Chapter 78

Huang Peilan’s eyes sparkled.

Until now, she hadn’t fully confirmed Ji Fu’s identity.

In their few interactions, apart from the miraculous medicine Ji Fu made that cured Huang Yuwen’s defective talent, she knew little about Ji Fu.

But… after recent events, Huang Peilan visited the asteroid where Ji Fu once researched medicine.

Thinking back, Ji Fu’s stay coincided with the Li family’s incident.

During that time, an assistant mysteriously appeared by her side.

Throughout the medicine preparation and treatment, Huang Peilan hadn’t seen this assistant clearly.

She asked those who had delivered materials to Ji Fu about the assistant’s characteristics.

The information was limited. The delivery people said they never saw the assistant’s full face, only knowing she was a young woman with a pleasant voice.

Huang Peilan, preoccupied with Huang Yuwen’s condition, hadn’t thought much of it. Now, she realized that the assistant, who never showed her true face, was likely Qin Chu Yue.

Years ago, Qin Chu Yue had suffered a setback at Huang Peilan’s hands when infiltrating the Huang family. Of the Yun Pool trio, Huang Peilan was most familiar with Qin Chu Yue.

Qin Chu Yue, always protecting her identity, was likely avoiding recognition by her.

During the Nebula Summit, the Huang family lost many materials. If memory serves, that happened after Qin Chuyue escaped from prison.

Huang Peilan connected all these incidents and was able to determine that Ji Fu had ties to the Slaughterhouse.

In the joint exam, Ji Fu’s performance in mechanics and mechas evoked a strangely familiar feeling, repeatedly reminding Huang Peilan of Yun Chi.

However, Huang Peilan couldn’t definitively say if the person before her was Yun Chi.

She could only say it was similar, but until everything was clear, she couldn’t jump to conclusions.

Ji Fu paused, looked up at her, and said, “I heard that the head of the Huang family sent her brother to Tianji Star.”

Tianji Star has a poor living environment, traditionally a place of exile for second-class citizens. As the current head’s brother, Huang Yuanfan shouldn’t be sent to such a place.

Yet, he was sent away, with the Huang family publicly claiming he was on a work assignment.

Whether it was truly work or because Huang Yuanfan had done something, only Huang Peilan knew.

Huang Peilan paused, then met Ji Fu’s gaze with an open expression: “Not just him.”

“The Huang family dealt with a group of people.”

Involved in internal family disputes, she didn’t elaborate, only saying, “This matter, I have to thank you for.”

If it weren’t for Ji Fu’s reminder, she wouldn’t have realized that the person intent on harming her child was her own brother.

Huang Peilan, having been the head of the family for many years, wasn’t easily deceived.

She was blinded because their parents died early, and she had raised Huang Yuanfan herself, valuing her close family deeply and not wanting to think ill of the child she had brought up.

However, the incident with Huang Yuwen crossed her bottom line.

Out of familial affection, she didn’t go to extremes.

“So,” Huang Peilan looked up seriously, “the Huang family’s stance aligns with yours.”

Ji Fu, hearing this, remained noncommittal.

Given Huang Peilan’s attitude and the Huang family’s situation, Huang Peilan likely wasn’t lying.

There were no records of dealings with the Huang family in Shen Qinglan’s light brain either.

It seemed the Huang family truly wasn’t involved.

But Huang Peilan’s current decision was fundamentally to protect the Huang family.

The Huang family had been excluded from the matter of extracting talents. If the Slaughterhouse also didn’t involve the Huang family, then they would be completely excluded.

They would gain nothing and still couldn’t avoid getting caught up in the conflict.

Given the Huang family’s current strength, Huang Peilan knew they didn’t have the ability to remain neutral; choosing a side was the best option.

However, Huang Peilan had great ambitions, and choosing the Slaughterhouse was a big gamble.

Ji Fu said calmly, “The stance isn’t important.”

Forming alliances with aristocratic families wasn’t her concern.

But it didn’t conflict with her purpose today.

Despite their corruption, aristocratic families still bore significant responsibilities of the era, such as military legions defending against beast tides, foundational scientific and technological construction, and maintaining overall balance and security.

These tasks couldn’t be accomplished by Ji Fu and her two companions alone.

However, any conflict they initiated would inevitably have an impact.

Until fundamental changes occurred, someone needed to shoulder these responsibilities.

This was the core reason Ji Fu always sided with the Interstellar Academy during the joint exam.

She wanted the aristocratic families to pay the price, not to destroy the entire world.

Ordinary citizens living in the interstellar era hadn’t done anything wrong, and her mind wasn’t twisted despite continuous persecution.

In fact, Huang Peilan wasn’t the first to bring this up.

Shortly after the auction ended and chaos erupted, Wan Feng had already approached her.

Not long after escaping from the highest security prison, she encountered the Wan siblings, Wan Feng and Wan Die. Wan Feng was perceptive, and it wasn’t surprising he had suspicions.

Ji Fu’s response was consistent.

“What the Huang family needs to do now is fulfill the responsibilities of an aristocratic family.”

Huang Peilan was slightly stunned. She had considered that Ji Fu might refute her assumptions and reject the alliance proposal, or that she might agree, given the Slaughterhouse’s current weak position.

But she hadn’t expected Ji Fu to respond this way.

She remained silent for a long time before saying, “I know the Slaughterhouse has its considerations, but rather than standing by, now is the time to form more alliances.”

Huang Peilan’s words were sincere. She looked intently at Ji Fu: “The opponent may be more terrifying than you imagine.”

At least that’s what she knew for now.

Ji Fu chuckled lightly, “The head of the Huang family misunderstood.”

“This is not a rejection.” Her eyes were clear as she directly met Huang Peilan’s gaze, “We will definitely have alliances.”

When everything is finally made public, all those who stand against the aristocratic families will be her allies. This will certainly include the Huang and Wan families.

But by then, the anti-aristocracy banner will be raised, and whether they become allies will depend on their own choices.

When Ji Fu walked out of the Huang family’s building, Qin Chu Yue finally spoke, “…Did you just paint her a big picture?”

Ji Fu laughed.

Indeed, she did.

She hadn’t outright rejected or accepted, leaving a vague possibility, essentially painting a picture.

“Well, it’s up to her if she wants to take the bait.” Ji Fu raised an eyebrow.

If she wanted it, she’d have to abandon most of the benefits under the aristocratic system.

“Tsk, but if she can guess, others will surely suspect you too. Should we retreat?” Qin Chu Yue suggested, meaning Ji Fu should abandon her identity as an Interstellar Academy student and return.

Ji Fu calmly said, “No need.”

The Shen family is one of the core entities for extracting talents. After targeting the Shen family, her identity would indeed arouse many suspicions.

But there was one thing she was very certain about.

“The Shen family, being a core interest family, has already been entirely wiped out by us, yet the other party has not disclosed my information.”

“There is only one possibility.” She paused briefly, “The other party gained enormous benefits from my ‘death,’ so even if all the members of the Shen family died, I could only remain in a ‘dead’ state.”

The relationships between noble families were never truly harmonious.

The greatest benefit derived from her was the three talents that were extracted.

Looking back, the initial distribution must have had issues, and it was highly likely that the main benefits fell into the hands of one individual, and most of the talents extracted from her had probably already been used.

Based on her understanding of Lie Russell and Lan Russell , whether she was dead or alive now, her talents could no longer be extracted.

If she were alive and still possessed her talents, it would mean that the Lie Russell, which suppressed her talents to appear as low-level, had lost its effect.

Lie Russell needs to be implanted from a young age, and once it fails, it cannot meet the conditions for extracting talents.

The other party reaped the greatest benefits, yet still let her escape, leaving numerous hidden dangers.

Unequal distribution of spoils—one party took the benefits, leaving the others with fewer talents and more responsibilities. This person now is the one who least wants her to come back to life.

If she were alive, given the nature of noble families, the blame would first point to the person who concealed this information.

“So before anyone else can fully confirm, the information will still be covered up.” Ji Fu paused slightly, “But indeed, preparations should be made in advance.”

Due to the Shen family incident, the Alliance was in turmoil, with large numbers of interstellar citizens protesting publicly, causing the federal exams to be postponed by three days.

This also gave Ji Fu some time to rest.

The Alliance intensified patrols across the entire interstellar space, starting a continuous 24-hour search for those involved in the slaughter.

Every flight route was strictly monitored.

With the black mech in hand, it was easy for Ji Fu to bypass these monitors.

But she did not go directly to the asteroid; instead, she went to a remote star system coded V-774.

The nearby star systems were desolate and uninhabited, and there were also exotic beasts roaming around.

In the interstellar space, it was considered a lawless zone.

The environment on planet 774 was more unique, consisting of cliffs and deserts, and an endless black sea.

Ji Fu put away her mech and walked towards the beach.

After taking only a few steps, she looked up to see Wei Lan emerging from the endless black sea.

He was drenched from head to toe, his deep blue hair slicked back behind his ears, with water dripping from the tips and running down his neck.

On the dim shoreline, his skin appeared dazzlingly white.

Ji Fu: …

“Why aren’t you wearing clothes?”

Wei Lan paused slightly, his gaze sweeping over her. His ears turned red as he spoke helplessly, “Afu I was swimming.”

Ji Fu: “Didn’t I tell you to wait here for me? Why did you go into the water?”

Wei Lan picked up a clean towel from beside him and began drying his wet hair while replying softly, “I was worried there might be danger below, so I checked it out.”

Ji Fu looked up and saw a specially made piece of glass floating in the center of the black sea.

“From there down, it’s the Black Sea Laboratory.” Wei Lan had arrived here after leaving the Shen family’s experimental base, spending half a day installing the special laboratory in the center of the Black Sea.

The laboratory he installed was dismantled from the Shen family base.

The entire laboratory used glass panels, allowing the inside to see all the outside scenery.

This was a treasure used by the Shen family for underwater experiments, made from top-notch materials that were water-insoluble.

…But the Black Sea was different from ordinary water bodies and oceans; its harm to the human body was significant.

Wei Lan dived several times to ensure the safety of the underwater laboratory.

Even so, when Ji Fu went deep into the underwater laboratory and saw the turbulent black seawater around, she still felt a strong sense of suffocation.

The Black Sea was a product of mutation, and its water carried intense pollution. Even without touching it, just being immersed in the Black Sea could cause discomfort.

“If you feel any discomfort, press the emergency button to float to the surface.” Wei Lan looked at her.

In this silent and soundless Black Sea, his pupils appeared even deeper.

Ji Fu asked him, “Why did you move the medical capsule here?”

Wei Lan simply replied, “I’ll stay here with you.”

Aside from the strong water pressure and the surrounding turbulent black seawater, this place was no different from the asteroid.

But Wei Lan had been tormented by the Black Sea for nearly two years, and no one knew its destructive power better than he did.

He couldn’t leave Ji Fu alone in this silent and soundless seabed.

The space in this underwater laboratory was large, fully accommodating for the two of them to live in.

Now, when undergoing treatment, he no longer needed to fall into a deep sleep. Staying here, he could still lend a hand.

Ji Fu did not refuse.

In fact, this experiment did carry great risks.

The super-stellar exotic beast Wei Lan had slain in the Black Sea had many top-grade materials on its body besides the Heart of the Illusion Sea.

What she needed was the beast core from this exotic beast.

But the exotic beasts in the Black Sea differed greatly from ordinary exotic beasts; the materials obtained from such beasts had to be activated within the Black Sea.

Once removed from the Black Sea environment, the materials’ effectiveness would significantly diminish.

So Ji Fu had Wei Lan move the laboratory to the depths of the seabed.

After using the Sheng You Lotus to enhance her talent last time, Ji Fu’s talent showed no signs of further improvement until now.

The process of advancing from Star to Star+ is indeed very lengthy.

Although the Sheng You Lotus materials were top-notch, the talent advancement did not meet expectations.

After careful consideration, Ji Fu decided to replace the original materials with special ones.

The exotic beasts living in the Black Sea were the best fit for this standard.

However, making the potion was not easy.

Last time, she had four days; this time, she only had three days and needed to repeatedly conduct experiments in the Black Sea.

The difficulty was immense.

The Black Sea also posed deadly dangers. A slight mistake could leave a person forever in its waters.

But as long as there was a chance, she wanted to try.

From the moment she became conscious, her destiny had always been in her own hands.

Ji Fu put on her goggles and quickly immersed herself in the experiment.

In some ways, the Black Sea was similar to the Dead Sea.

Here, one could not see the change of day and night, could not see any living creatures, and could not see any colors other than the somber black.

It was a severe test of a person’s mindset.

For the past few days, Ji Fu had not stopped to rest, constantly repeating her experiments.

While she experimented, Wei Lan, when not undergoing treatment, would dive into the Black Sea with materials to activate them.

But the activated materials had some differences, making the first batch of the potion unusable.

When it touched the skin, it caused severe damage similar to the Black Sea water.

In this situation, it was almost unimaginable how much damage the potion would cause if it entered a person’s body.

After careful thought, Ji Fu replaced the materials, planning to use the mutually reinforcing and counteracting properties of the materials to suppress the Black Sea ingredients.

Once the materials were balanced, the Black Sea properties were suppressed, but the efficacy of the potion was also reduced by several times.

Comparing the finished Sheng You Lotus potion with the new one, the result was that the efficacy was less than one-tenth of the Sheng You Lotus.

Since the Sheng You Lotus no longer had any effect on her, the potion with one-tenth of its efficacy was even less likely to succeed.

Yet Ji Fu still took the insufficiently effective potion to see if there would be any changes in her body.

Five minutes after taking the potion, Qin Chu Yue’s excited voice came through, “It’s moving!”

After Ji Fu advanced to the Star level, her stagnant talent value began to move again.

The fluctuation was small, just a four-digit change.

But this was the most significant fluctuation in her talent value in recent times.

Since her talent advancement, her natural increase in talent had been only over 700.

And now, the increase was more than five times the natural growth.

Ji Fu, however, said, “It’s worse than I imagined.”

Qin Chu Yue glanced at Ji Fu’s eight-digit talent value and fell silent.

Having such a high talent ceiling was also a burden, especially at this time.

Ji Fu said no more, drinking a few sips of milk before diving back into the experiment.

The subsequent experimental processes were unusually smooth due to the experience from the first two attempts.

But the laboratory was very quiet.

Qin Chu Yue, on the asteroid, was somewhat anxious.

According to the results, even ten times the second potion would not be enough for talent advancement.

It would only further increase Ji Fu’s talent ceiling.

At this moment, Wei Lan, who was sitting silently behind Ji Fu, suddenly stood up.

He directly pulled off the treatment tube wrapped around his wrist and said softly, “I’ll go check it out.”

The light brain prompt showed: [Anomalous fluctuation detected]

The cause of the fluctuation was still unknown.

Wei Lan quickly surfaced in the Black Sea.

In the icy, dark waters, he opened his eyes and looked outside.

Using the Black Sea as cover, Wei Lan used the light brain to take a photo of the object.

“What is this?” Qin Chu Yue opened the picture Wei Lan had sent and was startled.

“A Seven-Flame Wolf.” Ji Fu took one look and gave the answer, “A star-level exotic beast.”

Qin Chu Yue breathed a slight sigh of relief upon hearing its level.

Ji Fu expressionlessly added, “This creature is not very aggressive, ugly in appearance, but very fast with a highly developed sense of smell.”

“It’s the best hunting dog.”

Hearing the word “hunting dog,” Qin Chu Yue’s expression changed slightly.

“Did it follow your trail? If a hunting dog has appeared, does that mean the patrol fleet is nearby?”

“Yes.” Ji Fu said coldly, “This thing likes to eat raw meat and only consumes high-grade exotic beast meat.”

The so-called high-grade exotic beast meat referred not to exotic beasts of the same level as the Seven-Flame Wolf but to super-stellar ones.

The better it ate, the more sensitive its sense of smell became. Ordinary people couldn’t afford to raise it; only noble families could keep such creatures.

Ji Fu’s hands kept working as she calmly said, “Chu Yue, follow the original plan and move away from the asteroid.”

They had already decided to move away from the previous asteroid, keeping the Black Sea laboratory and relocating the original base to a nearby large planet.

“Wei Lan.” Ji Fu looked up, giving a brief glance at the Seven-Flame Wolf, and said calmly, “Drag that thing into the Black Sea and tear it apart.”

Floating in the water, Wei Lan, upon hearing this, abruptly opened his eyes in the pitch-black sea.

Splash.

Moments later, large patches of blood appeared on the dark sea surface.

A super battleship was stationed above the Black Sea, and its scanners immediately detected the large patches of blood.

“This is the last place where the Seven-Flame Wolf was seen…” The person in charge in the front looked at the sea and his face darkened, “The remains floating on the surface are those of the Seven-Flame Wolf.”

“Retrieve the remains,” a man behind him ordered coldly.

“Yes.”

The people on the battleship quickly used a giant mechanical arm to salvage part of the bones.

However, upon seeing the bones, everyone’s faces turned pale.

The remains soaked in the Black Sea water were too dangerous to approach.

Only the man, wearing white gloves, carefully flipped through the fragments of bones.

“The scanner can’t penetrate the Black Sea for detection, sir. Should we dive in for inspection?”

The man removed his gloves, his handsome and gentle face expressionless, and said in a flat tone, “No need. There are super-stellar exotic beasts in the Black Sea.”

The exotic beasts living in the Black Sea were generally very difficult to handle.

Even super-stellar mech soldiers could not survive long in the Black Sea, let alone fight there.

“Notify everyone to evacuate,” the man said calmly.

“Yes.”

The waves kept crashing against the shore, and the battleship quickly disappeared from sight.

Wei Lan didn’t move until the battleship had left.

He let the Black Sea waves continually batter his body, his expression cold as he stared into the distance.

Fifteen minutes later, the battleship returned.

The person in charge of the battleship was puzzled, “Is something wrong?”

The man just smiled, “Nothing, let’s go.”

The Seven-Flame Wolf hadn’t howled to signal that it had found prey before it died.

The man was just naturally suspicious and liked to double-check everything.

After the battleship left, Wei Lan turned and swam towards the deep sea, pressing his communicator, “The people on the battleship just now.”

He couldn’t see their faces through the battleship’s protective coating.

But one thing he was sure of.

Wei Lan paused briefly and said in a deep voice, “Their talent level is very high.”

Because of an incident three years ago, he still remembered Fang Yanli’s talent ability, a kind of tangible probing, like a mech’s scanning without actually using one.

When the battleship returned just now, he merged with the Black Sea water and sensed that tangible probing.

His words made the entire communication channel fall silent.

There was only one person in the entire interstellar space who could make Wei Lan say this: Fang Yanli.

Ji Fu lightly raised her eyes, “It’s not Fang Yanli.”

With Fang Yanli’s personality, he would never keep an exotic beast like the Seven-Flame Wolf.

He was so strict that any exotic beast he saw wouldn’t survive under his command.

The communication channel fell silent again, and Ji Fu, in such a situation, gently integrated the extracted potion.

Click.

She said calmly, “It’s done.”

The potion made from the materials of exotic beasts living in the Black Sea, on par with the Sheng You Lotus, was called Black Sea Lingxi.

The exotic beast’s name was Lingxi.

“Woohoo!” Qin Chu Yue exclaimed in surprise, “Quick, check the effects.”

Unlike previous potions, this one was very difficult to make, and Lingxi’s beast core was too small, so only one vial of the potion was produced.

Ji Fu looked at the potion in front of her, which was the same color as the Black Sea, without immediately using it.

After a moment’s pause, she suddenly removed the ordinary light brain she was wearing on her right hand.

Removing the cover revealed the mark on her wrist.

It was a mark that had existed since she restored her talent.

After advancing to the star level, she found the mark had deepened.

From a faint gold line, it had become much thicker and had a substantive texture, feeling like a line swimming on her wrist.

She stared at the mark for a few moments, then used a small knife to cut it.

Blood oozed out, indicating that the skin here was no different from other parts of her body.

Ji Fu raised her hand and poured the hard-won Black Sea Lingxi into the clear water in front of her.

The black potion dissolved in the water, floating like a cloud of black mist.

She glanced at it, then dipped her cut right wrist into the water.

Splash.

Qin Chu Yue, who had been monitoring the data, suddenly stood up, staring in astonishment at Ji Fu’s skyrocketing values.

In the Black Sea laboratory, Ji Fu smiled slightly.

It had increased.

Her talent had advanced from star level to Star+.