Chapter 14: The Yun Vaults
The standoff at the hangar shifted instantly from a battle of egos to a race against a biological clock. The air, already heavy with the presence of two titans, grew cold with the threat of the spreading toxin.
"If that variant hits the residential district, the casualty rate will be 80% within the first hour," Shen Xi stated, her voice cutting through the wind. She wasn't a girl caught between two powerful men anymore; she was the chief surgeon of a crisis.
Xiao Jinglin watched her intently. The "inexplicable jolt" in his chest hadn't faded; if anything, seeing her take command only made the feeling stronger. "Feichi, your physician seems to know more about this 'Ghost Pulse' than the people who invented it. Let's see if her hands are as fast as her mouth."
"Qi Yuan, prepare the helicopter!" Mu Feichi ordered, his hand never leaving the small of Shen Xi's back—a protective gesture that Xiao Jinglin's sharp eyes didn't miss. "Master Xiao, if you're coming, stay behind my line. I won't have the Southern Commander caught in a Northern trap."
The Hidden Laboratory
The Yun Family's old research facility was located beneath a derelict pharmaceutical warehouse on the outskirts of the city. As the helicopter touched down, the area was already swarming with soldiers in olive-green.
At the entrance to the vault, a thick titanium door stood barred. This wasn't a military lock; it was a sophisticated biological interface designed by Shen Xi's mother, Yun Xi.
"It requires a dual-stage biometric check," Shen Xi explained, stepping toward the console. "Retinal and a specific sequence of DNA-coded blood."
As she pressed her finger to the needle-pad and leaned into the scanner, Xiao Jinglin stood directly behind her. He noticed the way her pulse jumped in the vein of her neck—not from fear, but from the intensity of the moment.
Click.
The heavy doors groaned open, revealing a pristine, white-lit laboratory that had been frozen in time for nearly twenty years. But as they stepped inside, a secondary twist revealed itself.
The lab wasn't empty.
A group of masked operatives, dressed in tactical gear that bore no insignia, were already at the central terminal. They weren't there to steal the formula—they were there to delete it.
"Identify yourselves!" Feng Yang roared, raising his weapon.
The lead operative turned, his eyes visible through the mask. He didn't look afraid. Instead, he pulled a detonator from his belt. "The Yun secrets were never meant for the likes of you, Marshal. Or for you, Commander Xiao. Some things are better left buried with the dead."
"The Si family?" Mu Feichi hissed, his eyes flashing grey.
"The Si family are just puppets," the operative laughed. "We work for the ones who funded your 'Master's' rise to power."
Xiao Jinglin moved with a speed that defied his age. In a blur of motion, he disarmed the lead operative before the man could even depress the trigger. But in the scuffle, a canister of the airborne agent was smashed against the floor.
"Masks on!" Mu Feichi yelled, pulling Shen Xi into his cloak to shield her.
"It won't help!" Shen Xi shouted over the hiss of the gas. "This variant is designed to bind to respiratory receptors instantly. But wait..."
She looked at the gas. It was swirling around her, but she wasn't coughing. She looked at Xiao Jinglin—he was also standing perfectly still, breathing the toxic air without a hint of distress. Mu Feichi, however, was starting to show the tell-tale violet veins of a reaction.
"Master Xiao... why aren't you affected?" Mu Feichi gasped, his hand gripping the table for support.
Shen Xi's breath hitched. She looked from the dying operative to the man standing beside her. The biological resonance she had felt at the airport suddenly made terrifying sense.
"The ghost poison is a key," Shen Xi whispered, her eyes wide. "My mother... she didn't just study the Xiao bloodline. She realized the Xiao family has a natural, rare immunity to this specific class of neuro-toxins. It's why you've survived so many assassinations, Mr. Xiao."
Xiao Jinglin looked at his hands, then at Shen Xi, who was standing unharmed in the center of a lethal cloud. The realization hit him like a physical blow to the stomach. Twenty years of mourning, of cold solitude, and of searching for a ghost suddenly converged on the girl standing in front of him.
He rasped, his voice trembling for the first time in twenty years, "and you are breathing this air without a mask..."
He didn't finish the sentence. He grabbed the tablet from the operative's hand, the one that had been halfway through a "Project YUN" data wipe.
On the screen, a final image remained: A photograph of a young Yun Zi, pregnant, standing next to a man whose face had been redacted, but whose military insignia was unmistakably from the Southern District.
Xiao Jinglin turned to Shen Xi, his amber eyes searching hers with a desperate, newfound hunger. "What was your relationship with Yun Zi, girl?"
"She was my mother," Shen Xi said, her voice steady even as her world shifted. "And she was the woman the Si family helped drive to her grave."
The silence in the lab was deafening, broken only by the sound of Mu Feichi's labored breathing as he struggled against the toxin.