when suddenly a dark shadow flashed past behind me, and then a zombie appeared out of nowhere..."
...
Meanwhile,
At the Wang family villa,
"Ah! Ah~!"
"Crack! Crack~!"
"Ah~ Ah~ Lord Ba, spare me... Lord Ba, spare me! Ah..."
...
Piercing screams and the crack of a whip echoed continuously. A middle-aged man with a thin face, a drooping mustache, and a large beer belly was writhing and howling on the ground. It was Huang Ruizhu.
It turned out that after Huang Ruizhu had triumphantly snatched up Seed 250 from Ye Feng, he had found an opportunity to seek praise from Wang Batian.
However, after Wang Batian's inspection, he discovered that the seed had serious problems, being rotten on the inside despite its fine appearance.
Consequently, he was whipped by Wang Batian until his skin was torn and bloody.
"Useless trash, get out!"
With another crack of the whip, Wang Batian roared at Huang Ruizhu. Huang Ruizhu trembled, forgetting his screams. He actually rolled away, not slowly at all...
As Huang Ruizhu's figure disappeared through the doorway, a grim voice sounded, "How about it? Shall we kill that kid?"
...