Chapter 65

Boom!

An entire flight path in the far distance was blown apart.

The meeting at the Shen family headquarters on the Imperial Star was still in progress when Shen Qinglian, seated at the head, received multiple alerts on his device.

The meeting was forcibly interrupted.

Shen Qinglian’s expression darkened as he opened the messages.

Upon hearing that there had been a massive explosion along the Shen family’s transport route, injuring half of the twenty-plus star-grade mecha soldiers, and that even Jiang Hong and his son, who had been sent out later, were severely impacted, the room fell silent.

Jiang Hong, with his extensive combat experience, sustained only minor injuries.

However, Jiang Wencai, who had been injured by Ji Fu during the second combined test, couldn’t react in time to the explosion’s shockwave.

Caught in the blast’s aftermath, he suffered severe injuries. When the news reached them, he was still in critical condition.

The Shen family doctor mentioned that even if Jiang Wencai could be saved, he would likely be crippled.

Jiang Wencai had already been in an unstable state due to his previous injuries. His inability to react was a result of his extremely unstable condition coupled with the high-level attack.

When Jiang Wencai was brought back, much of his innate talent had already been wasted.

“…The enemy hid a star-level bomb inside that S+ mecha. The bomb’s explosion caused secondary explosions in the affected warships and mechas, resulting in such a large-scale impact.”

Listening to the report through the communication link, Shen Qinglian’s face turned extremely grim.

“Based on the reconstruction by the central bureau, it’s highly likely that the attacker infiltrated the giant transport warship beforehand, killed the person in charge, and then hijacked the warship to escape.”

“Our search teams scoured the surrounding areas and finally found the wreckage of the giant warship on a remote planet far from the explosion site. The warship exploded about fifteen minutes ago…”

As Shen Qinglian read the casualty reports and the losses suffered by the Shen family displayed on his device, his expression darkened.

The preliminary assessment indicated that the losses were incalculable.

The giant warship was carrying several tons of cargo, including vital items for the upcoming auction. Among them were four top-tier super-star materials, dozens of star-grade and star+ materials, and even a live star+ exotic beast.

Shen Qinglian had spent over a billion credits and three months capturing the rare Liehai Star Sky Fish from the depths of sea clouds. The tank for the fish was made from premium star+ materials.

Originally intended as a highlight for the auction, everything was now ruined.

The Fierce Sea Star Sky Fish, along with several super-star materials, had already been advertised to prominent families invited to the auction.

Now, saying that these items were lost was akin to publicly shaming Shen Qinglian across the entire interstellar community.

The report continued: “…Due to the powerful star-level bomb, there’s hardly any useful evidence at the scene, just testimonies from a few surviving star-grade mecha soldiers.”

“It’s clear that the perpetrators were from the Butcher’s Guild.”

Shen Qinglian laughed bitterly.

Everyone knew that the Butcher’s Guild was behind this, especially after using the same mecha that attacked the Wu family to make a bomb.

What he needed was results! He wanted the stolen goods recovered and the losses mitigated!

But Shen Qinglian knew that involving the Alliance wouldn’t help.

If the Alliance had any concrete information on the Butcher’s Guild, the incident with the Wu family wouldn’t have happened.

This organization acted unpredictably and without warning. It might even include dangerous criminals like Wei Lan and Qin Chu Yue, who escaped from prison three years ago.

The ongoing investigation wasn’t progressing fast enough for Shen Qinglian’s liking.

Suddenly, he stood up with a cold gaze and ordered the Shen family’s senior Alliance members: “Report to the central bureau again and demand a swift investigation.”

“If the central bureau delays or dismisses the issue, seek assistance from the Fang family.” His eyes were dark as he added, “Request intervention from the Supreme Office.”

Although Shen Qinglian preferred not to involve Fang Yanli, known for his ruthless efficiency, he now prioritized eliminating the Butcher’s Guild over anything else.

Not waiting for a response, Shen Qinglian turned to leave the meeting room.

The Shen family head frowned and asked, “Where are you going?”

“To the Interstellar Academy,” Shen Qinglian replied coldly.

The wreckage of the giant warship was found far from the Interstellar Academy.

Shen Qinglian had spies outside the academy keeping an eye on Ji Fu, and the reports indicated that she had not left the academy.

He smirked. For someone like Ji Fu, evading spies and leaving the academy would be child’s play.

Though the distance between the Imperial Star and the academy was considerable, it was much shorter than the distance from the wreckage site.

To save time, Shen Qinglian deployed his super-star mecha.

A super-star mecha traveling through space was faster than any top-tier warship or starship.

In no time, his mecha had reached the academy’s airspace.

Its sudden appearance triggered the academy’s highest defense mechanisms, and Shen Qinglian was intercepted.

He produced a high-level search warrant, which he had obtained from the Alliance court at great expense over a year ago.

This warrant granted him unrestricted access to any location in the interstellar territory except the Imperial Star’s central bureau.

Sure enough, two minutes after presenting the warrant, the academy’s defense systems granted him clearance.

He landed the super-star mecha within the academy.

The commotion quickly drew the attention of the administration.

Principal Yang and his staff hurried to the largest square of the academy, where the massive super-star mecha had landed, and his face darkened immediately.

He said coldly, “The Shen family has such a big face.”

As soon as the words fell, the huge mecha in front of him was taken away by Shen Qinglan.

Shen Qinglan was in a rage, but still retained his reason.

He hadn’t directly piloted the super stellar mecha to bombard the gates of the Interstellar Academy in a foolish act.

As the saying goes, even a starving camel is bigger than a horse, and the Interstellar Academy is still one of the three major military academies. There is also at least one super stellar mecha soldier within the academy.

Just because the quality of students has not kept up in recent years doesn’t mean that others can behave recklessly on the territory of the Interstellar Academy.

Shen Qinglan paused slightly, took a step towards Director Yang’s side, his attitude was still good, and after just two or three sentences, he steered the conversation back to the main point.

“The slaughterhouse has looted a large amount of goods from the Shen family, destroyed multiple stellar mechas, and even caused Jiang Wencai to be seriously injured,” Shen Qinglan said coldly, “So far, Ji Fu is still the first suspect associated with the slaughterhouse in all these years.”

“The losses suffered by the Shen family are too great, involving multiple lives. Shen has no choice but to barge in forcibly. I hope the director can understand.”

After he finished speaking, he changed his courteous demeanor from before, directly led his people, and rushed into the Interstellar Academy.

A crowd of people, all brought by Shen Qinglan with the super stellar mecha, rushed in with great momentum, causing many passing students to be alarmed.

“Director?” The head of the Academic Affairs Office’s face changed. “Should we call the patrol warships outside?”

Director Yang’s face turned cold. “No need.”

Zhang Huan stood aside, his expression also unpleasant.

When Shen Qinglan rushed over, they had just arrived at the Interstellar Academy.

He was also not sure if Ji Fu was in the academy at the moment.

Listening to Shen Qinglan’s tone just now, if Ji Fu wasn’t here, it might cause a lot of trouble.

In front of the Shen family, he couldn’t easily send messages to inquire about something. He could only keep a stern face and follow the Shen family’s people into the academy.

During the joint examination holiday, there were not many people in the academy.

The people brought by Shen Qinglan had a very clear target. After entering the academy, they headed towards the S-class classroom, Ji Fu’s dormitory, and the experimental building.

But after searching in three places, not to mention Ji Fu, not even an extra shadow was found.

Shen Qinglan stood still, holding a cigarette in his hand, and remained silent for a long time.

He didn’t have much of a smoking habit, he hardly touched this thing usually.

The cigarette made of top-grade materials lit up in his hand, illuminating Shen Qinglan’s cold and stern face with a crimson light.

The person next to him whispered, “We can’t find Ji Fu’s trace anywhere. Should we notify the alliance to issue a wanted order?”

Shen Qinglan remained silent.

Before this person could ask anything else, Zhang Huan, who hurried over, said, “Found her.”

Everyone here looked up, only to see Zhang Huan operating the light-brain, “She’s in the F-class classroom.”

Shen Qinglan paused slightly, immediately threw away the cigarette in his hand, crushed the cigarette butt, and said coldly, “Let’s go take a look.”

To confirm his thoughts, he almost pushed the rage of the mecha to the maximum and forcibly shortened the time.

Not to mention that the giant starship was discovered fifteen minutes after the incident, even if it was discovered an hour ago, Ji Fu definitely couldn’t have made it back.

Because…

Before arriving at the Interstellar Academy, Shen Qinglan mobilized all the spies around him, and even borrowed a stellar warship from the Zhou family to surround the entrance of the entire Interstellar Academy.

At present, not to mention a living person, not even a fly could fly into the Interstellar Academy.

If the communication message received by Zhang Huan was wrong and Ji Fu’s whereabouts couldn’t be found, then the wanted order could be issued.

No matter what the reason was for Ji Fu’s absence from the academy today, after today, she would become a wanted criminal of the slaughterhouse.

Shen Qinglan’s eyes sank, and he followed Zhang Huan to the F-class building.

The Interstellar Academy was very large, even for students with low talents like those in the F-class, a large building was constructed for them.

Ji Fu was on the top floor.

Shen Qinglan and the people from the Interstellar Academy arrived at the top floor together.

It happened to be dusk, and the sky was lit up by a fiery red sun, illuminating the entire building.

The rising sun fell on the window of this top floor, just as they reached the door of the classroom, they heard laughter and chatter coming from inside.

Shen Qinglan’s expression remained unchanged. He stepped forward, pushed open the door of the F-classroom with a bang.

Bang!

The door slammed into the wall beside it, making a dull sound.

Shen Qinglan looked up and saw Ji Fu wearing a black hoodie, covering her face with a large hood, smiling and playing cards with two students inside.

She raised her head at the sound, her gaze falling on Shen Qinglan, and the whole room fell silent.

The door slamming against the wall shook off some plaster.

Ji Fu’s smile faded, and her gaze fell on the intimidating group of people. She asked softly, “Mr. Shen, what brings you here?”

Shen Qinglan looked at her with a heavy gaze. Her figure merged with the fiery sun behind her, and between her gestures, it seemed as if heavy clouds of fire were rolling down.

Different from this picturesque scene, the entire scene seemed frozen.

Shen Qinglan swept his eyes over her, almost penetrating her entire body. He spoke, “When did you come back?”

Ji Fu raised an eyebrow slightly, “What do you mean?”

Shen Qinglan took a step forward towards her direction, his voice cold, “The person who destroyed the Shen family’s shipping route, looted goods, and escaped, wasn’t it you?”

He looked down at her condescendingly, “And are these two behind you your accomplices?”

He raised his chin, gesturing towards Jiang Wei and Shi Xueying behind Ji Fu.

At this point, Zhang Huan finally couldn’t bear it. He frowned and stepped forward, angrily saying, “Shen Qinglan, look carefully, this is the Interstellar Academy.”

“These two people are students of the Interstellar Academy.”

He actually said that Ji Fu took Shi Xueying and Jiang Wei to rob his family’s things, one being a mecha pilot, and the other an F-class student. It sounded absurd to anyone who heard it.

Shi Xueying also spoke with a cold face, “What’s this? Do we need to report to you for everything we do now?”

Shen Qinglan glanced coldly at her. He remembered her, she seemed to be an elite mecha pilot in the advanced class.

He was about to speak, but he was stopped by the person behind him.

The person in charge of the Shen family had an ugly expression and hurriedly whispered a few words to Shen Qinglan’s side.

Shen Qinglan suddenly looked up and met Ji Fu’s eyes.

She was live streaming!

That’s right, after the joint exam, Ji Fu became a big hit on the StarNet.

During these few days of the exam break, netizens were bored, so they often asked her to do something entertaining.

Fifteen minutes ago, Ji Fu started a live stream on the largest platform.

She said it was a live stream of playing cards.

Netizens thought she was up to something, but unexpectedly, she really just invited two people to play cards, and not only that, she often played cards randomly.

The whole live broadcast was very effective, so many people rushed in upon hearing the news and spent time in her live room.

The atmosphere was just right, and then Shen Qinglan barged in.

In other words, Shen Qinglan just admitted in front of all the netizens not only that the Shen family’s shipping route was destroyed and goods were looted, but also threw all the blame on Ji Fu.

Now the whole live room was especially lively.

[“Haha, even though the explosion wasn’t reported in the news, I heard about it too. That place is at least a few hours’ flight away from the Interstellar Academy. How can this be blamed on Ji Fu?”]

[“You don’t understand. This is just trying to shift the blame.”]

[“Oh, oh, is he eyeing the super stellar + materials in Ji Fu’s hands and deliberately looking for trouble?”]

[“6”]

This live broadcast didn’t involve any exams or the like, so the noble families didn’t pay much attention.

The Shen family was in chaos now, and they didn’t notice such trivial live broadcasts.

This led to the current situation.

Shen Qinglan looked at Ji Fu with a cold gaze. Up to now, he still believed that this matter was related to Ji Fu.

But the other party indeed had overly perfect evidence of absence.

It even included this live broadcast that had been going on for more than ten or twenty minutes.

There was no evidence to prove that Ji Fu had been near the Shen family’s shipping route.

After a long silence, he was interrupted by the messages constantly coming to his light-brain.

Shen Qinglan opened the light-brain to take a look, then turned around and left the building.

[“Are you leaving just like this?”]

[“…I have to say, this person is really arrogant.”]

The barrage was especially dissatisfied with Shen Qinglan’s sudden appearance and disappearance.

Shen Qinglan quickly walked out of the building and also sent a message to ask the spies outside the Interstellar Academy.

[“When did Shi Xueying return to the academy?”]

He vaguely remembered seeing the name Shi Xueying among the people who left the Interstellar Academy some time ago.

The response from there was very quick: [“Yesterday noon.”]

In other words, from the end of the joint exam until now, Ji Fu really hadn’t left the academy.

He turned around under the building and happened to see Ji Fu leaning on the railing of the top floor, looking at them with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Shen Qinglan turned his head with a dark expression and quickly left the Interstellar Academy.

Ji Fu watched him leave the gate of the Interstellar Academy, and the smile on her lips never faded.

It was only natural for Shen Qinglan to suspect her.

But he would never have thought that after they escaped, Ji Fu and the others split up.

Qin Chuyue took all the goods to transfer, and Ji Fu drove Jiaoyue back to the Interstellar Academy with Weiluan.

As for the giant starship, Qin Chuyue took it away to destroy it.

She just casually threw the starship into a remote star system to avoid injuring innocents when the starship exploded.

Under normal circumstances, after taking away so much from the Shen family, and it being a team effort, they should have been eager to sell off the loot.

Shen Qinglan’s thoughts were not wrong, but he was too fast, and Jifu’s Jiaoyue was not slow either.

She happened to arrive twenty minutes before Shen Qinglan came back and activated Jiaoyue’s stealth mode, following the starship of the academy’s leaders and directly entered the academy.

The school leaders were also invited by Ji Fu to ask Zhang Huan. It was said that her body and mind had been seriously damaged in the previous interrogation, and she wanted to withdraw from the next round of joint exams.

The timing was just right.

In order to catch her in the act, Shen Qinglan even offended the Interstellar Academy.

Ji Fu stood on the top floor, squinted her eyes, and watched Director Yang and the head of the Academic Affairs Office board a starship in frustration.

If she wasn’t mistaken, their Director Yang should be unable to bear it anymore at this point and would go cause trouble at the Imperial Star Alliance.

Ji Fu rested her chin on her hand, opened the light-brain interface, and casually watched several starships withdraw from the Interstellar Academy.

Throughout the process, she didn’t close the live broadcast. She just opened the privacy mode on the light-brain, so others didn’t know what she was watching.

The people in the live room were still cursing Shen Qinglan, and then they saw Ji Fu raise her head and say lightly:

“Everyone must be not in the mood to watch us play cards now, right? How about I take you all for a tour of the Interstellar Academy?”

She looked relaxed, as if she hadn’t been affected by the previous incident at all.

With the live broadcast still on, she walked slowly along several famous scenic spots in the Interstellar Academy, introducing the scenery to the netizens.

Walking to the front of the experimental building, Ji Fu aimed the live broadcast interface at the entire building and shouted, “Here, this is our Interstellar’s famous experimental building.”

“Why does it look so new? Because I blew up several sections while making potions, so it was just renovated.” She looked at the teasing comments in the barrage, smiled indifferently.

“We pharmacists should have the spirit of daring to experiment. It’s just a pity that except for me, a few other pharmacists in the Interstellar are about to graduate. Currently, I’m the only one who often enters and exits this experimental building.”

“If you want to come in? Sure, welcome everyone to apply to the Interstellar Academy…”

With that, she finished speaking, verified her identity information, and directly entered the laboratory.

As soon as she entered, everyone in the live room saw Ji Fu’s expression change.

“Who!?” she said, her face cold.

Before she could finish her sentence, three figures suddenly appeared in the laboratory, one of them holding a huge axe, which slammed down towards her head!

Countless question marks appeared in the barrage.

Some people thought it was a special effect for the live stream, until they saw the cold light flashing on the mechanical axe, their expressions changed.

[“???”]

[“Damn, why are there assassins in the Interstellar Academy?”]

[“Are they assassins?”]

[“It looks like they’re professional assassins!”]

The netizens watching the live stream hadn’t reacted yet when there was a loud bang.

Ji Fu’s live stream was cut off.

Just like that, she disconnected the connection in front of all the netizens.

At that moment, the assassination of Ji Fu began to spread wildly on all online platforms.

After the live stream was cut off, Ji Fu raised her eyes coldly.

Weiluan appeared silently behind the three professional assassins, and with one strike, he used the mechanical arm covering his entire right arm to violently pierce through the chests of these three star-level assassins.

The whole process took less than a minute. Weiluan didn’t even release his mecha, but had already snapped the throat of the last person.

He gathered the three assassins together, removed his mechanical arm, and said coldly, “Two star-level, one star.”

“They are all professional assassins without any water.”

Ji Fu looked over, her face showing no surprise.

In fact, these three people had been hiding here before she arrived at the Interstellar Academy.

They were just waiting for her to enter the laboratory unprepared and kill her with one blow.

She knew this from the first day she returned to the Interstellar Academy.

But she didn’t move, nor did she inform anyone in the academy or Zhang Huan.

The appearance of such high-quality star-level assassins here meant that someone in the Interstellar Academy was facilitating them.

Ji Fu didn’t intend to startle the snake.

She had originally planned to call the school leaders over, but then Shen Qinglan appeared, blocking all the entrances and exits of the Interstellar Academy just to catch her in the act.

These three people couldn’t leave, and they were probably under orders to kill her.

Unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better. She came back alone, giving them hope of killing her.

However, after Ji Fu left the F-class building, Weiluan had been following her silently.

From the over 100 parts she made for Jiaoyue, she picked out a few pieces and upgraded them into a star-level mecha before she started last night.

Currently, only 75% of Jiaoyue’s power was available when she wore it, but when it was on Weiluan, it fit him perfectly.

So much so that when Shen Qinglan entered the school, Weiluan was sitting in the nearby C-class building, and Shen Qinglan didn’t notice his presence.

Ji Fu casually browsed the news on the StarNet.

She slid her finger across the screen and saw a huge red message.

The news came from various netizens. A few minutes ago, the news of Ji Fu being intercepted by professional assassins had spread widely.

She didn’t do anything or say anything, just presented the facts to everyone, but many people made conclusions.

On the crimson page, the titles spontaneously written by netizens were large and eye-catching.

[“After the Shen family’s goods were robbed, they were so angry that they pushed all the blame onto innocent students, and even dispatched professional assassins to chase and kill the students. Is Shen Qinglan really trying to find the real culprit, or is he trying to seize the treasures of innocent students! ?”]

[“Since when did the Shen family, with its background in the Union’s elite, dare to use professional assassins?”]

Ji Fu opened the search term and all she saw was [“Shen Qinglan, hypocritical”], [“Shen family, disgusting”], [“Boycott Shen family auction”], [“Union law, professional assassins”], and so on…

Hmm, why not consider this as a big gift?

Ji Fu’s light-brain kept popping up with message alerts.

Shen Qinglan, who had only exchanged a few words with her through communication before, continued to send her video calls.

Ji Fu raised her hand and directly pressed the permanent reject button.

Didn’t Mr. Shen enjoy his blood-bun eating?

Then let him taste the feeling of being cursed by tens of thousands of people first.