Not long after Meng Jian boarded the Investigation Bureau’s vehicle, he received the news that his father, Meng Shan, had been arrested at Lisha Castle. He slammed a fist into the armrest, his chest bursting with a sense of utter humiliation.

A play that should have been ten-out-of-ten guaranteed had actually turned into this!

When had the Meng family ever suffered such disgrace?!

Sitting to one side, the Investigation Bureau Major hastily poured tea and handed it over: “Please calm your anger. Tonight, anyone with clear eyes knows Li Xiao was targeting you. As long as someone is smart, they won’t be deceived by him.”

Meng Jian snorted heavily: “He only knows how to play petty tricks. Does he think he can defeat the Meng family like this?”

The Major supported his own legs with both hands, sitting exceptionally straight, displaying extreme respect toward this criminal suspect, Meng Jian: “Your subordinate will forever be at your disposal.”

In his mind, Meng Jian replayed everything that had happened tonight. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Belatedly realizing something, he suddenly turned to look at the other vehicles nearby and asked the Major: “Where is Jin Heng?!”

The Major was puzzled: “He didn’t follow us.”

Meng Jian barked in a low voice: “He provided fake intelligence—does he not need to be investigated?! Go back immediately and bring him here!”

The Major was startled: “Yes!”

However, when the Major sent his subordinates back to the royal palace’s medical area, they were informed that Jin Heng had already been taken away and detained by the Royal Guard.

Negotiations between the two sides failed. Leaving behind the phrase, “Go talk to His Majesty yourself,” the Royal Guard squad leader turned and left without looking back.

By the time Meng Jian arrived at the Investigation Bureau, he was informed that Jin Heng had been snatched away by Li Ji. Furious, he kicked the Major two meters away: “Useless trash! How could you forget such an important person!”

The Director of the Investigation Bureau, who had already off the clock, made a special trip back to welcome Meng Jian, ushering him into his personal office and serving him high-grade tea.

Meng Jian checked the time, turned on a backup terminal, found a frequency band in the contacts list, and asked the Director: “This room of yours doesn’t have surveillance devices, right?”

The Director answered respectfully: “None. Even the routine cleaning is done manually.”

Meng Jian dialed several times in succession, and finally on the fifth attempt, the other side picked up.

The popped-up screen displayed a dark shadow; only a faint human outline could be discerned.

The moment it connected, Meng Jian cursed furiously: “You fucking got some nerve, daring to deceive me for so many years?!”

From the other side came an equally aged voice that was suppressing rage: “What did I deceive you about?”

“You said the person was taken care of, and what happened?! The guy has been mingling right under my nose for over a decade! You said Li Xiao was born to him, but the match failed completely!”

Meng Jian angrily swept the tea set off the tea table, his tone exceedingly heavy. “How many more things have you lied to me about?! I’m warning you, if you dare play tricks on me, we’ll all die together!”

“Open your dog eyes and look closely—is that the fucking same person?!”

The dark shadow’s voice suddenly spiked in volume, clearly sounding no calmer than Meng Jian. “What did I tell you back then? The Omega who got pregnant with Li Xiao died! The corpse was handled by my own hands! You didn’t believe me, relying instead on chicken-shit intelligence from nowhere. Pulling this stunt tonight without even giving me a heads-up—the plan has been completely ruined by you!”

Speaking up to this point, the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor came from the other side of the screen.

“Did I try to stop you or not! And how did you act?!”

The dark shadow gasped heavily, speaking in a deep voice, “Since we can’t trust each other, let’s stop cooperating! Going to war under the current situation—you know better than anyone what the win rate is! Dying early or dying late is still death; I might as well surrender early to avoid being dragged into the pit by you!”

Meng Jian narrowed his eyes slightly: “Do you swear you didn’t lie to me?”

Dark Shadow: “What good does lying to you do me?! If you had told me tonight’s plan in advance, I would have stopped you immediately! Don’t fucking pin the blame on me!”

With a chest full of frustration and nowhere to vent it, Meng Jian could only smash things to let off steam. Taking a few deep breaths, he calmed down slightly: “You continue lurking.”

“If you keep messing around like this, what meaning is there in whether I lurk or not?!”

The dark shadow’s tone was very heavy. “If the gap in strength between us and the enemy is too vast, even if we know the enemy’s intelligence in advance, what can it change?!”

Looking out through the floor-to-ceiling window at the pitch-black sky outside, Meng Jian said eerily: “You know I value you greatly. Unlike Zheng Kang’an and Qi Shoude, you are my true partner.”

“It better be.”

Having said that unceremoniously, the dark shadow cut off the video call first.

The Director of the Investigation Bureau waited for Meng Jian’s video call to end before asking cautiously: “What are the instructions next?”

Meng Jian sat back down, his fingers lightly tapping on the desktop, pondering with a dark face: “Reverse the online public opinion first. A video alone cannot convict him; even if they arrest my father, they can’t do anything to him for now.”

The Director of the Investigation Bureau said tentatively: “Then you can stay at the bureau peacefully for these few days, treating it as taking a break for yourself.”

On the other end of the disconnected video call.

A knock at the door rang out. A middle-aged Beta dressed as a butler opened the door and entered. Seeing the floor covered in vase shards, he asked anxiously of the elderly man sitting in the rocking chair with his back to the door: “Master, you aren’t hurt, are you?”

“I’m fine.” The elderly man’s tone was calm, worlds apart from how he sounded during the video call moments ago.

He picked up another terminal and edited a message to send out.

【Delete the terminal used to send the intelligence; handle the person.】

A reply came back quickly: “Understood.”

Above these two lines of messages, a contact record from two days prior was displayed.

【Leak Yan Qing’s intelligence to him.】

【Understood.】

Reflected on the floor-to-ceiling glass was the elderly man’s profound, inscrutable expression—precisely the North Corona Sector’s Commander General, Gao Wanxin.

Before the butler could finish clearing the porcelain shards, he heard Gao Wanxin say: “Work hard tonight and reorganize the materials again.”

The middle-aged Beta was somewhat surprised: “So urgent?”

Gao Wanxin: “The one who is anxious isn’t me.”

In the palace, Li Xiao and Song Jin emerged from Li Ji’s study—it was already past ten at night.

Before leaving, Li Xiao instructed Wei Feng in a low voice: “Keep a close eye over the next few days.”

Wei Feng: “Afraid those two old guys from the Meng family will jump off the wall in desperation?”

Li Xiao nodded: “It’s best if you eat and live together.”

Wei Feng: “…”

“What ‘eat and live together’, making it sound so nice.”

Wei Feng fished out a cigarette from inside his uniform and held it in his mouth. “The salary you give doesn’t include eating together and sleeping together.”

Li Xiao: “Even if you want to sleep together, you’ll have to see if my brother agrees.”

Wei Feng: “Your dad is an Omega in the prime of his youth—he’s getting a damn steal.”

Just as he finished speaking, a teacup lid flew out from inside the room, hurtling straight toward the back of Wei Feng’s head without missing an inch.

Wei Feng raised a hand to catch it between his fingers, clicking his tongue: “If it were changed to Instructor Yan, I could reluctantly accompany him a bit.”

Just as he finished speaking, another teacup flew out from inside the room.

Song Jin pulled Li Xiao away: “Stop thinking about those few meager wages. With that mouth of yours, sooner or later you can strike it rich by collecting flying teacups.”

Wei Feng: “…”

After coming out from the main hall, Li Xiao drove with Song Jin to the annex to find Yan Qing.

At this hour, it was usually resting time for the military cadets, yet tonight every light was on.

When Li Xiao and Song Jin walked in, a group of students in the living room were red-faced and thick-necked, arguing intensely.

Aside from the exchange students from the Shengya Empire, around a hundred Danse students had come to Imperial Capital Planet this time—a portion participated in the exhibition match, while the rest were mostly aristocrats.

And right now, the ones arguing were precisely this group of aristocrats.

“Weren’t you guys super arrogant usually? What’s wrong, now you don’t even dare to say who your families support?”

“Who our family supports is none of your fucking business!”

“You dogs of the Meng family! The Meng family lacks all humanity, and you aren’t any good stuff either!”

“The matter hasn’t been investigated clearly yet—this is slander!”

“His Majesty has already confirmed the video is real, yet you’re still being stubborn! Did your ancestors help the Meng family massacre the Gaofeng Tribe too?!”

“Try saying that one more time?!”

The two sides pointed at each other’s noses and cursed, engaging in a scuffle after a few testy moments.

Most students watched from various distances, discussing the online public opinion in low voices. A few students went up to break up the fight, but failing to stop it, they took a few hits themselves, got riled up, and swiftly joined the brawl.

Liu Jie was originally curled up on the sofa reading the news when a beaten student suddenly pointed at him angrily and cursed: “You’re a dog of the Meng family too! You randomly torture and kill other races—you’re worse than pigs and dogs!”

Having been cursed at inexplicably, Liu Jie grabbed the student’s wrist and swung a fist right over.

How could the student be his match? He was knocked to the ground by the punch, his forehead hitting the corner of the table, bleeding on the spot.

The loud thud startled the surrounding students. Seeing that the situation was bad, they immediately went up to intervene.

If Liu Jie hit this hard, he might actually kill someone.

“Get lost!”

Suddenly enraged, Liu Jie lashed out with a fierce kick at the students crowding around.

“Hiss!”

Taking a kick to the stomach, a student stumbled backward, caught from behind before falling. Turning around, his eyes lit up: “Second Prince!”

Once the student stood firm, Li Xiao grabbed the hand Liu Jie was swinging toward other students, twisted it back, clamped his nape, and pinned him onto the sofa: “Calm down.”

Liu Jie struggled violently, his expression contorted: “Get lost! Believe it or not, I’ll kill you?! Get lost!”

The surrounding students felt a bit scared seeing Liu Jie suddenly acting as if he had gone mad.

“What are you saying to the Second Prince?!”

“You people of the Meng faction really are all murderers!”

Song Jin stepped over, grabbed Liu Jie’s chin to roughly lift it, observed his expression, and knit his brows slightly: “Don’t you think this state looks familiar?”

Lin Zhou back then had also been ignited at the slightest spark, extremely excited, out of his mind, attacking anyone around him indiscriminately.

Li Xiao’s gaze swept across Liu Jie’s neck exposed above his collar—there were several scratch marks on it. Rolling up his sleeves, there were even more scratches, even broken skin bleeding.

“Triggered by provocation; needs to be sent for medical treatment.”

Li Xiao casually said to the brawling students, “There’s still a banquet tomorrow noon. Don’t ruin your faces—it won’t look good. Please continue.”

Having said that, he dragged Liu Jie away.

Students: “…”

Now that you’ve put it like that, how are they supposed to continue?

Li Xiao brought Liu Jie to find a nearby empty room.

Song Jin locked the door behind them, fishing out a degenerating agent from the inner pocket of his formal suit jacket.

Li Xiao took an extra glance: “You still carry this on you?”

Song Jin squatted down, opened the cap of the syringe, and pressed it against Liu Jie’s neck and shoulder: “Just in case.”

Li Xiao: “…”

Ever since he first knew him, he felt like the cat’s pockets contained everything. Truly cute.

Song Jin turned his head to look at him: “Your eyes are drifting—what wicked thoughts are you having?”

Li Xiao: “…”

“Teasing you.” Song Jin kissed him on the cheek, chuckling softly. “This expression of yours, feigning composure, is really cute.”

Li Xiao’s gaze swept over the smile at the corner of his lips: “Getting worse and worse—even tricking me.”

Song Jin threw up his hands: “Learned it from you.”

Li Xiao: “…”

After injecting the degenerating agent, Liu Jie instantly quieted down, his eyelids drooping with a sleepy appearance.

Song Jin put the empty syringe back into his pocket: “The degenerating agent contains sedative components, though the physical constitution varies from person to person; not sure how much effect it will have on him.”

Li Xiao dragged the puddle-of-limp-mud Liu Jie onto the sofa to lay down, standing to one side to observe his reaction.

Half of the captured modified humans from the Third Corps had undergone degenerating agent trials. What could currently be confirmed was that it could prolong the modified humans’ demand cycle for blood agents. As for physical changes, results would only come after Shen Sinian’s team analyzed a large volume of data.

“07, record Liu Jie’s physical data changes,” Song Jin commanded.

07: 【Alrighty.】

The blue crystal on the terminal decorative buckle turned into threads, becoming a suppression ring clamped around Liu Jie’s neck. Various data values flickered across the popped-up virtual screen.

In less than two minutes, Liu Jie regained consciousness. Clutching his forehead, he sat up, looking somewhat surprised upon seeing Li Xiao and Song Jin.

“Why am I here?”

Li Xiao asked: “You went wild and attacked your companions—do you still have any memory of it?”

Liu Jie’s pupils shrank, as if heavily dealt a blow: “I don’t remember.”

Li Xiao: “Just now Xiao-Jin helped you use an emergency medicine, though we aren’t sure if the Shengya Empire’s formula is suitable for Danse citizens. If you feel any discomfort, remember to contact me.”

Liu Jie looked at Li Xiao, then looked at Song Jin, even more surprised.

“What emergency medicine?”

Song Jin didn’t answer, asking him: “How do you feel right now?”

Liu Jie felt carefully for a moment: “My body feels a bit lighter.”

“Then get some rest.”

Having said that, Li Xiao and Song Jin turned to leave.

Liu Jie hurriedly got up to call out to them: “Is there any more of that medicine?”

Li Xiao feigned confusion: “Aren’t you cured?”

Liu Jie scratched his hair: “I’m afraid what if I go wild again…”

Li Xiao: “Contact me in advance when you feel something isn’t right.”

“Thank you.”

After saying that, Liu Jie looked at Song Jin again. Thinking of the matter where he had provoked him earlier, he lowered his head in shame: “Thank you.”

“No need for thanks; I’m helping Xiao-Xiao, not helping you.”

Song Jin’s voice was chilly. “If you dare provoke me next time, I’ll still beat you so bad your parents won’t recognize you.”

Liu Jie pursed his lips: “I won’t anymore.”

Walking out of the room, the two went to find Yan Qing, who had just finished taking roll call and returned.

Yan Qing brewed coffee for the two of them, taking a seat before the bar counter.

“Here to ask me about the unexpected passing of your royal father and mother back then?”

Li Xiao: “Nothing can be hidden from you.”

Yan Qing laughed helplessly: “Does this even require guessing? His Majesty probably wouldn’t tell you these things.”

Song Jin took a sip of coffee—unexpectedly delicious.

“Why did Meng Jian claim it was your doing?”

Yan Qing looked at the steam rising from the cup, the smile on his lips dimming: “I’ve been thinking—if I hadn’t entered the palace back then, if I hadn’t handed those materials to the two Majesties, would they have avoided the accident? Same for Prince Li Xun, because of the Bijue Tribe’s affairs…”

Li Xiao: “What materials?”

Yan Qing: “I showed them to you before. Aside from that video, there were photo and video records of our tribe being persecuted.”

Song Jin: “You submitted those materials, and then they suffered an accident?”

Yan Qing nodded: “Less than half a month after submitting them, the two Majesties went on an inspection tour. The ancient castle they stayed at in the Suyang Sector caught fire in the middle of the night. I smelled a pungent smoke in my sleep and rushed to find the two Majesties. In the hallway outside the door, I saw a figure leaving in a hurry. At the time, I couldn’t care about anything else, thinking only of confirming Their Majesties’ safety first.”

Speaking up to this point, Yan Qing paused: “When I reached the outer hall, I saw four night-shift attendants collapsed on the floor. The room was full of smoke, and there was an indescribably strange odor. In the main bedroom, the King was slumping across the bed, while the Queen was leaning sideways against the headboard, both already unconscious.”

“I tried activating the purification system, but it didn’t work. I could only drag them out first.”

Yan Qing knit his brows slightly, “The guard squad on duty rushed over, just in time to see me dragging the two Majesties out to the outer hall. Afterward, checking the room’s smart system revealed high concentrations of Alpha pheromones. They believed that as an Omega, I couldn’t possibly be completely unaffected under such a concentration. Plus, unable to find other suspects, they detained me.”

The more Song Jin listened, the more puzzled he felt: “The castle caught fire and nobody noticed? The indoor smart system didn’t sound an alarm? It didn’t trigger fire warnings?”

Yan Qing shook his head: “None of them did. Even the attendants arranged for night duty that night happened to all be Omegas by sheer coincidence. I looked at the location of the fire—according to the wind direction and speed that night, the toxic smoke directly attacked the two Majesties’ bedroom.”

Song Jin: “The windows were open at the time?”

Yan Qing nodded.

“Then that’s even stranger.” Song Jin rested his chin on his hand, his finger rubbing the rim of the cup. “Even if asleep, smelling such a pungent odor would wake someone up. The door wasn’t locked from the inside either—how could they be directly suffocated to death inside?”

Yan Qing opened a blank page, drawing the positions in which the royal couple were unconscious at the time: “The King should have woken up, walked around to the Queen’s side of the bed wanting to help her up, and ended up fainting like that. The Queen should have sat up before slumping against the headboard to faint.”

Since they had woken up, it was even more impossible to foolishly stay there inhaling toxic gas until fainting.

Li Xiao asked: “Who was the figure you saw back then?”

Yan Qing shook his head: “Wearing a guard’s uniform. I mentioned this point to them back then, but nobody was willing to listen to me.”

Li Xiao: “The strange odor you mentioned—was it a pheromone?”

Yan Qing had confusion on his face: “I can’t be sure; it smelled like something rotting, very strange.”

Li Xiao’s and Song Jin’s eyes tightened.

In all probability, it was a modified human—no doubt about it.

This way, it made sense why Li Su and his spouse couldn’t escape that toxic-filled room—because they were mentally controlled.

If Yan Qing hadn’t run in to save them, Li Su and his spouse would have merely passed away in an “accidental” manner.

With Yan Qing attempting a rescue, he was directly framed as the scapegoat.

Li Xiao asked: “You should have smelled plenty of problematic modified human pheromones at the military academy. How does it compare to theirs?”

“Then those at school count as fragrant.”

Yan Qing thought for a moment, “The smell back then was like entering a room specifically designated for fermenting rotten fruit—nauseating. But by comparison, the smell back then had less effect on me.”

Li Xiao: “Referring to the effect regarding pheromones?”

Yan Qing nodded: “Although the concentration was very high, I was completely unaffected. On the contrary, it’s the pheromones released by some modified students in school now that cause me to space out a bit.”

“In other words, the blood agent has undergone modifications over these ten-plus years.”

Song Jin said thoughtfully, “To knock out a group of people at once indicates strong aggressiveness. But pheromones directly reflect a person’s physical condition—to reek like that, they probably couldn’t live long, somewhat like a human bomb.”

Short lifespan after modification was a major drawback.

Just after placing someone in a suitable position, they died shortly after, requiring another replacement, and making it easier to get discovered.

Yan Qing continued: “I was sent back to the Imperial Capital for interrogation. Your brother came to see me alone. We both lost our composure at the time and had a huge argument. Fearing I would die, I told your brother about the Bijue Tribe’s affairs, hoping he would be careful of the Meng family. Unexpectedly, the next day I was secretly taken away by Gao Wanxin, and after that, I was arranged to go to the First Military Academy.”

Li Xiao suddenly recalled that during the private discussion at the Third Corps, his brother had asked an extra question—whether Bijue Tribe Omegas were unaffected by Alpha pheromones. So that was what it was about.

Back then, his brother had been suspicious as well, but in the end, he still chose to believe Yan Qing. Fearing there were numerous suspicious points in this accident, he secretly released the person.

Rather than killing Yan Qing, it was better to let him become a chess piece in hand—to become a sword stabbed into the Meng family one day.

Song Jin: “What a pity. If you hadn’t rushed in back then, you would already be the supervisor of the main hall now. Sacrificing your own future, yet unable to save Li Su and his spouse.”

“They didn’t die.”

Facing Li Xiao and Song Jin’s astonished gazes, Yan Qing deliberately lowered his voice: “When I rescued them, they still had breath. They were handed over in time to the doctor on duty during the inspection tour, Ye You. However, because they inhaled too much toxic gas, it caused severe multi-organ failure. Although they didn’t die, they couldn’t wake up anytime soon.”

“Ye You?” Li Xiao knit his brows. “The school doctor Ye You who treats throats at school?”

Yan Qing nodded: “Originally, Jin Heng was supposed to accompany the team, but at the time Jin Heng seemingly took on some work business trip, so he had Ye You step in.”

“Wait.”

Song Jin raised a hand to interrupt, “You said they were alive back then—what about now? Didn’t they hold a funeral?”

Yan Qing: “Not dead. Ye You privately hinted to me that His Majesty made arrangements after I left. If I’m not mistaken, they should be in the royal cemetery—dormant beneath the Grand Cathedral.”

Across two lifetimes, this was the first time Li Xiao had heard about this matter—it was simply unbelievable.

Family members who had passed away years ago were actually still alive—this feeling was hard to describe, like dreaming.

So his brother had begun laying out the board from back then.

However, the situation was worse than he knew; after trying various strategies, it still ended in failure.

At night, the two didn’t return to the side palace, staying directly at the annex.

When Song Jin came out after taking a shower, Li Xiao was sitting by the window repeatedly playing that video of Wei Feng and Li Ye.

“Still feel there’s a problem?”

Li Xiao looked at the screen and nodded: “Meng Jian moving to kill my royal father and mother was inevitably because they uncovered something. I’ve looked at the other photos and videos—they have no direct connection to the Meng family. I still feel this video is the most suspicious.”

Song Jin sat cross-legged opposite him, also opening the video to inspect it frame by frame.

Li Xiao felt the same way as he did.

They always felt they hadn’t found the most critical point yet.

Seeing the sky turning faint white at dawn, Song Jin suddenly pressed pause, enlarged the upper-left corner position, stared at it for two seconds, and gestured to Li Xiao: “Look at what this is?”

Li Xiao moved over to his side.

The circled area was only the size of a mung bean in the entire video frame—a document placed on an office desk, blocked by a stack of folders in front, revealing only a quarter of it.

The camera had swept across it unintentionally; the duration of its appearance was only 0.35 seconds.

Song Jin tried to enlarge it: “So blurry.”

Li Xiao: “Let me try.”

Li Xiao attempted to restore it, finally able to faintly see a line of words at the top of the cover.

Song Jin squinted his eyes to look: “9, 9, 4, 3, 2?”

Li Xiao’s expression shifted slightly.

“The fourth and fifth digits from the end are 99, indicating this is a top-secret document with the highest level of confidentiality.”

Song Jin turned his head to look at Li Xiao: “Then what are we waiting for?”

The two got right to action, not even having time to change clothes before heading out the door.

A moment later, a hovercar sliced a sharp arc through the air at extreme speed, speeding rapidly in the direction of the royal archives.