"The USB drive you left behind has a special significance for New Hefei that's hard to overstate, Hu Colonel. If I'd had a vehicle, I would have chased after you when you left. Your departure was a tremendous loss to the Research Institute. What you invented is genuinely epoch-defining."

Zhao Kan's feelings about Shen Cong's departure hadn't diminished. He recapped the research path: the team's thinking on the totem had followed the same direction Shen Cong had — focusing on the rotational repulsion effect. Without access to sufficiently high-grade Activity cores, the rotational output had been insufficient for vehicle power, so the application had shifted to stationary generators installed in dedicated power rooms.

The totem motors now supplied New Hefei's entire daily electrical load.

With reliable electricity, surviving winter had become considerably simpler. Combined with continuous Activity fruit and Bee Treasure supply, the quality of life inside the walls had recovered to a genuinely livable standard.

New Hefei's reconstruction was going well.

After covering the totem motors, Zhao Kan picked up Little Li Du — who had been making unsteady laps of the corridor — with practiced affection and held the child out to Shen Cong. "The little one is doing wonderfully, Hu Colonel. Run a check while you're here."

The first thing anyone noticed about Little Li Du was the two dark-silver canine teeth, already prominent. They slightly disrupted what would otherwise have been a perfect baby face.

The second thing was the eyes — large, bright, with a quality of attentiveness that seemed to belong to something older.

Around the child's neck hung a sizable pendant: a Swiftclaw Leopard tooth, the one Shen Cong had left behind. Still there, still carrying a faint pressure aura. He hadn't thought about the aura when he gave it — he still wasn't sure how the infant had tolerated the effect. Perhaps the child's Talent was above 1H, sufficient to resist the residual pressure from a 2H-range specimen.

Shen Cong removed his Jiao-hide gloves and touched Little Li Du's close-cropped head.

Something in his presence seemed to register. The constant movement stopped.…