The classroom where they had class wasn’t far from Restaurant No. 39, so Li Xiao and his companions decided to take a stroll over.

09 didn’t dare to wander around aimlessly and quickly flew over to rest on the tip of Li Xiao’s ear.

【He really can’t see me.】

Even if Yan Qing truly couldn’t see 09, Li Xiao still felt that the man knew something to a certain extent. Someone who could give him a sense of familiarity upon first impression must be someone he had crossed paths with in the past.

Extrapolating from Yan Qing’s age, Li Xiao’s first suspicion was the Omega who used to tell him nursery rhymes back then. Unfortunately, he had been too young at the time, and the Omega’s face in his memory was blurry, making it impossible to recall clearly.

However, everyone in the palace said that the Omega had already been secretly executed by his older brother. Besides, jumping from a mere servant to a military academy Dean of Students holding a military rank seemed rather implausible.

Song Jin: “Investigate further and report back.”

Li Xiao: “…Mm.”

“Brother!”

Dabei waved at them from a short distance away and ran over quickly, asking breathlessly, “Were you attacked by Lin Zhou last night? It’s already spread all over the internal network.”

Hearing this, Jiang Hao swiped open his terminal and switched the screen to public mode. Sure enough, the words “Li Xiao Attacked” popped up the moment the internal network opened.

A video had been posted, showing the footage of Lin Zhou holding a knife under the lights. Both of their faces could be seen clearly, and even Lin Zhou’s line, “They never said I would die, everyone lied to me,” was recorded.

The comments under the post were wildly diverse.

• “Insane, Lin Zhou has truly gone mad, killing whoever he catches.”
• “How did Lin Zhou escape from the psychiatric department? Aren’t the medical staff responsible?”
• “Is Li Xiao possessed by a jinx? He gets beaten up or blasted every single day.”
• “What were they doing in the small thicket in the middle of the night?”

The students who had been attacked by Lin Zhou previously came forward one after another to demand justice, with each post gaining tens of thousands of likes. The heat of the discussion was simply too massive, forcing the Student Union to issue an announcement stating they would closely monitor the matter and announce any follow-ups immediately.

.

Capital Star, Danse Royal Palace.

Inside the Danse Royal Palace on Capital Star, Li Ji smashed another set of teacups upon hearing that Li Xiao had been attacked.

“Lock that Lin Zhou up for me!”

Old Liu stepped around the spilled tea and said respectfully, “That Lin Zhou has mental issues and had already attacked many students before.”

“A mental patient and they still dared to let him out to cause trouble everywhere?!” Li Ji heavily slapped the signed document aside. “Expel Lin Zhou and send him home to recuperate! Demote Lin Xu by two ranks and transfer him to a civilian department! Investigate all relevant medical staff and hold individuals accountable!”

Hearing that Lin Xu was being demoted by two ranks, Old Liu’s ears buzzed. He asked cautiously, “Is the punishment for Lin Xu a bit too harsh?”

Li Ji: “He failed to educate his son properly and caused trouble for me at such a critical juncture. Not stripping him of his position entirely is already giving face to the Meng family.”

Biting the bullet, Old Liu complied and went to prepare the paperwork. As he walked out the door, he couldn’t help but feel a bit puzzled.

His Majesty’s attitude toward the Meng family has turned considerably harsher lately.

In the past, no matter how annoyed he was, he would at most throw a tantrum—raising his hand high only to let it down gently. Recently, he actually dared to enforce real punishments.

.

Capital Star, The Meng Family.

Inside Meng Jian’s study, Meng Zai sat in his wheelchair, throwing a furious tantrum.

He had been severely injured, and his adjutant had just been demoted because of Li Xiao. The two most important commanders of the Second Legion were now effectively gone.

“What’s the use of grumbling to me?” Meng Jian was rolling walnuts in his palm. “The royal family’s recent controversy hasn’t blown over yet. If news of Li Xiao being attacked spreads further, the royal family will be pushed to the forefront of public criticism again. Of course Li Ji doesn’t want to see that happen.”

Meng Zai: “So we just let him do whatever he wants?!”

Meng Jian shot him a look. “Your old man hasn’t taken the throne yet. We don’t have enough power to do whatever we please.”

Seeing Meng Zai snap the cigarette in his hand out of rage, Meng Jian spoke faintly, “Li Ji’s reaction is within my expectations. Sacrificing a Lin family is nothing. The crucial point is that they exposed themselves before completing the mission. What’s the point of keeping such useless trash around?”

Meng Zai’s eyes widened suddenly. “Do you mean to kill Lin Zhou? He is Lin Xu’s son.”

“So what if he’s his son?” Meng Jian put down the walnuts and stood up to head to work. “It’s not like he only has one son.”

Meng Zai’s hand tightened on his armrest, his heart thumping wildly as he sat frozen, unable to snap out of it.

Not like he only has one son…

—Then in your eyes, am I also a piece of trash that can be discarded at any moment?

_

Right after Li Ji issued the order, Li Xiao’s backup terminal received a message from that familiarly strange ID.

【The Emperor has ordered Lin Zhou’s expulsion, and Lin Zhou’s father, Lin Xu, has been demoted and exiled to a second-line position.】

That was fast.

His older brother had probably been wanting to do this for a long time, hadn’t he?

Lin Xu was Meng Zai’s adjutant. One could say the Lin family was entirely brought up and nurtured by the Meng family, showing loyalty only to them. For the royal family, such a clan brought nothing but harm.

The next day was Saturday. Li Xiao wanted to head to Wanhua Road to scope out the location. To make their disguise less likely to be penetrated, he specially invited Jiang Hao, Qian Can, and Qin Le along.

Wanhua Road on the weekend was teeming with people. The passersby were mostly young people around twenty years old, draped in gold and silver, wearing jewelry as if it cost nothing. This actually made Li Xiao and Song Jin, two genuine top-tier nobles, look quite impoverished by comparison.

The spring sunshine carried a hint of chill. Song Jin shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and lifted his chin. “Look at them, then look at you. You should at least flaunt some rubies or emeralds.”

“Do you like them?” Li Xiao walked slowly beside him.

Song Jin: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

Li Xiao pointed at a jewelry display window they were passing and asked, “Should I buy a set for you then?”

Song Jin looked in the direction he pointed, his brows furrowing in disgust.

The window displayed a set of jade accessories, so exaggerated that it looked like an entire cloak. An average person wearing it would probably end up hunchbacked after a few steps. How was this any different from a laborer digging in a mine?

This was Qian Can and Qin Le’s first time visiting a commercial street in Danse. Because the cultural customs were vastly different from their home country, they were curious about everything.

Seeing Li Xiao and the others discussing the jade set, Qian Can walked closer to check the price. “Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands, hundred-thousands… millions, ten-millions… Holy crap!”

Nope, he couldn’t even count the digits with both hands!

Qian Can broke out in a sweat. “Lele, this isn’t a place small citizens like us can afford to shop.”

“This is a display piece,” Qin Le pointed to the sign on the right. “Who would dare wear this on the street? It would fracture your bones.”

Before leaving, Li Xiao had instructed them that they could wander around freely without making their purpose too obvious. Qian Can saw that this jewelry store looked quite nice and wanted to buy a souvenir for his mother, Qian Xun. Li Xiao and Song Jin didn’t mind either way and casually followed behind.

Jiang Hao paused in front of a row of beautiful accessories, unable to help but sigh, “It must be nice to have a mother.”

Li Xiao had never heard Jiang Hao mention any family members other than Jiang Chi, so he said smoothly, “Buying something for your father is the same.”

Jiang Hao shook his head. “My home only has me and my older brother.”

“Xiao Jiang, come over quickly and help me choose! Lele and I have completely different tastes.” Qian Can waved at Jiang Hao. “Hurry!”

“I don’t know how to choose.” Despite saying so, Jiang Hao still hurried over.

Passing by a section filled with diamond-encrusted cups, Li Xiao stared at a water tumbler with a straw, falling into thought.

A little lion drinking water from a straw cup would probably look very cute.

Song Jin suddenly felt a wave of chills. Turning around instinctively, he noticed the direction Li Xiao was looking and said in a frosty tone, “If you dare buy that, I’ll gift you a baby bottle.”

The fantasy was ruthlessly crushed right as it budded. Li Xiao: “…”

There’s plenty of time in the future. There will be plenty of opportunities later.

After Qian Can bought a pair of earrings and a hairpin for his mother, the five walked out of the jewelry store, eating and strolling along the way toward their destination.

Song Jin used a fork to spear a meatball and fed it to Li Xiao. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a middle-aged Beta in a black jacket behind them, who was pretending to casually observe them.

That’s already the fifth one.

Up ahead, they entered the secondhand bookstore district. The street was lined with them on both sides, but each shop focused on a different specialty—such as agriculture, biochemistry, mechanics, and so on—all divided very precisely. One could quickly find a secondhand bookstore of interest based on the signs over the entrance.

The group of military academy students headed straight for the mechanical category.

This secondhand bookstore was named “Moment.” The entrance was decorated with worn-out metal components, making it look rather dilapidated, but the interior space was larger than Li Xiao had imagined. The steampunk decor fit the secondhand book theme perfectly.

Many military academy students were looking for books here. Glancing across the sunken lounge area, one could spot several military academy instructors, including the Head of General Affairs, Zhang Bin.

Li Xiao and Song Jin pretended to browse casually, letting 09 record everything as much as possible.

09: 【Do you want close-ups?】

Li Xiao: 【No need.】

It would be troublesome if 09 flew around recklessly and got spotted by a modified human.

Qin Le and Qian Can were examining the layout of the place when, out of the corner of their eyes, they saw Jiang Hao standing frozen in front of a bookshelf.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Le walked over.

Jiang Hao couldn’t resist pulling a book down. “This book looks really interesting.”

Qin Le looked at it. The title read: 《The One Thousand Knives You Must Own in a Lifetime: The Knife Lover’s Bible》.

“…”

“Can I look at it? Just for one minute,” Jiang Hao asked expectantly.

Seeing that Li Xiao and the others had already walked far ahead, Qin Le said casually, “This shop doesn’t have a rule against browsing.”

Jiang Hao solemnly flipped open the first page. Instantly, his eyes lit up, and he couldn’t stop reading.

Qian Can looked around, and turning back to find Qin Le and Jiang Hao huddling together doing something, he curiously leaned over and immediately got sucked in as well.

Flipping to a page introducing a certain military knife, Jiang Hao introduced it proudly, “This is my first wife.”

Qian Can / Qin Le: “…”

Your wife looks quite unique.

On the colored page, someone had written a line of annotation next to it.

【Unparalleled under the heavens, this is truly a divine blade.】

Qian Can complained, “It seems this chuunibyou brother shares a highly identical aesthetic with you.”

Jiang Hao let out an “eh?” of confusion, picking it up to examine it closely. “This handwriting looks a lot like my brother’s.”

Qin Le: “Your brother used to be a student at a military academy too?”

Jiang Hao shook his head without explaining further. He quickly flipped through the rest and carefully put it back, thinking of coming back to read it slowly when he had time next time.

Meanwhile, while waiting for 09 to finish scanning, Li Xiao casually picked up a book on firearms to flip through. Suddenly, 09’s warning echoed in his ear.

【Lin Zhou encountered an attack on his way to the landing pad!】

Li Xiao’s action of turning the page paused slightly. He asked using his mind: 【Where?】

A virtual screen popped up in his field of vision, displaying the navigation monitoring of a certain area. At this moment, the flight trajectories of four or five vehicles were clearly abnormal.

Li Xiao instructed 09 to set off immediately to rescue Lin Zhou, then asked Song Jin, who was reading nearby, “It’s a rare break, let’s not look at these. Shall we change locations?”

“Sure.” Song Jin put down his book and walked toward the entrance with Li Xiao.

Seeing this, the five assassins who had followed them moved stealthily from various directions to keep up.

At this hour, there were many people entering the shop, and most were tall military academy students, making it difficult for the assassins to lock onto Li Xiao and Song Jin in the crowd. As two groups of students entered the bookstore chatting and laughing, one of the assassins was bumped aside. In just a split second, they raised their heads only to find that Li Xiao and Song Jin had vanished.

Two assassins rushed outside but also lost their targets in the crowd.

Hearing the report over the public frequency, the assassins remaining in the bookstore turned their focus toward approaching Jiang Hao’s trio instead.

Qian Can’s terminal rang. He hurriedly changed it to vibration, swiped it open, and said to the other two, “Boss and the other guy went to Wangu Street for a date. They told us not to follow them and act as third wheels.”

“How unrighteous, just ditching us here,” Qin Le said flatly. “Then let’s also find a place to eat something delicious. Who wants to be a third wheel anyway?”

The three walked out of the bookstore, noticing that the people who had been tailing them previously were now walking away. It appeared they had fallen for the trick.

On the street, taking advantage of the crowd’s cover, Li Xiao and Song Jin rapidly shook off their tails, scanned a public hovercar, and flew out of Wanhua Road following the traffic flow.

Song Jin had 07 hijack the vehicle’s onboard intelligence to ensure no surveillance was monitoring them.

“If it doesn’t work out this time, this pawn will be completely ruined.”

Li Xiao: “I’ll make him nod.”

Song Jin turned his head to look at him. “What do you plan to do?”

Li Xiao held the steering wheel, speaking expressionlessly, “He’s just a kid. He’ll listen once he gets a little scared.”

Song Jin: “…”

Halfway to the landing pad, Lin Zhou sat in the backseat of a hovercar, looking completely out of it.

After the failed mission, he had been thoroughly locked inside his hospital room. This morning, he suddenly received a communication from his father. Thinking he was saved, he hadn’t expected to be scolded severely instead. His father had been demoted, and it seemed everything was his fault.

The vehicle suddenly jolted, snapping Lin Zhou back to his senses. This car was autonomous; usually, it wouldn’t change lanes so abruptly.

After a few more violent jolts, Lin Zhou belatedly realized the anomaly. Climbing to the front seat to look, he saw four or five autonomous hovercars slamming toward his vehicle.

Lin Zhou understood almost instantly.

These cars are here to kill him because he no longer has any value.

Another car rammed over. Lin Zhou instinctively grabbed the steering wheel to evade it, his fingertips trembling violently.

“I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die… Father! Save me…”

His experience piloting mechs allowed him to barely dodge a few pincer attacks, but the further ahead he drove, the more hovercars rammed over. Lin Zhou’s mental state had already collapsed; his ability to persist until now relied entirely on instinct.

He tried to send a communication to his father, Lin Xu, only to find there was absolutely no signal. Even the distress signal was blocked.

This was a certain-death trap. Those people wouldn’t let him off.

Once this thought flashed by, Lin Zhou lost even the strength to struggle. In the end, he could only weep and give up, watching with wide eyes as the hovercars from all directions crashed into him.

At the moment of impact, Lin Zhou felt his body lose gravity. Sparks exploded before his eyes, and the next second, his body flew out of the window.

Boom—!

The fireball erupted in the sky, and fragments of the hovercar rained down. Falling from this height, there was a 100% chance he wouldn’t survive.

Lin Zhou fell into utter despair. Only after a good while did he realize that his altitude wasn’t dropping; instead, he was sprinting through the air at high speed.

“…?!” Realizing this, Lin Zhou’s spirit jolted.

What was going on? A hallucination before his death?!

【Not a hallucination.】

The words suddenly appeared before his eyes. Lin Zhou wanted to reach out to touch them, only to discover that his hands were covered in a layer of blue metal. Turning his head to look, there were even two tires on either side.

It was as if he had been embedded into the chassis of a hovercar. What was this? Where was it taking him?!

09 had flown into Lin Zhou’s car right before the vehicles collided. After enveloping him, it rapidly flew out, disguising itself as another autonomous vehicle to fly toward the mountainous area Li Xiao had designated.

When Lin Zhou finally touched down, he found himself brought inside a certain cavern.

Just as he was feeling bewildered, he looked up and saw Li Xiao sitting on a rock ahead. He gasped in shock, “Li Xiao?!”

Noticing the vehicle deforming out of the corner of his eye, Lin Zhou’s eyes widened. “What is this?!”

Li Xiao looked at 09, which was deforming in midair, and said casually, “By the time you see this, there’s already no going back for you. You should be very clear about that, right?”

Lin Zhou’s heart thumped, but on second thought, where else could he return to now?

“What exactly do you want?”

Li Xiao: “Right now, in everyone’s eyes, you are already dead.”

Lin Zhou suddenly scanned his surroundings, only to find there was another person behind him—it was actually Song Jin!

Song Jin was wiping a military knife that 09 had transformed into, looking down at him coldly. “Whether you want to live or die, decide for yourself.”

Lin Zhou shuddered. The thought of giving up had lasted only for a single moment; he no longer had the courage to face death a second time.

“Even if I want to live, I can’t survive without the blood!”

“The blood you’re talking about, I have it.” Noticing Lin Zhou’s widened eyes, Li Xiao spoke calmly. “As long as you cooperate properly, I will guarantee your safety. How about it? Want to strike a deal with me?”

Lin Zhou clearly didn’t believe it. “How could you possibly have it?!”

Just as he finished speaking, a virtual screen popped up in front of him, displaying two entire boxes of blood.

Lin Zhou scrambled over on all chills, shouting with a raspy voice, “Yes, yes, yes, exactly this kind! Give it to me quickly! I’m about to collapse!”

Song Jin kicked him back. “Spill everything you know, and naturally you won’t lack any. We are much more trustworthy than the Meng family.”

Hearing them bring up the Meng family, Lin Zhou became even more certain that the blood in their hands was real.

Lin Zhou took a deep breath and suddenly said excitedly, “I was lied to by them! They said using this blood could boost my strength. As long as I used it once every two months, not only would my strength increase drastically, but even my pheromones could rise by several grades! But they never said that if I stopped using it, I would die!”

Li Xiao: “Where did you use it for the first time? Was it also this kind of blood?”

Lin Zhou nodded. “On Capital Star. After listening to their introduction, my father and I agreed we could give it a try. On the day I used the blood, I was blindfolded the entire time, so I don’t know the exact location.”

Speaking up to here, Lin Zhou let out a sneer, “They forced me to sign a non-disclosure agreement. If I broke the rules, they would stop giving it to me. Even if I didn’t break the rules, it wasn’t something I could use whenever I wanted. They said this blood is extremely precious and scarce, so I had to complete missions to accumulate points to exchange for it.”

“From the first time I used the blood, I became their slave. Whatever they told me to do, I had to do.”

Lin Zhou looked at Li Xiao. “After failing to assassinate you at Shengya, I told them I wouldn’t do it anymore and didn’t want the blood either. I didn’t expect the side effects to be this massive! Those liars—!”

“Have you used it inside the military academy?” Seeing Lin Zhou nod, Song Jin pressed further, “Who gave it to you?”

Lin Zhou clutched his chest, his breathing sounding like a broken bellow. He said with difficulty, “G2.”

Song Jin and Li Xiao exchanged a glance, instantly recalling the data obtained from the Z152 abandoned base. The data displayed the Ferryman of T999 as G2.

Li Xiao followed up, “Do you know who he is?”

“I don’t know… Give me the blood quickly…” Lin Zhou suddenly started convulsing all over and fell unconscious on the ground.

A smell resembling a decaying corpse drifted into the air. Li Xiao was certain that Lin Zhou’s physical condition was far worse than a few days ago.

“For blood used within the campus, this Ferryman G2 is highly likely someone inside the military academy.” Song Jin bypassed Lin Zhou to stand beside Li Xiao. “Do you think it could be that Zhang Bin?”

Zhang Bin had participated in the space pirates’ illegal killing games, making him the prime suspect.

“There’s also that strange Yan Qing.” Song Jin looked down at Li Xiao. “I always feel this old man harbors ulterior motives toward you.”

“…” Having his train of thought interrupted by this absurd remark, Li Xiao raised his head. “How did you sense that?”

Song Jin: “A husband’s sixth sense?”

Li Xiao: “…”