Imperial Capital Star.

Pei Zhenyue was overwhelmed with the matter of the commander-in-chief’s replacement.

Knock, knock, knock.

His adjutant knocked and entered, whispering a few words in his ear.

Pei Zhenyue rubbed his temples wearily, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

“Hiding people from Extreme Shadow in the base?”

The adjutant straightened up and lowered his voice. “The key members of Extreme Shadow are all there. He said he was investigating Wang Lianggong’s case and has sealed off the base and the network. We don’t know what he’s planning yet.”

“Wang Lianggong is Li Bo’s man, right?” Pei Zhenyue chuckled. “If he doesn’t use a thunderous approach to suppress them at the start, how will he be able to manage that bunch of old foxes in the future?”

The adjutant: “Li Bo couldn’t sit still. He reported him to General Zhao, and now he has been approved to go to the Cetus system with a group of people under the pretext of an investigation.”

“That old fellow Zhao Hongyi loves to watch the excitement,” Pei Zhenyue got up and walked to the window. “He knows I think highly of Jing Xi, so he’s always been trying to obstruct him and find ways to make me unhappy. Don’t I know him well?”

The adjutant took a few steps closer. “Should we get involved in this matter?”

After a moment of silence, Pei Zhenyue shook his head. “No.”

The adjutant: “But if the charge of colluding with a star pirate group is confirmed, Major General Jing’s reputation will be ruined.”

Although Jing Xi’s personal abilities are excellent, his character is too pure and he doesn’t know how to operate in the system.

Li Bo is the opposite. His family background and personal abilities are inferior to Jing Xi’s, but he has been able to thrive in the military department and completely overhaul the second-rate White Crane Legion in just a few years.

If these two were to really fight, they aren’t afraid of Jing Xi losing, but when it comes to these underhanded tricks, Li Bo is probably better.

Pei Zhenyue snorted. “If he can’t even handle this much, then I’ll have to observe him for a few more years.”

“But—”

“During this special period, those old fellows are all behaving themselves. Let’s just wait and see,” Pei Zhenyue said, with his hands behind his back. His old eyes turned sharp. “If we win this war, the problems in front of us will no longer be problems.”

Cetus N1.

Jiang Feng stood in front of the dining table, his expression stern.

“We received the same news from General Pei’s secretary’s office and our own channels, so it should be true.”

Jing Xi ate his meal, his expression unwavering.

“Got it.”

Seeing his boss’s lack of reaction, Jiang Feng became anxious. He secretly glanced at Chi Yao, who was eating at the same table, and said tactfully:

“Should we transfer the relevant personnel first?”

Jing Xi put down his chopsticks and looked at Chi Yao. “Are your people settled?”

“They’re moving into their new home,” Chi Yao said lazily.

Jing Xi: “I’ll lend you a team of people. You take that group over first.”

Chi Yao sneered, “Am I your subordinate?”

“You can choose not to go,” Jing Xi said with a wooden face. “Even if you are discovered, I can find a way to clear the Flying Dragon Legion’s name, but I can’t guarantee what will happen to Extreme Shadow.”

Chi Yao looked him in the eyes, and after a moment, he smiled and got up.

“How could I dare not obey the Major General’s order?”

Jing Xi: “Then we’ll meet at Building 10 at 1 p.m. It will be cleared in advance. I’ll personally see you off on the spaceship.”

Chi Yao patted the dog’s head and went upstairs without looking back.

Yin Wei, who was halfway through his meal, looked up at his owner, reluctantly looked at the shredded chicken in his bowl, and trotted after him.

Seeing that both the boss and Yin Wei had left, Tie Xiong picked up his bowl, jumped off his chair, and ran.

“Boss, wait for me!”

Jing Xi didn’t look away until they were out of sight.

Jiang Feng saw that Chi Yao was very unhappy, and his heart was pounding.

“Boss, will he listen?”

“Whether he listens or not, he has to leave.”

After that, Jing Xi went back to his room to change clothes and go to the office as if nothing had happened.

Under the dead angle of the surveillance cameras on the east side of the main building, a beta in a garrison uniform peeked out and glanced at Jing Xi’s back, then left quietly.

As he passed by Dormitory Building 3, he brushed past another short-haired beta soldier.

“Building 10 at 1 p.m.”

A small spaceship flew into the Cetus system.

On the spaceship, Li Bo sat in the main seat with a gloomy face, his mind in a state of chaos.

In previous years, after recruiting new soldiers, there would be two to three months of leisure time for each legion to train new recruits. But this year, he was stuck at this point. Jing Xi had taken the Cetus system from him, there were continuous accidents on the field, and now a command change.

The higher-ups had their reservations and left everything for him to handle by himself.

If he didn’t handle it well, he could become a sacrificial lamb at any time, a scapegoat.

His terminal suddenly rang. He impatiently swiped it open, and his eyes flashed.

[At 1 p.m., Extreme Shadow will leave from Dormitory Building 10 of the garrison base. Jing Xi will personally see them off.]

“How much longer until we get to N1?” Li Bo said anxiously.

Pilot: “About 5 hours at full speed.”

Li Bo looked at the time. It was 8 a.m. standard time. The timing was just right.

He had expected Jing Xi to get the news, so he had departed 6 hours earlier. Now it was a matter of who was faster.

He replied.

[Deploy personnel. Be sure to take them down.]

“Full speed ahead.”

This time, even if he couldn’t kill Jing Xi, he would make him suffer!

On the training ground, Chu Xiao finally caught Li Yuan, who had come to steal chickens.

“Brother Li, these chickens are for our boss. You really can’t steal them!” Chu Xiao stood in front of him, his face serious.

Li Yuan looked at the clucking chicken in his hand, pushed him away by the head, and sneered, “Am I stealing? I’m clearly robbing.”

Chu Xiao staggered two steps, then chased after him. “Robbing isn’t allowed either! Minister Lu will deduct my salary!”

Li Yuan walked very fast. “Your salary being deducted is none of my business.”

Chu Xiao stepped on the railing and jumped in front of him. “My mom is sick and can’t take care of herself. She’s counting on my salary to pay for her medical care.”

Li Yuan walked around him. “Then you should have joined Extreme Shadow, not come here to be a small soldier. How much salary can you get?”

“My salary will be higher when I get promoted!” Chu Xiao blocked him again, his eyes sparkling. “How about this, you teach me how to snipe, and I’ll treat you to a chicken?”

Li Yuan: “…”

This silly boy is very good at calculating.

“I teach you a skill, and then you come and catch me? That sounds very logical.”

Chu Xiao nodded, as if it was a given. “Yeah, otherwise how can I beat you? How can I get promoted?”

Li Yuan pressed his hand against his face and pushed him aside. “Get lost!”

The two of them were tangled up to Building 3 when they suddenly heard an alarm from the voice-activated system.

[All personnel at the base, please be aware that an emergency evacuation drill will be activated in five minutes. Everyone, please assemble at Hangar 1. Those who are late will have their evaluation scores deducted.]

“Holy crap,” Chu Xiao cursed softly. He looked left and right, then at his empty hands. He suddenly didn’t know which way to go.

He jumped onto the corridor railing and turned to look at Li Yuan.

“Brother Li, you wait for me. I will definitely put you in jail!”

Li Yuan was so angry that his teeth were itching. He wished he could punch his butt into a sieve.

Chu Xiao laughed. “If you’re afraid of being lonely after you get out of jail, you can come find me. My hometown has many cheap nursing homes. It’s perfect for lonely old people like you. I can pay for half of it.”

Li Yuan was so angry his mind was about to explode.

He kicked his boot at him. “To hell with lonely old people. I’ll get married this year. Do I need a poor kid like you to support me?!”

Before he could kick him, Chu Xiao had already jumped out of the corridor and ran towards Hangar 1 at a sprint.

As he ran, he looked back and shouted, “Brother Li, you have to stay for a few more days.”

“So annoying,” Li Yuan spat. “I’ll run away in a minute.”

After a few alarms, everyone at the garrison base rushed to Hangar 1.

In a dormitory on the fifth floor of the main building, Xu Zhou looked at the information on his terminal, a slight smile on his lips.

An urgent knock came. He deleted the message, pulled at his collar, and went to open the door.

“Old Xu, I knew you were still here. Let’s go!” The middle-aged beta ran outside, muttering to himself, “Why did they start a drill all of a sudden?”

Xu Zhou held his stomach and gasped. “Old Jiang, you go first. My body—hiss, I’m not feeling well.”

Old Jiang frowned. “Your body still hasn’t recovered? Are you pregnant?”

Xu Zhou: “…”

You’re the one who’s pregnant.

“Appendicitis,” Xu Zhou said, biting his back teeth and smiling apologetically. “You go first. I’ll report it myself.”

Old Jiang: “Then I’m not waiting for you.”

After the person left, Xu Zhou straightened up, closed the door expressionlessly, and walked to the other end of the corridor.

At Hangar 1, all personnel were arranged in formation.

Five minutes passed quickly.

Jiang Feng stood on the high platform, waiting for the people below to count the numbers.

Some people arrived late, and they had to stand like candles outside the line, waiting for their punishment.

The short-haired beta secretly glanced at the high platform. Seeing that there was only Jiang Feng, he nonchalantly looked away.

This is what they call “clearing the field”?

They used the pretext of an emergency evacuation drill to lure everyone away, then secretly sent Extreme Shadow and the group of people from Building 10 away.

“This temporary drill was completed very well by the majority of the people,” Jiang Feng’s eyes swept over Xu Zhou, who had just arrived. His voice was amplified through the voice-activated system. “Now, please board the spaceship and wait for the next instruction. Those who are late will have to run 50 laps around the garrison base.”

Xu Zhou: “…”

After boarding the spaceship, the garrison soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and began to discuss animatedly.

“Even temporary drills would have a general time announced in advance. This one was too scary.”

“It’s easy to lose evaluation points, but it’s too difficult to get them back.”

“The Flying Dragon Legion thinks too highly of us. How can we compare to the soldiers in their real legions!”

“The new official has three new policies. Don’t they need to hold a few drills to show that they’re working?”

The garrison soldiers sat lazily in the lounge, chatting and laughing, not taking it seriously.

Everyone was sent to the garrison branches on various planets according to the pre-arranged plan, and then they would participate in a joint drill with the garrison soldiers of the branches.

A drill like this could mobilize most of the garrison forces in the Cetus system, and it could also help the Flying Dragon Legion understand the overall situation of the Cetus garrison. Most importantly, it would show the higher-ups that the Flying Dragon Legion was working.

In short, it was all for show.

At 1 p.m., a small spaceship rose from Hangar 1 and landed in front of Building 10.

The entire staircase and corridor were almost completely covered.

In Building 7, diagonally opposite, the short-haired beta was lying on the roof with a sniper rifle. Through the scope, he saw the people from the various rooms in Building 10 come out one after another and all board the spaceship.

A moment later, Jing Xi appeared in the corridor next to Building 10, with no one by his side.

He seemed to be on a call with someone.

The short-haired beta turned on the miniature microphones stuck everywhere in the corridor. Jing Xi’s voice came through intermittently.

Because they were afraid of being detected, the microphones were very simple devices, and the sound quality was poor.

“I’m already here… What’s the rush? I promised I’d see you off…”

It seems I was right.

The short-haired beta turned off the microphone and aimed the gun at Jing Xi’s head.

As long as he confirmed that Extreme Shadow was present, this assassination could be entirely blamed on Extreme Shadow.

Just as Jing Xi was about to be obscured by the spaceship, the short-haired beta pulled the trigger.

Whoosh!

The bullet flew towards Jing Xi’s temple.

Bang!

At the same time, Jing Xi took a half-step back. The bullet grazed his hair and hit the metal door.

The short-haired beta’s heart sank. He was about to aim again, but he saw Jing Xi looking directly at him. Magnified through the scope, those sharp eyes locked onto him from hundreds of meters away.

The beta panicked. His heart raced. He put away his gun and ran.

Bang!

“Ugh—!”

The short-haired beta’s arm hurt. The sniper rifle fell to the ground.

Lu Meng came in, fully armed, and lifted him up like a small chicken. He threw a punch.

“You dare to assassinate my boss with your measly strength?”

Just as Jing Xi looked over, bullets from several other directions flew towards him simultaneously.

He calmly took a step back and turned his body to the side, perfectly dodging all the bullets. He drew the gun from his waist, aimed at the fifth floor of Building 9 to his left, and fired a shot.

The assassin who was crouching there was about to put away his gun and run away when he was hit in the shoulder by a shot and was picked up by the Flying Dragon soldiers who rushed in.

Outside the clouds, Li Bo watched the time tick closer to 1 p.m., so anxious that he couldn’t sit still.

“No news yet?!”

“What’s the rush?” Zhan Wanhua adjusted his glasses. “No matter how anxious you are, it’s no use.”

The alpha military officer speaking had a small ponytail and a handsome face. His face was filled with impatience at the moment.

“You just don’t get it,” Li Bo said, clenching his back teeth. “As long as Jing Xi is around, I can’t sleep in peace!”

The time on the virtual screen passed 1 p.m., and his terminal suddenly rang.

Li Bo’s heart jumped. He excitedly swiped it open.

[Xu Zhou: Those idiots were too impatient. The operation failed.]

“Damn it!” Li Bo punched the armrest and shouted at the pilot, “Land!”

After that, he looked at the others. “Adjust the surveillance footage. Don’t miss a single frame!”

Being yelled at like this, Zhan Wanhua frowned, and held back his temper to get to work.

[All assassins have been captured.]

Hearing Xiao Hong’s voice in his mind, Jing Xi calmly responded and continued walking toward Building 10.

A low-frequency roar suddenly came from the sky. A moment later, a small spaceship landed on the training ground in front of Building 10.

Jing Xi stood in front of the stairs, watching Li Bo, three military officers, and a group of fully armed soldiers walk over.

Li Bo strode over, his eyes scanning the parked spaceship. His voice was cold. “Who are you sending away, Jing Xi?”

Jing Xi was a little taller than him. He had to lower his eyes slightly to meet his gaze.

“Major General Li? Did you get my permission to break into my garrison?”

Li Bo showed the approval document signed by General Zhao. “General Zhao personally instructed me to come and investigate.”

Jing Xi didn’t even look at it. “He approved you to enter the Cetus system, but that’s not a reason for you to break into the garrison base.”

Li Bo didn’t want to play tai chi with him. He gestured for his men to surround the spaceship.

“The higher-ups heard that you’re colluding with Extreme Shadow and hijacking the garrison base. Are you trying to rebel?!”

Jing Xi looked at him with cold eyes. “You must still be dreaming.”

“Jing Xi! Don’t play dumb with me!”

What Li Bo hated most was his unchangeable poker face, and the look in his eyes that always carried an indescribable contempt.

Jing Xi said calmly, “I know you’re upset about losing the Cetus system to me, but fabricating facts and trespassing on the garrison headquarters with firearms, I won’t just let this go.”

He still dared to be so unyielding even when the matter was at hand.

Li Bo sneered, “I hope you can still be this unyielding later.”

He made a gesture for them to act. “Search them!”

The armed soldiers rushed onto the spaceship. A moment later, they escorted over a hundred people down.

“You’re hiding people from a star pirate group in the garrison base. How do you explain this?!” Li Bo pointed at them, a triumphant smile on his face. “Don’t tell me you invited them over for tea.”

“Star pirate group?” Jing Xi’s voice was very cold. “I didn’t know when the Flying Dragon Legion became a star pirate group.”

Li Bo’s brows furrowed. He turned his head to look.

Just then, someone in the crowd saluted Jing Xi. “Sir, is this part of the drill? Are we supposed to act as a star pirate group and be captured, or can we fight back? Please give us instructions!”

“How is this possible—!” Li Bo’s eyes widened. He looked at them one by one.

They were all members of the Flying Dragon Legion!

“Is there anyone else on the spaceship?!”

He shouted at his subordinates.

The armed soldier’s captain said respectfully, “Everyone is here.”

Li Bo gritted his teeth. “Search this dormitory building!”

The soldiers rushed in and came back out quickly.

“Report, there’s no one here!”

“That’s impossible.” Li Bo muttered to himself, his eyes glaring fiercely at Jing Xi. “Search all the dormitory buildings—”

“Have you had enough?” Jing Xi’s face turned cold. “I’ve tolerated you until now out of respect for you as a senior. Respect is mutual. Please leave immediately.”

Li Bo: “I have the approval document. Do you dare to stop me?!”

Jing Xi: “You can investigate, but please follow the proper procedure first.”

The more Jing Xi acted this way, the more Li Bo couldn’t stand it.

“Search them!”

“Then don’t blame me for not being polite.”

Jing Xi waved his hand lightly. The members of the Flying Dragon Legion who were being held immediately took action.

In just a few seconds, Li Bo’s men were all subdued.

Li Bo: “You dare to arrest the investigation team?! You—”

“Arrest these few as well,” Jing Xi said, raising his chin at Li Bo and the others. “Trespassing on the garrison base with firearms, three days in detention.”

Li Bo’s skills were not bad, but he couldn’t handle the sheer number of Flying Dragon Legion members. He was immediately pinned to the ground.

“Jing Xi! You dare to arrest me?!”

Jing Xi: “Send him to the dungeon.”

Soon after the people were taken away, Lu Meng came back excitedly.

“That was a satisfying job!”

Jing Xi’s expression was calm. He asked in a low voice, “Were they sent out?”

Lu Meng: “They’re gone.”

Jing Xi’s eyes flashed. “Good.”

Three days later, in front of all the garrison soldiers, Li Bo was released. The detailed information was also posted on the public notice board.

He was covered in a sour smell and looked extremely pathetic.

He was planning to use this incident to pressure Zhao Hongyi to put more pressure on Jing Xi.

But as soon as the spaceship flew out of the Cetus system and completed its first jump, it was surrounded by two black warships.

“Sir, we showed them our military signal, but they won’t let us pass!” the pilot said anxiously.

Li Bo walked to the surveillance screen and slapped his hands on the console. “Are you blind? You dare to intercept a military spaceship?!”

At this moment, another pilot pointed at a sudden red pop-up window on the virtual screen, his chin trembling in fear. “S-Sir, it’s Extreme Shadow!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Chi Yao’s lazy voice sounded on the spaceship.

“If you don’t want to die, take off your clothes and stand against the wall. One-minute countdown. Ten… nine…”