"What happened?" Qi Ze placed the two freshly washed dolls side by side on the sofa.
Ming Rui's mouth turned down, and she sobbed, "They're dead, everyone at the research institute is dead, there's so much blood..."
As she recounted the events in her halting manner, Qi Ze began to piece together what had transpired. He mulled over her words for a moment before confirming, "You're saying your uncle didn't intend to seize your abilities, but rather planned to transfer your brainwaves to an intelligent program he developed himself?"
This technique bore a striking resemblance to the "Spirit Sacrifice" commonly practiced by Artificers. An intelligent program was, ultimately, just a string of data, incapable of generating true consciousness. To bring it to life, Zhao Chenggong set his sights on his niece. He attempted to deprive her of her brainwaves and transfer them to the intelligent program, endowing it with a spirit, even a soul. If he had succeeded, Ming Rui would have been eternally confined to the virtual world.
Such a cruel method, it was the cruelest of Spirit Sacrifices, known as the Living Soul Sacrifice. Fortunately, Xiaohei could sense the ill intentions emanating from others. When Ming Rui was strapped to the operating table, it suddenly went berserk, entangling Zhao Chenggong and the others with its hair, then devouring their brains and souls. Xiaohei was, after all, a malevolent being, and once it started killing, it couldn't stop. The twenty-eight scientists at the research institute, including Zhao Chenggong and his wife, all became its sustenance.
While Qi Ze was still processing the truth of the situation, the now round-bellied Xiaohei struggled to sit up halfway, leaning back against the chair to let out a belch. Its blood-stained mouth suddenly opened wide, revealing three layers of sharp teeth, with shreds of flesh and brain matter hanging between them, a terrifying sight.
Ouyang Ye was frightened to the point of paleness, but Ming Rui hugged Xiaohei tightly, choking out, "Xiaohei saved me. Big Brother Qi Ze, please help Xiaohei, don't let the police uncles find out about this."
"I'll have someone take care of the aftermath." Qi Ze immediately contacted Li Ziqian, ending with words of comfort, "Don't worry, I've embedded a concealment array inside Xiaohei. Once it enters attack mode, no one, including cameras, can detect its presence. Even if the police arrived first, they would only witness what appears to be a paranormal event."
"That's good, thank you, Big Brother Qi Ze." Ming Rui didn't find Xiaohei scary in the least, instead hugging it tighter, declaring firmly, "I can't lose Xiaohei!" It was Xiaohei that had accompanied her through her darkest and most helpless moments, and it was Xiaohei that had rescued her from the brink of disaster. It was her best friend.
"What do you plan to do now that your uncle and aunt are dead?" It wasn't Qi Ze's style to meddle in others' affairs, but faced with an innocent child, he couldn't help but ask.
"I want to return to Yage Star, with Xiaohei by my side, I'm not afraid of anything." After this experience, Ming Rui had matured greatly, becoming even more resilient. She looked at Ouyang Ye, seeming to want to say something but hesitating.
"You go out, I have a few words to say to Ming Rui." Qi Ze waved at the Young Master Ouyang.
"What could you possibly have to say to a four-year-old child?" Ouyang Ye was somewhat dissatisfied. Seeing Xiaohei turn its head to stare directly at him, he hastily scurried back to the bedroom.
"What do you want to say?" Qi Ze raised his chin. "I can tell that you only told half of your story earlier, the other half you didn't dare to speak. What are you afraid of? Afraid that I'll betray you? I suggest you keep quiet then."
"No, no, it's not like that." Ming Rui hurriedly shook her head, urging, "Brother, could you please turn on the shielding device first?" She didn't distrust Qi Ze, but she didn't trust the omnipresent network either.
"Ever since you entered the door, a barrier has been set up here. I don't have the time to explain what a barrier is, but you can rest assured that you can speak freely." Qi Ze spoke slowly.
Ming Rui, being a superbrain ability user, immediately understood, "A barrier is a type of domain, similar to a spatial ability user's personal space? Then I'm relieved. Actually, my uncle's true purpose wasn't to improve the intelligent program, he deceived my aunt and the scientists! He wanted to seize my abilities, but not for himself, for a ghost, a ghost that lives in the virtual world!"
Qi Ze's nonchalant expression completely dissipated as he asked seriously, "Why do you say that?"
"Uncle bound me and then had me wear a mental interface device, trying to introduce my brainwaves into the network. At that time, Xiaohei hadn't come to save me yet; it had been thrown into the trash can and took a long time to find me on the right floor..."
"Get to the point." Qi Ze interrupted her.
Ming Rui hugged Xiaohei tightly, struggling to find concise and effective words, "Before Xiaohei saved me, my brainwaves were introduced into a virtual space. There, I saw a blurry human figure who tried to devour my soul, and he almost succeeded. He reached into my brain, attempting to suck away my abilities, but at the same time, some of his memories were captured by me through the mental connection. He, his memories were full of code, data, research institutes, mechs, many, many mechs, even including six superpowered mechs. He must have been a mech constructor, and he's been alive in the network for several hundred, possibly even a thousand years!"
"How do you know he's been alive in the network for almost a thousand years?" Qi Ze held his breath.
"The computer language of each era is different, I can tell. When he was alive, he used the bittom language, which is an outdated computer language. His memories were full of work scenes, and I'm a superbrain ability user, so I'm extremely familiar with these high-precision technologies. Determining their age isn't difficult. He definitely lived 600 to 1000 years ago, in the same era as Mu Feixing!" Ming Rui nodded emphatically.
Qi Ze slowly massaged his temples, speaking softly after nearly five minutes of silence, "Living in the same era as Mu Feixing? Why didn't you just tell me that he is Mu Feixing? To survive in the network for hundreds of years, his mental strength, or spirit power, must have been immensely powerful. And in that era, who could have accomplished that except for Mu Feixing?"
Ming Rui lowered her head, rubbing Xiaohei's belly as she choked out, "But Master Mu Feixing is my idol, apart from you, he's the person I admire the most."
"Thank you for ranking me above him." Qi Ze spoke absentmindedly.
"Big Brother Qi Ze, is he Master Mu Feixing? Why does he want my abilities?" Ming Rui was terrified.
Qi Ze didn't speak, but his mind was racing: the cable imprinted with divine consciousness, Mu Ran's sudden surge in mental strength, Yan Junyu's accident on Neptune, the Neptune crash, the Tianzhu's explosion, Li Ziqian's lost abilities... originally unrelated fragments of memory now connected with the emergence of the network ghost, and the truth was almost revealed.
"Body Snatching!" He slowly uttered these two words, his face turning ashen. In the Black Eye Galaxy, where cultivation and Daoist traditions had vanished, there was someone who, after deathâno, perhaps even before deathâhad devised a way to resurrect himself. He injected his mental strength into the intelligent system of a super-powered mech, awakening with the explosion of the Tianzhu, and then somehow escaped to the interstellar network, gathering intelligence and selecting prey in preparation for his own resurrection.
He was an opportunist in life, unrepentant in death, and this ambition had swollen to its utmost extreme. He not only wanted to be the smartest person in the world, but also the most powerful person. Mental strength and abilities were both necessary. Thus, he first targeted Li Ziqian and Yan Junyu, then Ming Rui, and he attempted to steal their abilities by killing them. In the case of Li Ziqian, he managed to escape from the mech's program; with Yan Junyu, he acquired part of the soul's strength; and if not for Xiaohei's presence with Ming Rui, his power would have continued to grow, and his already incredibly intelligent mind might have become even more terrifying.
When he completed all the steps and truly came back to life, he would have the entire world at his feet. This was no exaggeration, but rather a reflection of reality. At least, before and after his death, the Empire was always just his plaything. Without inheritance or cultivation methods, this person had managed to achieve such a feat, a genius! An undisputed genius!
If it weren't for the fact that this matter concerned the safety of himself and his friends, Qi Ze might have applauded.
Ming Rui sensed something ominous and trembled as she asked, "What is Body Snatching?"
"Body Snatching is borrowing a corpse to reincarnate." Qi Ze decided, "I'm sending you away immediately. Not back to Yage Star, to another star domain."
"Why?" Ming Rui ran to the boy's side, tightly grabbing one of his pant legs. Xiaohei lay on her head, looking utterly confused.
"The Empire will be in chaos." Qi Ze didn't provide further explanation, immediately instructing Ouyang Ye to arrange a shuttle and notifying Li Yu to immediately transfer all assets.
"Why? What's happening?" Ouyang Ye was utterly bewildered.
"I'll explain later. After sending Ming Rui away, return to Neptune and help Li Yu move. If the procedures take too long, you can smuggle your way out, but leave this trouble spot as soon as possible." Qi Ze sternly advised.
The once glorious Empire had, in the end, only been a toy in someone's palm, even though that person had been dead for nearly a millennium. His influence had seeped into the nation's essential structures, and removing those structures would uproot the Empire itself.
Qi Ze was a guest from another world, and he had little sentiment for the Empire, so he didn't care about its survival. But now, he had every reason to suspect that he himself had become one of someone's targets.
"Yan Junyu must be in trouble! There's a problem with the Kaiyang. No, all the superpowered mechs are problematic." He opened the video he had received earlier, watching it repeatedly, and finally laughed bitterly, "So pale, no wonder he used camouflage to hide it! He's still alive, but what about his abilities?"
He could imagine the heart-stopping struggle Yan Junyu had experienced during that performance that had left everyone in awe. What was his current situation? Thinking about this, Qi Ze couldn't wait a moment longer. He immediately summoned a flying car and headed to the Yan residence.
Old Master Yan stood by the window with a hunched back, no longer exuding the vigor of his past. Qi Ze followed Yan Zhongkui into the study and took a seat on the sofa. The usually brightly lit Yan family mansion now only had four or five lights on, and the wind whistled through the gaps in the windows, making a faint sound. It wasn't loud, but it emphasized the vast emptiness of the estate.
"Yan Junyu is in trouble?" Qi Ze asked, half guessing and half certain, "He's lost his abilities?"
"How did you know?" Old Master Yan's cloudy eyes suddenly sharpened.
"Don't worry about how I know. I don't have the time to explain everything to you. Just tell me if he's really in trouble and where he is now." Qi Ze's attitude was firm.
Old Master Yan looked at Yan Zhongkui, seeing the other's nod before he wearily said, "He's missing, and whether he's alive or dead is unknown."
"Where did he go missing? Why?" Qi Ze clenched his teeth.
"This all started from the day of the military exercise," Old Master Yan sat down across from the boy and began to speak slowly, "None of us expected that Mu Ran left a thread of mental strength inside the Kaiyang. It attacked Junyu, causing him to plummet from the sky. But Junyu, in order to protect the safety of the spectators, knowing that the control system was faulty, still connected his mental strength and promptly lifted the mech, salvaging the situation. In those short ten seconds, his mental strength and abilities were completely shattered. If not for the jade pendant with defensive functions that you gave him, he would have been dead long ago. After he called you, he fell into a coma. Three days later, when he woke up, everything was gone, his mental strength and abilities, all vanished..."
At this point, the old man couldn't help but turn red-eyed, looking up to silently swallow his grief.
Yan Zhongkui took out a broken jade pendant from his pocket, speaking solemnly, "Thank you for saving Junyu."
Qi Ze waved his hand, urgently asking, "What happened after that? Where did he go?"
"Our Yan family has always been oppressed by the Mu family, so we had long planned an escape route, securing a few planets through the pirate consortium as secret bases. Realizing that the Empire's six superpowered mechs could all have been tampered with by Mu Ran, we had no choice but to relocate the foundation of the Yan family. He accepted this mission and, during the escort of the ships, was ambushed by pirates and since then lost contact. This happened half a month ago." Old Master Yan waved his hand in frustration.
"But I received an email from him today!" Qi Ze struggled to suppress the unease in his heart.
"That was me who sent it." Yan Zhongkui spoke slowly. "When Junyu left, he seemed to have a premonition, so he left this video. He also instructed me to make sure you leave the Empire, as far away as possible."
"I don't need you to send me away. Tell me where he lost contact, I'll go find him." Qi Ze stood up, ready to receive coordinates. He and Yan Junyu could never settle their debts; they only became more tangled. You repay my kindness, I repay yours, and in the end, their destinies became utterly intertwined.
Hearing that Yan Junyu had vanished without a trace, his life uncertain, Qi Ze couldn't think of anything else, only three wordsâFind him!
"We've already sent people to look for him, but you don't understand the situation in the Empire right now..." Old Master Yan tried to dissuade him with heartfelt advice, but Qi Ze impatiently interrupted, "You search your way, I'll search mine. I saved him once and twice, so I can save him a third and fourth time. His life is mine. I understand the situation in the Empire more clearly than you do. The six superpowered mechs have indeed been tampered with, but not by Mu Ran, by Mu Feixing..."
He roughly outlined his conjectures, leaving Old Master Yan and Yan Zhongkui shocked and speechless for a long while.
Sealing mental strength inside a mech, breaking out of the mech to escape, then devouring another's soul, seizing another's body, and returning to the world. How deep the machinations, how terrifying the ability! No wonder after Mu Feixing's death, the Mu family had generation after generation married their most capable direct daughters into the Li family; this was to maintain control over the Tianzhu so they could awaken their ancestor at any time. No wonder Mu Ran's mental strength had undergone mutation; there was a mastermind behind the scenes.
Each family would select their most outstanding descendants to pilot the superpowered mechs. If Mu Feixing devoured their abilities and souls one by one, he would become a six-ability user upon his final resurrection. No, he had already devoured Junyu's dual abilities in lightning and fire; that would make seven, plus the invincible superbrain... this ambition was too great!
Old Master Yan had never encountered such a vicious character, his scalp tingling in waves. Yan Zhongkui trembled, "So, the Empire is just a toy in Mu Feixing's hands. If he wants to, he could immediately control the six superpowered mechs, make them rebel, and even destroy the Empire?"
The status of superpowered mechs was akin to that of nuclear bombs thousands of years ago, more for intimidation than actual use, unless a new Zerg queen was born. However, now, these "nuclear bombs" would explode within the Empire, the consequences catastrophic.
"I'll send messages to the other marshals immediately, inviting them to a secret meeting." This was a schedule Old Master Yan had arranged long ago. Even if Qi Ze hadn't come to inform him of the truth, he wouldn't have left the Empire unattended. Moving the Sixth Legion to the periphery was precisely to preserve fighting forces, so they wouldn't be swept away by Mu Feixing.
The messages marked with the highest alert level were sent out, and the heads of the various families began to reply, ultimately deciding on a secret meeting the next morning at nine. The location was randomly chosen, and it might be set at the Lower Parliament before departure, but changed to the Upper Parliament upon arrival. The Imperial Family, who dealt closely with Mu Ran, was excluded by Old Master Yan.
Upon receiving news about Yan Junyu, Qi Ze immediately took his leave. He had already left the study when he suddenly thought of something and turned back, speaking indifferently, "Tomorrow, I'll accompany you to the meeting. You should be mentally prepared, not everyone can accept the truth."
"We understand that, so we won't reveal the full truth," Yan Zhongkui thought for a moment and instructed, "Stay at home tomorrow. After our meeting, we'll leave the Imperial Star together with you. This might be Junyu's last wish, don't make it difficult for us."
"Bullshit." Qi Ze, who had remained calm, suddenly changed his expression, gritting his teeth, "With me here, Yan Junyu won't die. Stop talking about his last wishes. Take care of yourselves!" He then strode away.
"This child is stubborn but has a soft heart, he's a good child! Unfortunately, Junyu's luck wasn't good..." Old Master Yan turned away, secretly wiping away the tears at the corner of his eye. With no news for half a month, and in such an extremely dangerous place as the asteroid belt, the chances of his grandson's survival were too slim. They themselves didn't dare to think it, how could they be willing to delay others? Tomorrow, they would have to bind Qi Ze and take him to the outer star domains.
Qi Ze's mood took a long time to settle. Upon returning to his dormitory, he encountered Mo Tianlei, warning him to leave the Empire quickly before he dove into his portable space and began selecting various protective tools. Fortunately, he was diligent in his cultivation, and once he obtained good materials, he would refine them into spirit tools. Just mini mechs alone, he had made over thirty, plus spirit robes, puppets, spirit weapons, and so on. He had more than enough for his own use, and it would be no problem to equip an entire army.
After packing everything up, he sat in meditation all night. The next day, Qi Ze met up with Li Ziqian at the school gate. As allies, the Li family naturally stood together with Master Qi.
"Why are you here?" Seeing Qi Ze entering the conference hall alongside Young Marshal Li, Old Master Yan was both pleased and worried.
"I'm Young Marshal Li's advisor, responsible for answering all technical questions." Qi Ze took the lead in sitting down, sweeping his gaze over the heads of the families. Li Ziqian nodded to the attendees one by one before smiling and sitting down.
"Can you walk now?" The other five heads of families were clearly more concerned about Young Marshal Li's freely moving body.
"Thanks to Master Qi's assistance, I'm currently recovered, so I'm representing my father at this meeting." Li Ziqian simply explained. Of course, the reality was that the Li family was also undergoing emergency evacuation procedures, which had to be personally overseen by the head of the family. Due to the influence of the old patriarch still lingering, the number of people left behind wouldn't be many, but they would be the elite direct descendants, which was sufficient.
"Master Qi's skills are indeed remarkable." Chief Du praised with a smile, followed by agreement from the others.
After brief pleasantries, Old Master Yan immediately got to the point, "The reason I've gathered everyone here today is to tell you that Mu Feixing left a backdoor in the control programs of all the superpowered mechs. Mu family descendants who possess the backdoor's secret key can take over control of the mechs at any time. Our Yan family almost fell for it, causing a disaster at the military exercise, but fortunately, Junyu took timely measures to salvage the situation. This is Kaiyang, its mental control system has already been removed. You can go in and check if you don't believe me; I wouldn't joke about the foundation of the Yan family."
Old Master Yan indicated that everyone should find a wider space to inspect the mech. Compared to the mystical concepts of borrowing a corpse to reincarnate or reviving from death, leaving a backdoor in the operation program was an easier theory to accept. Only by believing it would they agree to dismantle the control systems of all superpowered mechs and then modify them. This would cause the Empire to fall into a state of internal weakness in the short term, but it was better than having its lifeline in the hands of a ghost. After hundreds of years, Mu Feixing was wandering in the network; who knew if he was already insane. One couldn't predict the intentions of a madman.
All the heads of families wore expressions of shock and suspicion, looking at each other, none willing to move. They clearly couldn't accept this reality.
"Perfect timing, I also brought Tianzhu, you can check that too. Back then, Tianzhu suddenly self-destructed, almost killing me, but unfortunately, I didn't have the same broad-mindedness as Old Marshal Yan to make this public." Li Ziqian also took out an Interspatial Button, placing it lightly on the table.
With both the Yan and Li families stepping forward, the severity of the situation was evident. The heads of the other families no longer hesitated, immediately having someone clear out a warehouse for inspection.
Qi Ze didn't care about these people's reactions. He was never a citizen of the Empire and didn't have much sentiment for this nation. Whether it perished or persisted, it was the arrangement of fate. He was only worried that Old Master Yan and Yan Zhongkui wouldn't be able to leave the conference room safely. They were, after all, Yan Junyu's family, and he couldn't just stand by and watch.