Li Ji observed coldly from the sidelines, wanting to see what Meng Jian was trying to accomplish.

To bypass his opinion and take matters into his own hands with such a blatant stance—as if he couldn’t wait to shove Li Xiao into the military academy immediately—he wasn’t even trying to hide it.

Seeing Meng Jian’s face darken after being mocked, wearing an expression of having kicked a steel plate, Li Ji found it somewhat amusing. Did they really think they were still the easily manipulated children from ten years ago?

Meng Jian didn’t bother wasting words with Li Xiao and looked toward Li Ji: “Your Majesty, since the Second Highness also has the intention, why don’t we proceed this way?” The tone of inquiry, however, carried an air of command. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was the king.

Li Xiao almost laughed out loud. It must have been truly difficult for his brother to tolerate this old thing for so many years, pampering him to the point that he no longer knew who he was.

As they looked over, Li Ji smoothly masked his expression: “He only wants to go and play; what could he possibly learn? Do not mention this matter again.”

Meng Jian frowned: “But—”

Li Ji cut him off impatiently: “Are you questioning my decision?”

Meng Jian lowered his head: “I just feel that finding a good school for the Second Highness is very important.”

Li Ji’s voice turned freezing cold: “Is my Li family unable to provide him enough food or clothes? Must a prince join the army to achieve upward mobility, or to fulfill some life ideal?”

Meng Jian: “…You are right.”

Seeing Meng Jian rendered speechless by the retort, Li Xiao became even more certain of his theory. After the postponement of the handover of administrative power, his brother’s resolve had grown firmer, and his attitude when facing Meng Jian had hardened significantly.

Thinking of this, Li Xiao intentionally tested the waters: “Brother, how did you know my ideal?”

Li Ji looked over with a forehead full of question marks: “What ideal do you have?”

Li Xiao said confidently: “To enlist in the Second Legion and work under General Meng Zai.”

Li Ji had been in a decent mood, but this single sentence sent his blood pressure skyrocketing: “A prince shamelessly working behind Meng Zai’s back—and you’re telling me this is an ideal?!”

“Your Majesty, the Second Highness is joking.” Meng Jian practically gritted his teeth to smooth things over. Li Xiao had just beaten his son half to death, and now he was bringing him up again to draw hatred. It seemed today’s car accident hadn’t managed to scare this wolf pup at all.

Li Xiao remarked casually: “I’m serious. General Meng Zai’s approval rating on social media platforms is even higher than my brother’s. Everyone likes him a lot.”

“What approval rating?” Li Ji narrowed his eyes slightly.

Li Xiao looked completely innocent: “Public popularity approval rating. You are ranked third, Brother, and the second is Elder Meng.” Seeing Meng Jian about to open his mouth to defend himself, Li Xiao beat him to the punch and added: “After all, the Meng family has made so many contributions to Danse over the years. I think the number of votes given was still too low.”

The special assistant, Old Liu, broke into a sweat as he brought over the tea. Every single word from the Second Highness was explicitly aimed at angering His Majesty to death.

Li Ji was so furious he laughed instead. He nodded slowly, throwing daggers with his eyes toward Meng Jian: “I heard Meng Zai was injured? I grant him a special half-year leave. The Second Legion will rest at their station, and all expedition missions are canceled.”

Meng Jian hurriedly stood up: “Your Majesty, his injuries are already mostly healed. Besides, how can legion missions just be canceled at a whim?”

“We must not neglect this national general,” Li Ji grabbed a folder and slammed it heavily onto the desk, flipping it open.

“Your Majesty—” Before Meng Jian could utter another word of protest, he was interrupted by the special assistant, Old Liu.

Old Liu said respectfully: “His Majesty needs to attend to official business. Please leave.”

Walking out of the office, Meng Jian couldn’t contain the raging fire in his heart. Not only had he failed to shove Li Xiao into the military academy, but he had also inadvertently caused his son, Meng Zai, to be forced into a six-month leave. These two brothers playing good cop, bad cop was definitely not a good sign.

Meng Jian looked at Li Xiao: “His Majesty is soft-hearted. If you push for it a little harder, he will definitely agree.”

Li Xiao replied with a look of difficulty: “Let’s forget it. I’m most afraid of my brother scolding me. Although it’s a pity, I’m quite satisfied to have secured a long period of rest for General Meng Zai.”

Meng Jian’s expression went blank, his tone carrying an icy weight of oppression: “This is your own choice. Don’t regret it.”

Issuing a challenge?

Li Xiao smiled as he sized him up, his attitude dismissive: “No wonder my brother values you so much. Your ability to bluff is quite something. I wonder, once you lose my brother’s support, what will be left of the Meng family?” Without waiting for Meng Jian to respond, he turned and left.

Walking through the magnificent corridor, Li Xiao could still feel Meng Jian’s gaze; the man was likely pushed to his absolute limit by anger.

09: [His face has turned entirely pig-liver purple.]

Li Xiao: [Try to hack into Meng Jian’s terminal.]

09: [Hijacking in progress—]

09: [Are we looking for his spicy videos? rubs hands together]

Li Xiao: “…” You understand a bit too much.

Li Xiao: [Without getting caught, monitor his communications as much as possible. Organize the feedback daily and report it to me.]

09: [What about the spicy videos?]

Li Xiao: […Save them for now. They’ll be useful sooner or later.]

09: [You got it!]

Back in the office, Li Ji sipped his tea. Hearing Old Liu’s report, he let out a scoff before switching topics: “Still no news from Gao Wanxin’s end?”

Old Liu: “None.”

Li Ji: “I refuse to believe it’s this difficult to investigate.”

Old Liu spoke hesitantly: “If it were easy, those previous two wouldn’t have—”

The tip of the pen ripped through the paper, ruining a beautiful signature completely. Li Ji frowned, tossing the folder aside: “Tell him to hurry up!”

Old Liu respectfully acknowledged: “Yes.”

Walking out of the main hall, Li Xiao’s terminal suddenly vibrated. He swiped it open to find it was actually Qiu Bin. They hadn’t been in touch since the lab report came back for the blood brought from N2781.

Qiu Bin: [Where did that blood from last time come from?]

It was a very strange question. Qiu Bin worked at the Public Biological Research Institute and secretly took on private gigs for extra cash. He never asked unnecessary questions; that was the rule.

Li Xiao: [What’s wrong with that blood?]

Not long after, Qiu Bin replied: [I just got a batch that is completely identical.]

Li Xiao’s eyes narrowed, and he requested a meeting.

Around four in the afternoon, using the excuse of leaving the palace to meet a friend, he took Jiang Hao to Qiu Bin’s home. Qiu Bin lived in the Tianlu District, a so-called civilian residential area. As far as the eye could see, there were 100-meter-tall buildings, with some aerial villas floating in the distance—it looked like a steel forest, cold and oppressive.

After changing cars midway, Li Xiao entered from the underground garage, took a loop up to the 89th floor of the garden tower, and walked down the long corridor for quite a while before arriving at Qiu Bin’s doorstep.

Shortly after ringing the bell, a tall, slender Beta man wearing glasses opened the door. However, standing next to the massive Li Xiao, he looked two sizes smaller, appearing exceptionally delicate and frail.

Qiu Bin looked up and muttered a curse: “Your build has way too much of an oppressive presence!”

“Is that so?” Li Xiao braced his hand against the doorframe as he entered. “It’s just that you are too short.”

Qiu Bin: “…” That is a personal attack!

Once Li Xiao walked inside, Qiu Bin noticed the Alpha behind him was also very tall and carrying a Tang sword on his back. He shuddered in fright: “No weapons allowed!”

Jiang Hao said cutely: “This is a toy.”

Qiu Bin: “…” He constantly felt like he was letting wolves into his house.

In the living room, Li Xiao sat in a rather small sofa, looking quite cramped. Qiu Bin had never felt his living room to be this crowded before.

“Where is the blood?” Li Xiao went straight to the point.

“That’s property of the research institute, it can’t just be brought out casually.” Qiu Bin poured tea for the two of them and pulled up two lab reports from his terminal. “The left one is the one you gave me, and the right one is the blood sample received yesterday.”

Li Xiao scanned them down. The data was completely identical; it was impossible to tell them apart as two separate samples.

Li Xiao: “Where did the one on the right come from?”

“It came from the Zifu Sector. I asked a colleague to check, and the institute never took on this order. It’s very likely a mistake made at a dedicated medical transit station, causing someone else’s cargo to be shipped here.” Qiu Bin projected the shipping logs. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t actively provide information related to the institute—it was basic professional ethics—but he simply couldn’t resist because Li Xiao paid far too much.

Qiu Bin explained: “The institute received two boxes totaling ten thousand milliliters of blood, which just happened to be assigned to me for testing. I tested a batch and found that all of it originated from the exact same person. I felt it was necessary to let you know.”

The shipping logs marked the origin as Zifu Sector Z152. Li Xiao had no real impression of this planet.

“Which transit stations does it pass through?”

Qiu Bin scrolled all the way to the bottom of the log: “Zifu Sector No. 3 Medical Space Station and Tianjiang Sector No. 99 Space Station.”

Right after he finished speaking, search results automatically popped up in Li Xiao’s field of vision. The cargo destination for Zifu Sector No. 3 Medical Space Station only went to the Nanming Sector and the Tianjiang Sector.

That this problematic blood was actually being transported quite openly through the medical system came as a bit of a surprise to Li Xiao.

“Find a way to get those two boxes of blood out.”

Qiu Bin was startled: “Both boxes?!”

Li Xiao looked at him calmly: “Since it was sent by mistake, it naturally needs to be returned.”

Qiu Bin: “…”

His terminal vibrated, and seeing the incoming funds, Qiu Bin smiled radiantly: “It must absolutely be returned. I’ll apply for the return tomorrow!”

Li Xiao: “…”

On the way back to the palace, Jiang Hao felt a bit uneasy: “That doctor seems very greedy for money. Is he going to be a problem?”

“It’s precisely because he’s greedy that he won’t be a problem.” Li Xiao stared at his screen, his fingers tapping rapidly on the virtual keyboard.

Every medical transit station had a cargo tracking website. He searched the tracking codes for those two boxes of blood, and the information that popped up was only what Qiu Bin had shown him. He then tried to hack into the backend system. Ten minutes later, amidst a screen full of code, he found the specific shipping location of the cargo, precise to the coordinates.

Generally, for transport safety, the origin and destination locations would be blurred, but a digital footprint would be left in the backend management program. If one wanted to investigate, it could still be unearthed.

At two in the morning, Li Xiao caught a whiff of a rotten tomato scent and instantly snapped awake. This odor was practically his nightmare.

09: [Warning! Abnormal Omega pheromones detected!]

09: [Someone is crawling into your bed in the middle of the night! Get him!]

Li Xiao: “…”

The scent grew stronger and stronger, and before long, the sound of the door opening and light footsteps echoed. An Omega servant walked over to the side of the bed, looking down at the sleeping Li Xiao. Under the dim glow of the nightlight, Li Xiao looked even more attractive than usual.

“It would be such a pity to just kill him like this,” the Omega murmured to himself. Through the blanket, he reached out to place a hand on Li Xiao’s chest, his voice laced with amusement. “Might as well wait until I’ve had my fun before—”

Before his fingertips could brush against Li Xiao’s face, a sharp pain shot through the Omega’s neck.

“How exactly do you want to play?”

Suddenly hearing Li Xiao’s freezing voice, the Omega’s heart leaped—unable to tell if it was excitement or fear. But when he saw Li Xiao’s perfectly clear, wide-awake eyes, his expression distorted in shock. Something was wrong; Li Xiao wasn’t under his control at all!

“Let go!” The Omega slammed a fist toward Li Xiao in retaliation, but the moment his hand lifted, the crisp sound of a bone breaking echoed by his ear. The next moment, his vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.

Li Xiao casually tossed the corpse onto the floor, ordered 09 to activate the air filtration and purification system, and notified the butler on duty.

The butler rushed over, and seeing the Omega on the carpet beside Li Xiao’s bed, his face drained of color, realizing exactly what had happened.

“Leave the cleanup to you,” Li Xiao dropped the hand-wiping towel and walked out of the bedroom.

The butler scrambled to comply: “I am deeply sorry you were startled, Your Highness.”

Li Xiao headed upstairs to the master bedroom. After inhaling the rotten tomato scent of the Omega pheromones, his mind was wired, and he tossed and turned without being able to sleep. Checking the time, it was currently past nine at night on Planet Snow where Song Jin was. He simply swiped open his terminal and sent Song Jin a message.

[Get on the game.]

Li Xiao opened a training room, sitting in his usual spot to wait for that cat while browsing the details regarding Zifu Sector Z152. Before long, footsteps echoed behind him. A weight settled on his head—a cat hat had been placed on him—and two white, fluffy paws reached over to squeeze his face.

Song Jin: “Going out alone to eat good food and even having the nerve to show off, do you want to lose your life?”

Li Xiao caught his paws, pressing twice on the soft pads: “What about that counted as good food?”

Song Jin tried to pull his hands back, tugging a couple of times without success: “Taking advantage of me?”

The irritation of being attacked by the Omega was fully cured by the paws, and Li Xiao’s mood brightened significantly. Sensing that something was off with Li Xiao, Song Jin scratched under his chin: “It’s past two in the morning over on your side. Not sleeping and coming up here just to get beaten up?”

Li Xiao originally thought the attack wasn’t worth mentioning, but hearing this, he wanted to see the other’s reaction, so he related everything that happened tonight in full detail.

“Attacked by a modified Omega?” Song Jin looked down into his eyes, asking curiously, “How did he attack you?”

Li Xiao: “…” Is that the focus? He had thought this kid would lose his temper.

Expressionless, Li Xiao described the Omega’s actions line by line.

“Groping your chest, huh…” Song Jin’s hand slid down from Li Xiao’s shoulder, leaning in close to whisper in his ear, “Does doing this bring any sensation?”

Feeling the paw on his chest unceremoniously giving a squeeze, Li Xiao: “…What do you think?” If the real Song Jin performed this action, he truly couldn’t say whether he could hold out. But the entity in front of him was just a chubby cat; could he really get turned on by a cat?

Song Jin smirked: “What else did he do?”

Seeing the mischievous glint in his eyes, Li Xiao said intentionally: “Sat on top of me.”

Song Jin exchanged a glance with him, leaped up, and perched right on Li Xiao’s shoulder: “Like this?”

Li Xiao, bearing a chubby cat on his shoulder: “…Which bed-crawling Omega would climb onto your shoulder?”

Song Jin swung his legs, highly satisfied with this fluffy cushion. “I’ve never crawled into anyone’s bed before, so how should I know?”

Unable to take it any longer, Li Xiao leaned forward abruptly, scooping the falling chubby cat securely into his arms. “Then remember it well. Next time, sit on my lap.”

Song Jin’s world spun, and just as he was about to flip over and jump down, he found himself pulled onto Li Xiao’s lap. He threw an elbow back: “You seem to understand this very well?”

Li Xiao dodged it, catching his hand: “After all, I was just attacked.”

Song Jin broke free, flipped to the side, and crouched down to try and grab Li Xiao: “Now it’s your turn to sit on my lap.”

“…” Li Xiao rolled on the spot, backing away two steps. Seeing Song Jin pursuing him, he turned and ran. “You were the one crawling into my bed, why should I sit on your lap?”

Song Jin: “Now it’s changed to you crawling into my bed.”

Li Xiao: “…” Nonsense.

Back and forth, the two ended up trading blows. The data in the game could be adjusted according to one’s physical capabilities; they both used their real stats, so the feeling of sparring was barely different from reality, except for their appearances.

Li Xiao locked onto Song Jin’s incoming ankle and gave a pull. Song Jin lost his balance, riding the momentum to perform a side-spin and sweeping his leg across. Once Li Xiao let go and retreated, Song Jin closed the distance with a clenched fist.

Li Xiao slipped past several strikes, catching Song Jin’s paw and pulling it in front of himself: “If we keep fighting, we won’t be able to sleep.”

Song Jin pressed onward step by step: “Aren’t you already unable to sleep from the stimulation of that Omega’s pheromones? If you don’t burn off your energy like this, do you plan to call that Omega back?”

Li Xiao paused, nearly getting slapped in the face by Song Jin’s paw, unable to help but find it amusing. “Are you jealous?”

“Is that not allowed?” Song Jin fully admitted it.

Li Xiao: “But I’m only interested in a certain cat.”

Having received a satisfactory answer, Song Jin decisively stopped fighting, patting Li Xiao on the head: “Next time you get attacked, you’ll be penalized to bake cookies for me.”

Li Xiao: “…” Does this count as a threat?

Having loosened their muscles, the two sat down at the edge of the arena to rest.

Li Xiao asked: “What progress do you have on your end?”

Song Jin sat cross-legged: “The PRM levels inside second-generation modified humans aren’t constant; they decay.”

Li Xiao was puzzled: “Isn’t PRM the criterion for determining a first-generation Super Omega? I recall Qi Ge and the others tested at normal human levels.”

“That’s right, but my dad said PRM can also be used to judge second-generation modified humans, it’s just that the standard is slightly different.” Song Jin opened several files and projected them between them. “The PRM inside second-generation modified humans drains very quickly, and the level is directly tied to their physical fitness.”

This data was harvested from the modified humans during the last league tournament. The sample size wasn’t large, so they could only make preliminary judgments.

Li Xiao: “The PRM drains quickly, so they use the problematic blood to replenish it?”

Song Jin nodded: “Currently, we can only hypothesize this because the PRM levels in that blood are very high.”

Saying that, Song Jin opened several more blood test reports: “Among the blood found in the floating building, the samples that passed through that device had most of their pathogens and bacteria wiped out, while a rare stimulant was added. The amount is exceptionally minuscule; it was only detected using Planet Snow’s highest-end testing equipment.”

“A stimulant?” Li Xiao looked thoughtful. “To ensure that drinking this blood won’t kill someone, while giving them the illusion that it actually works?”

“Likely.” Song Jin highlighted a few lines of data. “But the PRM levels in these blood samples are also very high. It’s still uncertain whether it’s being sold to suckers or supplied to modified humans.”

Li Xiao: “I’ve found another batch of blood on my end. Testing it should help confirm.”

Song Jin: “Where from?”

Li Xiao recounted the matter regarding Qiu Bin. “I plan to head to the Zifu Sector tomorrow.”

The Zifu Sector was currently under the management of the Zheng family. He needed to ascertain what role the Zheng family played in this modified human business. The Meng family was already set in stone, but he needed to completely root out how many accomplices were hiding in the shadows.

“Did you ask Wei Feng about it?” Song Jin asked.

Li Xiao shook his head: “Not yet. I can’t exactly ask him straight out if he’s my dad, can I?”

Song Jin: “…”

Recalling what his father had said, Song Jin asked somewhat hesitantly: “Is it possible that there is more than one Wei Feng?”

Li Xiao froze. This notion sent a shudder down his spine, yet it was unexpectedly logical. Reminiscing on his contact with Wei Feng in his past life, Li Xiao shook his head: “I should have only interacted with one.”

“Should have?” Song Jin thought of something. “Where did you see Wei Feng before?”

The matters of his past life were truly something Li Xiao didn’t know how to articulate. Seeing that Li Xiao was unwilling to speak, Song Jin felt a bit disappointed. He got up lazily: “Forget it, I guess I’m just an outsider after all.”

The moment he stood up, his wrist was caught by Li Xiao. Li Xiao looked up at him: “If you were an outsider, I wouldn’t have given you the earring.”

Song Jin lowered his gaze to meet his eyes: “What does giving an earring represent in your Danse?”

Li Xiao: “Sit down first.”

Song Jin obediently squatted down beside him. Li Xiao stroked his cat ears: “Did you not look it up?”

Song Jin pulled his ears out of his grip, stubbornly refusing to back down: “Too lazy to check, no time.”

Li Xiao retracted his hand: “In Danse, earrings can only be given to family members, excluding the ones bought casually.”

A glint flashed across Song Jin’s eyes, his mood instantly lifting: “Weren’t you going to divorce me?”

Li Xiao: “Didn’t you also not have anyone cancel my fake identity?”

Song Jin let out a soft huff: “That is my right.” Seeing Li Xiao smiling warmly, Song Jin asked casually, “An accessory that can only be given to family—what exactly do you mean by giving it to me?”

Li Xiao: “Take a guess?”

Song Jin: “…” His mouth is even more stubborn than mine.

Before logging off, Song Jin suddenly remembered the origin of the earring and asked Li Xiao: “Do you know who gave you your earring?”

Li Xiao didn’t understand the meaning behind his question, replying casually: “My royal father gave it to me.”

“No.” Song Jin looked at him, speaking seriously, “It belonged to a prince named Li Xun. My father met him back in the day.”

Li Xiao’s brow furrowed slightly. He knew a little about Li Xun; he was his father’s younger brother, but he had passed away in his twenties. At that time, his brother was only a few years old, and he himself had never met the man. Typically, one wouldn’t give the accessories of a deceased collateral relative to a son.

Seeing Li Xiao deep in thought, Song Jin patted his shoulder, joking: “Find some time to look into this prince. Who knows, maybe he’s your dad too.”

Li Xiao: “…”