Novel Full Chapter 310: Golden Bud Opens
Chapter 310: Chapter 310: Golden Bud Opens
Golden Bud Talent Garden did not turn monstrous immediately.
That was what made it frightening.
When Yu Qingmei declared emergency inspection authority and academy enforcement sealed the main gates, many teachers looked genuinely confused. Some children woke frightened. Some staff protested. The kitchen workers had no idea what was happening.
The corruption was not everywhere.
It was layered.
Qin Yuheng entered only after the emergency authority was properly activated by the coalition framework. He arrived through the eastern orchard with Qin Yuchen, Qin Lian, Qin Mo, and Silent Heaven containment shadows.
The War Without Crown Command Crystal pulsed softly.
This was exactly the type of operation it existed for: many groups, high danger, children present, no single crown.
Yu Qingmei led legal authority.
Lin Xian’er secured financial records.
Local guards sealed public exits.
Qin Yuheng led the strike toward the medical wing basement.
Madam Wen Suli was waiting.
She stood beside twelve children seated in compatibility chairs, all asleep. Red-gold threads connected the chairs to a central glass bud.
Her face remained calm.
"Please lower your weapons," she said. "The children are sensitive."
Qin Yuheng did not lower his sword.
But he did not raise it either.
Qin Mo’s voice was tight.
"Those chairs are active."
Madam Wen looked sad.
"They are observation tools."
"Illegal modification," Yu Qingmei said coldly behind them.
Madam Wen sighed.
"Laws are written by people who already have resources. These children would have been abandoned."
Lin Xian’er entered from the side passage.
"And gratitude makes their potential easier to read?"
Madam Wen’s eyes flickered.
Only slightly.
Qin Yuheng understood her now.
She was not like the Red Thread Lesson Teacher who delighted in scripts. Madam Wen believed in outcomes. She had probably saved many children from poverty. Fed them. Taught them. Protected them.
Then measured them.
Sorted them.
Sold some future data.
Maybe surrendered high-value candidates to deeper handlers while telling herself they were receiving better opportunities.
Borrowed spring.
Sold future.
Chosen children.
All patterns converged.
Qin Yuheng spoke.
"Wake them."
Madam Wen shook her head.
"If they wake suddenly, the readings may scar."
Qin Mo said quietly, "That is partly true."
A trap.
The children could not simply be pulled free.
The central glass bud pulsed.
A panel appeared through Qin Yuheng’s perception tools.
[Golden Bud Potential Bloom Core]
[Function:
Maps future talent compatibility through gratitude-conditioned emotional resonance.]
[Current Status:
Active.]
[Warning:
Rough interruption may cause talent-root shock.]
Madam Wen placed one hand on the core.
"If you destroy this, you harm them."
Qin Yuheng looked at Qin Mo.
Qin Mo was already sweating.
"I can slow it. Not shut it instantly."
Mu Qinglan was not present. That made this harder.
Qin Yuheng took out the Child Talent Root Protection Core, Dream Boundary Recognition Bell, Innocent Guarantor Liberation Seal, and Future Talent Scar Healing Core.
Then he placed the Sovereign Network Command Suppression Crystal on the floor.
Madam Wen’s expression changed for the first time.
"You have too many forbidden-grade protections."
Qin Yuheng answered, "And you have too many children in chairs."
She activated the core.
The children’s sleeping faces tightened.
Qin Mo shouted, "She is forcing bloom!"
Qin Yuheng moved.
Madam Wen raised a barrier of golden petals.
[Golden Bud Director Wen Suli]
Combat Equivalent:
Level 62
Specialty:
Talent compatibility mapping, gratitude resonance, bloom acceleration, protective hostage systems.]
Qin Yuchen struck the barrier. It absorbed his force and transferred pressure toward the children’s chairs.
He stopped immediately.
Madam Wen smiled sadly.
"Violence is crude here."
Qin Yuheng’s eyes grew cold.
"Then we use precision."
Qin Lian vanished.
Her target was not Madam Wen.
It was the chair threads.
Qin Mo activated a slowing formation. The Dream Boundary Recognition Bell rang softly, reaching the sleeping children.
Yu Qingmei spoke through a calm amplification seal.
"Children, if you hear this, you are safe. You do not need to bloom. You do not need to prove gratitude."
The threads trembled.
Madam Wen’s face hardened.
"They will lose their chance."
Lin Xian’er replied, "No. You will lose your inventory."
The central bud pulsed stronger.
Qin Yuheng activated the Self That Cannot Be Owned Core.
The message spread:
A future cannot be measured through debt.
A road cannot be purchased through rescue.
A child does not owe bloom.
One child opened his eyes.
Then another.
The chairs tried to hold them in dream state.
Qin Mo shouted, "Now! Cut low!"
Qin Lian cut the first six threads.
Qin Yuchen guarded her from golden petal blades.
Qin Yuheng advanced toward Madam Wen.
Her barrier still linked to the children, so he did not strike it directly.
He used the Clean Exchange Road Seal and True Value Appraisal Heart Stone.
"Observation without informed consent has no valid value."
The barrier flickered.
Madam Wen’s eyes widened.
"You cannot invalidate data by declaring morality."
"No," Qin Yuheng said. "But this can."
He placed the Public Truth Resonance Mirror before the central bud.
The mirror showed the true path of Golden Bud data: children measured, ranked, some sponsored, some transferred, some marked, some never returned.
Not all.
Enough.
Several innocent staff gasped in horror as they saw records hidden from them.
Madam Wen’s barrier weakened further.
Qin Yuheng stepped through the golden petals.
She tried to activate a final transfer.
The unknown donor shell responded from afar.
A red-gold light descended into the central bud.
Qin Mo’s face changed.
"Remote extraction!"
The Sovereign Network Command Suppression Crystal suppressed most of it.
But not all.
The unknown donor was strong.
A single data stream escaped upward before Qin Lian cut the channel.
Partial failure.
The enemy obtained something.
Not children.
Not full records.
But a fragment of Qin Yuheng’s protection resonance and Golden Bud’s emergency failure report.
Madam Wen smiled faintly through blood at the corner of her mouth.
"They will learn from this."
Qin Yuheng’s expression remained calm.
"So will we."
He struck—not with killing force, but with the Self-Ownership Severing Knife resonance.
The golden bud core cracked.
Qin Mo completed the shutdown.
All twelve children woke.
No major root collapse.
[Golden Bud Potential Bloom Core disabled.]
[Children in active chairs rescued: 12 / 12]
[Residual talent-root shock:
Minor in 9 subjects.
Moderate in 3 subjects.]
[Remote data extraction:
Partial.]
Madam Wen was captured alive.
Golden Bud did not fall fully that night.
Only its hidden basement did.
Above ground, over two hundred children still needed calm relocation, staff sorting, legal review, and healing.
This was not a simple victory.
It was the beginning of a larger exposure.
Qin Yuheng stood in the basement as children were carried out safely.
Qin Mo approached, exhausted.
"We saved them."
"Yes."
"They got some data."
"Yes."
"I hate partial victories."
Qin Yuheng looked at the cracked Golden Bud core.
"So do I."
But he had learned from Floor 105.
An unfinished ending was not failure.
It was responsibility.
The Red Nursery Chain had lost a major node.
But the unknown donor had seen enough to adapt.
The next ten Chapters would need sharper counters.
And Qin Yuheng knew exactly what the automatic checkpoint would say:
The enemy was no longer only reacting.
It was studying him back.