A brief line of text. To Li Ji, its staggering impact was no less than hearing that the Raven had entered the battlefield to bomb a residential area.

Xiaoqiang was not dead.

Did Xiaoqiang know what he was about to do?

The thought caused Li Ji’s heart to race, and he could not suppress the trembling of his fingertips.

[I will find someone to fetch you back.]

Li Xiao: [No need. Going back isn’t necessarily safe either.]

Li Ji stared at the line of text for a long while. He shut down the terminal, placed it back into the drawer, and locked it. By the time he raised his eyes again, his composure had returned. He stood up, walked out of the office, and gestured to Old Liu, who was waiting in the outer lounge.

“Prepare the vehicle. We are going to Military Headquarters!”

Old Liu snapped to attention. “Yes, Your Majesty!”

Military Headquarters, Operations Command Center.

Yi Yongning drank strong tea while handling the work at hand and monitoring the situation on S80. He hadn’t even found the time to eat the packed lunch his assistant had brought, which had already gone cold.

“Sir!” An assistant ran over from the sub-control console with a grim expression and handed him a report. “Intelligence just transmitted from the front lines. The Raven broke into S80 and bombed the transport vehicle the Second Highness was riding in!”

Yi Yongning looked perplexed at first. Only after mentally processing the words a second time did he react, snatching the report to flip through it. “Retrieve the battlefield surveillance footage!”

The assistant replied, “I’ve checked. The Raven’s starship does not appear in any of the surveillance footage received here at Headquarters! Currently, there is only this photograph of the starship attached to the report.”

Another assistant rushed over. “Someone leaked information online. The situation has already spiraled out of control!”

“So fast.” Yi Yongning slapped the report onto the table with a stiff expression, having already pieced together most of the plot.

No wonder they were so compliant about handing over command authority. They were waiting for this!

Handing the Fifth Army over to Headquarters for command did mean the operational deployment on the front lines was restructured. However, it was remote command after all, and there were too many variables. It was far too easy for them to feign compliance while secretly acting otherwise!

The assistant lowered his voice. “What do we do now?”

Yi Yongning made a gesture telling him to stay calm.

The two assistants exchanged an anxious glance.

The Second Highness had been bombed to death. Why wasn’t the boss worried at all?

The core of the royal family was down to just His Majesty and his brother. Now that the Second Highness was gone, if something happened to His Majesty as well, the world would turn upside down immediately.

The Yi family shared close ties of kinship with the royal family. If things truly reached that point, it would be virtually impossible to extricate themselves unscathed.

Yi Yongning could naturally foresee all of this.

But he did not believe Li Xiao would die so easily.

This was not the first time the Meng family had moved against Li Xiao. Given Li Xiao’s capabilities, it was highly probable he had evaded it.

The Meng family’s actions could serve only two purposes:

1. To warn His Majesty to obediently hand over his administrative sector authorities.
2. Driven to a desperate corner, they wanted to launch a direct coup.

The situation was on the verge of triggering, and civil war could break out at any moment.

It would be fine if Li Xiao managed to evade it, but if he didn’t, what followed would be hard to say.

Yi Yongning beckoned the two assistants closer and said in a low voice, “Raise the defense and control levels of Tianshu and the Royal Palace to maximum. Prepare the approval procedures immediately. There is no need to announce it publicly.”

The two assistants felt a jolt of energy. “Yes, Sir!”

Meng Jian and the other two, who had gone out to drink tea, heard from their subordinate that His Majesty had arrived. They walked back leisurely to the Command Center to watch the show. Upon entering, they ran straight into Yi Yongning’s sour face.

“Is there a situation on the front lines?” Meng Jian asked, feigning ignorance.

Yi Yongning ignored him and looked straight at Qi Shoude. “If I hadn’t taken over the affairs of the Fifth Army today, I wouldn’t have known you fathered such a useless fool.”

Insulted to his face, Qi Shoude’s expression shifted. “Watch your mouth!”

Yi Yongning countered, “Having a foul mouth is still better than having foul hands like certain people!”

Qi Shoude snapped, “What nonsense are you talking about?!”

Yi Yongning said, “You don’t need to shout at me. When His Majesty arrives, explain it to him yourself!”

Other general-grade officers heard the news and hurried back to the Command Center after a hasty meal, their expressions varying wildly.

Not long after, Li Ji entered the Operations Command Center aggressively. He sat at the command seat of the main console and swept a cold gaze across the crowd. “Qi Shoude, has the Raven’s bombing of the residential area been verified?”

Qi Shoude looked somewhat bewildered. “The Raven bombing a residential area? When did this happen?”

Yi Yongning tossed the report in his hands over to him. “While the three of you went out for lunch.”

Qi Shoude ostentatiously flipped through a couple of pages, his hands shaking with feigned anger. “Has this rebel faction gone mad?! To actually break into the battlefield to assassinate the Second Highness!”

With one line, he directly defined the nature of the event.

Li Ji looked at him, his gaze piercing. “Are you certain it is the Raven?”

Meng Jian smoothly took over the conversation. “The starship’s insignia can be seen in the photograph. It should belong to the Raven.”

Li Ji nodded deliberately. “The S80 Garrison Headquarters and the Fifth Army are suspected of colluding with enemies and committing treason. All officers of school-grade and above are relieved of duty, effective immediately, and are to be arrested for endangering national security!”

The already heavy atmosphere in the Command Center took a sharp turn downward.

His Majesty has been driven mad by rage.

This was the sole thought remaining in the minds of the numerous general-grade officers present.

The expressions of Meng Jian, Zheng Kang’an, and Qi Shoude turned rather unsightly.

They hadn’t expected His Majesty to be so unyielding. Regardless of whether this order could actually be carried out, announcing it in front of so many people was a deliberate attempt to humiliate them.

Meng Jian spoke up, “Your Majesty, the urgent matter at hand is to capture the rebel Raven faction, not to investigate the responsibility of our own people. Moreover, the front-line battles are intense. Rashly removing those who are doing the work will cause the situation to spiral out of control.”

“You are absolutely right,” Li Ji said calmly. “Deploy the Third Army to set out for S80 to reinforce the front lines. The command authority of the Garrison Headquarters will temporarily be handed over to the Third Army Commander, Yi Lian.”

Meng Jian’s expression darkened, his lip line pulling taut.

Things had already been spelled out to this extent, yet he hadn’t expected Li Ji to still dare to clash with him directly.

Seeing that things were going awry and that His Majesty’s reaction completely exceeded their expectations, Zheng Kang’an spoke hesitantly, “Your Majesty, this photograph is so blurred. It merely looks like the Raven. We still need further investigation to confirm it.”

Gao Wanxin looked at the photograph on the report and chimed in, “With just these few broken starships, how could they possibly break into a battlefield heavily guarded by massive forces? Who transmitted this intelligence? They’re just as unreliable as Qi Sen.”

While diffusing the tension, he also dragged Qi Sen out to step on him. Qi Shoude kept a sour face and did not join the conversation.

The news about the Raven had already been broadcasted, and Li Xiao was also bombed to death. Their objectives had all been achieved; being subjected to a few sarcastic remarks mattered little.

Li Ji slapped the armrest heavily and looked back at Qi Shoude. “Is it the Raven or not?!”

Qi Shoude lowered his head. “It may still require confirmation.”

Yi Yongning had been listening passively until now, and only then did he speak up to assist, “Your Majesty, even if Qi Sen is incompetent, he wouldn’t go as far as to let the Raven slip into the battlefield. It is possible there is an issue with the intelligence channel.”

“If it wasn’t the Raven, then who bombed the vehicle Xiaoqiang was riding in?” Li Ji countered casually.

The atmosphere turned rigid once more. The numerous officers did not even dare to breathe heavily.

Meng Jian stated, “We have also just received the news. Everything remains to be confirmed. The Second Highness might not necessarily have been inside that vehicle.”

Old Liu accused sharply, “The Second Highness has already lost contact! Is this how you look after him?!”

Li Ji raised his hand, signaling Old Liu to stop speaking, and said flatly, “Within one hour, I want to see a definitive result.”

Qi Shoude replied, “Yes.”

Li Ji gestured to Old Liu. “Have people handle the online public opinion. The news content did not originate from the military. Pursue the responsibility of the rumor-mongers to the very end.”

Old Liu replied, “Yes, Your Majesty!”

Qi Shoude and Zheng Kang’an returned to their seats and exchanged a glance, both feeling that something was amiss.

Li Ji’s reaction shouldn’t have been like this.

Meng Jian sat down composedly, entirely unfazed.

Flailing about a couple of times before death. I’ll let you die with a clear understanding.

S80, Suyang Constellation, East District Four.

The sudden explosion caught everyone off guard.

The refugees instinctively covered their heads and crouched down, screaming in terror.

Once the violent tremors subsided, 07 rushed back into the decorative button of Song Jin’s terminal before the refugees could react.

Dust permeated the air, filled with a pungent odor.

Song Jin raised his hand to cover his nose and mouth, his eyes sweeping across the cracks on the ceiling and walls of the lobby. He made a retreat gesture to Jiang Hao and the other two who were rushing over.

The old building might not be able to withstand the damage brought by the explosion and ran the risk of collapsing at any moment.

Such a massive commotion scared away the mutated insects nearby. They successfully led the refugees to the commercial street behind the residential compound, finding a shopfront to duck into.

Seeing Li Xiao enter from the outside, Song Jin walked closer by a few steps and asked in a low voice, “What’s the word?”

Li Xiao took his hand and led him further inside. “I told him to come here to find me.”

Not long after, a modified hover vehicle landed across the street. Wei Feng and Hu Jiang walked into the shopfront with grim expressions.

Both men possessed large, imposing statures, and coupled with their intimidating auras, they looked like criminals coming to forcefully collect rent.

A group of refugees, whose mental states were already shattered, trembled in fear.

Seeing this, Qin Le, along with Qian Can and Jiang Hao, guided them toward the inner room to relocate.

Wei Feng looked at Li Xiao, stripped of the smiling face he had during their previous two encounters.

“I don’t have time to waste with you. Once our business is done, we will leave immediately. We won’t involve the innocent unless absolutely necessary.”

Song Jin sneered, “You’ve already involved us! You dared to break in driving a star-bandit ship; is your life that expendable?”

Wei Feng turned to Song Jin. “If all civilian flight routes hadn’t been locked down, I wouldn’t have taken this risk either.”

“What business requires you to rush here precisely at this time?” Li Xiao asked.

Wei Feng retrieved a video from his terminal and projected it into mid-air.

“This was received two days ago.”

Li Xiao and Song Jin looked over simultaneously.

In the footage, eight hibernation pods were arranged in a circular distribution. A time bomb was placed on a high platform at the center of the circle, and a row of red numbers flashed continuously on a virtual screen.

Calculating based on the time the video was received, the countdown had less than an hour and a half remaining.

Seeing the two of them knit their brows, Wei Feng explained, “These are all Raven members who were previously captured by them. One of them is Ah Jiang’s father.”

Beside him, Hu Jiang shifted his gaze silently, the hand hanging at his side clenching tightly.

Li Xiao glanced at him and asked Wei Feng, “Who sent it to you? Did they specify the exact location?”

“It was sent using a temporary communication number. It only said East District Four, and there was a red ‘+’ symbol. We have temporarily locked onto three targets.”

As he spoke, Wei Feng opened a map covered in markings, his speaking speed faster than usual. “A public hospital, a Jiakang private hospital, and a hibernation center. We are preparing to split up to search.”

The three locations were scattered in three different directions. To search through them one by one, the time spent on the road alone would take more than an hour and a half.

Li Xiao looked back at the video, playing it repeatedly.

Hu Jiang was burning with anxiety and couldn’t help but request instructions from Wei Feng, “Should I move out first?”

Wei Feng hesitated and didn’t agree, looking at Li Xiao instead. “Any clues?”

“Of course.” Li Xiao pressed pause and circled the right side of the screen. “This type of hibernation pod mount is a model from over thirty years ago. The private hospital you marked was established only twelve years ago; it can basically be ruled out.”

The eyes of Wei Feng and Hu Jiang flashed. They zoomed in to look closely.

Hu Jiang asked, “Isn’t that part of a set with the hibernation pod?”

Li Xiao shook his head. “It looks very similar, but the details are different.”

Wei Feng directly searched for the hibernation pod model and compared the online images with the video. Sure enough, there were subtle differences.

“Can we rule out one more target?”

Li Xiao said thoughtfully, “If we are choosing between the public hospital and the hibernation center—”

“The hibernation center, of course,” Song Jin chimed in.

Wei Feng asked, “Why?”

Song Jin replied, “Unless it’s a major disaster, patients in the hibernation center are, in principle, not relocated. If that place explodes, it will definitely make the Raven debut in the center spot.”

Hibernation centers were all constructed by the government and were more resilient than legal shelters.

The procedures for ordinary citizens to apply for hibernation were highly tedious and the requirements were very strict; they also had to pay high management fees every year.

Its significance of existence was very special, carrying everyone’s hope. If the Raven dared to strike a hibernation center, they would draw absolute hatred in a matter of minutes.

Li Xiao nodded. “Moreover, unlike a hospital where people enter and exit every day, a hibernation center offers much greater concealment.”

Wei Feng caught the underlying meaning in their words, his expression turning even colder.

“Ah Jiang, have the others go to those two hospitals. You and I will go to the hibernation center.”

Hu Jiang replied, “Alright.”

Li Xiao looked at Song Jin. Before he could speak, Song Jin raised a hand to interrupt him.

“I am going with you.” Song Jin wiped away the dust smudged on Li Xiao’s face. “This trip is too dangerous. I don’t want to just wait around anxiously.”

Li Xiao said, “You don’t need to risk yourself following me.”

Since Meng Jian could cooperate with the Qi family to set this trap, he had certainly made thorough preparations.

The bomb in the video might just be a decoy; the place might explode the moment someone was lured there. He couldn’t leave it unattended.

Song Jin pinched Li Xiao’s face. “Dare to say one more word and see what happens?”

Li Xiao: “…”

So fierce.

Time was pressing, and they had to move out immediately. However, there was still a group of refugees that needed protection, and if they ran into the military, it wouldn’t be safe for Jiang Hao and the other two either.

Li Xiao originally wanted to leave 09 behind, but he was stopped by Song Jin.

Song Jin said, “Let 07 stay here.”

09 was custom-made for Li Xiao and possessed a five-senses balancing program that 07 lacked.

Jiang Hao exchanged glances with Qin Le and Qian Can, then said to them, “Don’t worry about us. We will deliver these people safely.”

Li Xiao reminded them, “You cannot show your faces yet.”

Qian Can waved his hand. “Understood. We’ll find a way.”

Qin Le added, “Their target isn’t us. Rest assured.”

“Then take care of yourselves.” Song Jin pulled along Li Xiao, who was still hesitating, and boarded Wei Feng’s vehicle.

After watching them leave, Jiang Hao looked at Qin Le and Qian Can. “Should we move out too? Even if we can’t help, at least we can’t drag them down.”

Qian Can flexed his arms. “Let’s go scrounge up a vehicle first.”

Just as he finished speaking, a vegetable-delivery robot flew out from the back kitchen and stopped in front of them, saying in a mechanical voice, “I am 09 Sub-number. From now on, I am your captain. All of you listen to me!”

Jiang Hao and the other two: “…”

A self-appointed captain?

The hibernation center was in the southern part of East District Four, close to the border with District Five.

The further south they went, the more various mutated flying insects appeared.

To save time, Wei Feng couldn’t care less about riding comfort. A thirty-minute drive was compressed to just half that time.

Song Jin braced his body with a foot against the front seat, his tone chilly. “Old man, we can be considered to have ridden a roller coaster together. How does it feel?”

Li Xiao: “…Zero sense of user experience.”

“Stop complaining, you two.” Wei Feng made another sharp turn, avoiding a flock of birds that surged over, and stepped on the accelerator. “Once we rescue the people, I’ll treat you to a roller coaster ride and throw in a bucket of popcorn.”

Song Jin countered, “Just that?”

Wei Feng snapped, “That’s already a fortune to me. What else do you want?”

Li Xiao spoke up flatly, “Chili sauce. One ton.”

“…” Wei Feng cursed in a low voice. “Are you using it to take a bath?”

Li Xiao replied, “None of your business.”

Hu Jiang looked through the rearview mirror at the two in the back seat. “If we can truly rescue them, one ton it is.”

Song Jin chuckled, “As expected, Little Mustache is much more straightforward.”

“Ah Jiang, you could at least counter-offer!” Wei Feng grumbled as he slammed the steering wheel. “A bunch of prodigal kids, none of you sympathize with the hardships of the head of the household.”

Before the operation had even begun, he had incurred a massive debt of a ton of chili sauce. Going out today definitely required consulting an oracle.

Near the hibernation center, Li Xiao had 09 attempt to hack into the hibernation center’s intelligent control system.

09: [A portion of the system here utilizes the 384 energy architecture. If we want to avoid detection, we can hijack it for thirty minutes at most.]

Li Xiao: [Check if there is a timed self-destruct sequence first.]

09: [I have already severed twenty self-destruct sequences. This great master will absolutely not fall for the same trick twice!]

Li Xiao: “…”

Excellent.

07 and 09 were in a linked state, so Song Jin’s side also received the system data fed back by 09.

The setup here was similar to the self-destruct system on the transport vehicle; it would detonate immediately upon detecting the target.

07: [I have breached the access control of the third corridor on the west side. Please pass through within three minutes to prevent mutated insects from flying in.]

Song Jin had 07 hack into the vehicle’s onboard intelligence, displaying the prompt in front of Wei Feng.

Wei Feng swept a glance. “You guys tampered with my car?”

Song Jin replied, “Just do as it says.”

Seeing that the door to that corridor had indeed opened from a distance, Wei Feng suppressed the questions in his heart, quickly passing through the flock of birds to fly inside.

Following the sloping downward corridor to reach the underground garage, Hu Jiang was about to activate the signal jammer when he heard Li Xiao say flatly, “It’s already jammed. Bring all the weapons.”

Hu Jiang looked at Wei Feng in confusion.

Wei Feng retrieved two pairs of goggles from the storage box and tossed them to Li Xiao. “Listen to them.”

09: [Spatial structure of the hibernation center has been scanned.]

A holographic projection materialized before them, displaying the three-dimensional structure of the entire hibernation center.

Most of the rooms here were single units of a few square meters. Aside from a hibernation pod, each room contained a small wardrobe.

The room in the video was one that could accommodate eight people; only the twelfth floor featured this specification.

The four of them first took the lift to the twelfth floor. Outside the metallic doors were snow-white walls and floors, the entire space filled with a deathly silence.

With 07 and 09 controlling the system, they could easily open the door to every room.

The hibernation pods utilized here matched the video, but after splitting up to conduct a sweep, they found nothing.

Wei Feng checked the time, inevitably growing somewhat anxious. “Only forty-five minutes left.”

Li Xiao walked along the railing, quickly observing every corner of the entire space, and asked 09 using his thoughts: [You said a portion of the system utilizes the 384 energy architecture. Which part?]

The moment the words fell, a slowly rotating spatial structure appeared in Li Xiao’s vision. A lift on the southeast side was highlighted in red.

The lift went up to the third floor at most, and its location was on the inner side of the office area—a place ordinary people could not access.

Li Xiao signaled them to head to the third floor first, then rush toward that lift. Sure enough, they encountered many AI sentries standing guard halfway through.

Sweating profusely from anxiety, Hu Jiang opened the lift door and rushed inside. “Quick!”

“Wait.” Li Xiao stopped him.

Hu Jiang snapped, “What are we still waiting for?!”

Li Xiao’s gaze swept over those AI sentries. “09, bring them over.”

09: “Yes, master!”

The indicator lights of four AI sentries flashed, and they flew toward their direction holding rifles.

Hu Jiang instinctively raised his gun, only to see them obediently enter the lift, leaving him somewhat baffled.

As soon as the metallic doors closed, four surveillance feeds appeared before them, seemingly from the perspective of the AI sentries.

The lift descended to the third underground floor, and one flew out. It descended to the fourth underground floor, and another flew out.

The third underground floor appeared to be a storage layer, consisting mostly of massive warehouses.

The fourth underground floor was the control center, managing the backend of the entire hibernation center. However, it was currently completely deserted; the staff members had probably all gone to evacuate.

09: [The fifth underground floor requires permission activation—breaching now—encountering resistance from a junior system—forced access obtained—]

The lift arrived at the fifth underground floor, and the lights along the corridor ahead turned on sequentially.

Before the two AI sentries could even fly five meters out, 09’s urgent alarm suddenly rang out.

Three laser beams shot across at extreme speed, directly slicing the AI sentries into three segments.

Hu Jiang’s pupils contracted, his heart pounding violently.

At this speed, even with his reflexes, he wouldn’t be able to fully evade it.

While watching, Wei Feng made a finger-heart gesture toward Li Xiao. “This ton of chili sauce was well worth it.”

Song Jin slapped his hand away with the barrel of his gun. “Don’t just express love to my wife carelessly, you philanderer.”

Wei Feng: “…”

Approximately thirty seconds later, the voices of 07 and 09 rang out simultaneously.

“The intelligent system of the fifth underground floor has been hijacked.”

To be safe, Li Xiao had four more AI sentries go down to clear the path while they followed behind.

The metallic doors of the lift opened, and an extremely intense noise rattled Li Xiao, causing a splitting headache that left him unable to even stand firmly.

“Ugh!”

Wei Feng and Hu Jiang also suffered a direct hit, falling to their knees on the ground.

In the entire lift, only Song Jin was unaffected.

“Xiao!” Song Jin immediately moved to cover Li Xiao’s ears. “09!”

09: [Testing noise frequency band—activating directional acoustic wave interference for noise reduction—]

The noise abruptly diminished. The three of them gasped for breath, finally coming back to life.

Song Jin assisted Li Xiao while wiping the sweat off his face, scanning the corridor outside with a cold expression. “Didn’t we already hijack the intelligence here?”

09 flew in front of them, its voice sounding a bit muffled.

“We did indeed hijack it. The noise might not be controlled through the intelligent system.”

The four of them stepped out of the lift. The AI sentries had already flown far down the corridor, and the spatial structure diagram in Li Xiao’s vision expanded simultaneously.

After seeing a portion of the structure clearly, Li Xiao said flatly, “It’s an acoustic wave defense system. It relies on wind to drive it, requiring no intelligent intervention.”

Wind entered the pipes of this specialized structure, and after being altered to a specific frequency band, it was infinitely amplified.

However, this frequency band was evidently ineffective against ordinary humans. It was clear who this was defending against.

Without prior preparation, one would pass out within a minute under this noise.

Li Xiao looked at Wei Feng. “The manufacturing cost of this system is astronomical. Do those eight people possess such high value?”

After listening to Li Xiao’s explanation, the expressions of Wei Feng and Hu Jiang could no longer be described as merely unsightly.

Walking forward along the horn-shaped corridor, Wei Feng wiped the sweat from his face, his voice somewhat raspy and his tone mocking, “Because they are raw material reserves to ensure an ample supply of feed and stable blood production.”

“Raw material?” Hearing these two words applied here made Song Jin feel highly uncomfortable.

“The feed is extracted and cultured from members of the Lark Clan who possess high-quality aptitudes,” Hu Jiang said at this point, adjusting his breathing. “Many of our clansmen were captured this way. Those who met the requirements were kept alive, while the rest were tortured to death.”

Song Jin and Li Xiao exchanged a glance, a doubt surfacing.

If they were talking about high-quality aptitudes, up until now, they hadn’t discovered any member of the Lark Clan with better aptitude than Wei Feng.

Wei Feng’s DNA data had indeed appeared in the abandoned Z152 base as well. If that was the case, why wasn’t the feed they discovered now being cultured from Wei Feng’s tissue?