Chapter 77

**Boom!**

Ji Fu stepped forward on the shattered remnants of the mech and punched open the cockpit.

Shen Qinglan’s face was pale, showing a state of rigid death due to severe contamination.

The control panel in front of him was completely dark, and the light-brain on his wrist initiated a self-destruct mode upon his death.

She removed the light-brain and intercepted the program before it could self-destruct.

As the current head of the Shen family, Shen Qinglan surely knew a lot of inside information.

If Ji Fu had asked, he would have tried every possible way to negotiate with her using this incident.

But Ji Fu didn’t ask.

She preferred evidence over Shen Qinglan’s words.

Time was tight, and it wouldn’t be long before someone discovered the anomaly with the Shen family’s starship. Also, given Shen Qinglan’s personality, he might not tell the truth, and she didn’t want to waste too much time on him.

She collected Shen Qinglan’s light-brain, broke into the storage of the damaged starship in front of her, retrieved the well-preserved premium materials, and quickly left in her black mech.

At the same time, a few people were sitting silently in a secret location on an asteroid near the Imperial Star.

The atmosphere was oppressive, and no one in the spacious room spoke.

A person who had just received an emergency communication walked back into the room with a grim expression and announced, “Shen Qinglan is dead.”

Upon hearing this, everyone present had a noticeable change in expression.

Unlike before, whether it was the Li family or the Wu family, they were peripheral figures in the Pig Plan.

But the Shen family was different.

Under Shen Qinglan’s leadership, the Shen family had become a core figure in the plan.

The recent attacks targeting the slaughterhouse had already made everyone here particularly vigilant, but they hadn’t expected such a complete downfall.

“Was it also the work of the slaughterhouse?”

“Probably.” The speaker paused briefly. “The remains found were severely corroded by contaminants, leaving almost no evidence.”

A person sitting on the side stood up abruptly and said, “The foundation of Qionghai Huashi has been nearly destroyed and exposed to the public. At this point, whether Shen Qinglan is dead or alive is no longer important.”

“The main issue now is this slaughterhouse.” The speaker stood up, waved his hand, and a light screen appeared on the conference table.

On the screen was the ultra-stellar mech that attacked the Shen family today.

“Analysis shows that all the materials used to manufacture this ultra-stellar mech came from the batch of top-grade materials previously stolen from the Shen family.”

“The opponent acted premeditatedly, and there is a very powerful mech master in their team.”

“As for the mech soldier.” The man tapped the table lightly and said coldly, “It’s Wei Lan.”

“Is it confirmed?” The seated person asked with a change in expression.

“Zhou Yi, who was in charge of guarding the experimental base, is powerful and can hardly find a match among ultra-stellar mech soldiers, but he couldn’t last three minutes against the opponent.”

“Across the entire galaxy, there aren’t many mech soldiers who can achieve this.”

“Combining the current footage with the evidence from three years ago, the opponent’s identity can be almost confirmed.”

After listening to the report, someone couldn’t help but shout angrily, “We should have executed Wei Lan when we finally captured him!”

“He wasn’t implanted with Fierce Russell; what use is he? Now, he has become our biggest threat.”

“No choice.” Someone shrugged nearby. “Wei Lan is the second person in all these years to exhibit an ascension-type talent.”

“Given the situation of the Si family in recent years, it’s understandable they didn’t want to give him up. Don’t forget, the previous person with ascension-type talent is now the top individual within the alliance—Fang Yanli.”

Upon hearing this, the conference room fell silent, as no one understood better than them.

The first ascension-type talent in over a century is now the number one in the alliance—Fang Yanli.

With Fang Yanli’s growth precedent, how could the Si family abandon Wei Lan?

The person in the main seat spoke, “I didn’t call you here to discuss this.”

As soon as this person spoke, the conference room fell silent.

The atmosphere once again became eerily quiet, and no one dared to speak.

At this moment, the person in the main seat raised his head and looked at the man sitting quietly beside him.

The man was dressed in a black shirt, looking gentle and refined, with an excellent temperament.

The person in the main seat said slowly, “If the people who attacked the Shen family’s experimental base today were led by Wei Lan, then who is the mastermind behind the slaughterhouse?”

Everyone below looked at each other.

Given their understanding of the Si family’s matters, they naturally knew that the Si family had detained Wei Lan for nearly two years and used various methods but couldn’t make him submit.

When Yun Chi and the others caused trouble three years ago, they had already analyzed Wei Lan.

…So they all knew, not just anyone could command Wei Lan.

“Isn’t it because Wei Lan learned of Yun Chi’s death, harbored resentment, and after forcibly escaping, teamed up with Qin Chu Yue to carry out this series of actions?”

The first man to speak paused and then said, “At the time of the slaughterhouse’s first incident, Wei Lan was still in prison.”

“What can be confirmed is that Qin Chu Yue is definitely in this group, but considering the events involving the Li family, the Wu family, and now the Shen family, there is a third person in the slaughterhouse aside from them.”

“And according to the existing evidence, this third person is the true core of the slaughterhouse and the real mastermind behind it.”

The speaker paused and glanced around the room. “A trio with powerful hacking abilities and overwhelming bombardments—you don’t find these things very familiar?”

The man in the black shirt next to the main seat replied calmly, “Captain Zhou, are you suggesting that the third person in the slaughterhouse is Yun Chi, back from the dead?”

Zhou Xing squinted slightly at him. “Aren’t you the one who should know best whether this person is her or not?”

“What do you mean?” The head of the Han family, who had asked earlier, looked grim. “Yun Chi is still alive!?”

The name Yun Chi was like a thunderclap over a calm lake, causing the expressions of many present to change.

“It’s just a hypothesis,” Zhou Xing said with a mocking smile as he looked at the man in black. “After all, Yun Chi was last handed over to him.”

“Oh, and the high officials of the Interstellar Prison, since it was you who kept insisting Yun Chi was dead, wasting so much time.”

The surrounding people began to murmur.

“If this mastermind is Yun Chi, it would indeed make everything make sense.”

“So has Yun Chi actually died or not? We’ve suffered such heavy losses, and the entire network is condemning the Alliance. Are you still not going to tell the truth?”

Someone else voiced their suspicions. “But wasn’t Yun Chi’s set of tools destroyed by Fang Yanli back then? And I remember she could only build stellar mechs at the time. How did she suddenly have ultra-stellar mechs after just three years?”

Zhou Xing also found this strange.

But apart from Yun Chi, he couldn’t think of anyone else who could bypass such a tightly knit defense network and control information.

There must be some unknown hidden information involved.

The conference room buzzed with various speculations.

The person in the main seat looked coldly at the man in black. “What’s your explanation?”

The man, upon hearing this, stood up.

Despite the questioning voices, his expression remained calm. He addressed the main seat person quietly, “Before the highest prison was destroyed, Yun Chi had already been injected with the fourth dose of Blue Russell.”

“The extracted fourth talent is still stored in the research institute and can be retrieved for testing at any time.” He calmly looked around at everyone present. “Do you really think anyone can survive the fourth dose of Blue Russell?”

The room fell silent.

“That is my answer.”

The meeting reached an impasse halfway through.

Various messages kept coming in, and even the main person was frequently interrupted.

During a break, the man in black left the conference room and went to the soundproof room.

The secretary hurriedly opened the door of the soundproof room and, after confirming no one was around, reported softly:

“Fang Yanli has left for the Imperial Star Alliance.” The man heard this and smiled faintly.

His gaze fell on the starship parked outside.

The secretary hesitated briefly before saying, “If the main family demands the fourth talent for inspection… the research institute might have a hard time explaining.”

Because the fourth talent didn’t exist.

The man heard this, showing no emotion, and slowly unwrapped a piece of candy, putting it in his mouth.

“They won’t.” His tone was certain.

By now, it was impossible that the main family hadn’t discovered anything.

But since it had been covered up, neither side would bring it up again.

More importantly…

“The originally designated recipient of Yun Chi’s fourth talent has already begun to slip out of control.”

If they insisted on retrieving the Yun Chi-4 talent, he had other ways.

Hearing this, the secretary finally relaxed and began to report various matters seriously.

“Currently, the most suspicious person among the identified suspects is still the student from the Interstellar Academy…”

But their time in the soundproof room was cut short by a hurried knock on the door.

“The countdown for the slaughterhouse is up, and the Alliance and the top office have searched Sirius multiple times without finding any dangerous items.”

Even the main person, who was about to leave, stopped in his tracks.

Someone opened their light-brain and connected to the star network.

Once connected, the slaughterhouse’s live broadcast window popped up again.

The large countdown clock on the screen had already reached its final ten seconds.

The continuously ticking countdown made everyone present increasingly tense.

“Five, four…”

“What’s the situation on Sirius?” Zhou Xing was already on a call with an Alliance key member.

“No anomalies.” The time given by the slaughterhouse was more than sufficient, and all personnel had already evacuated. Alliance members were monitoring the area with a patrol warship not far from Sirius.

“One!”

As the last number ticked down, there was still no change on Sirius.

The Alliance key member breathed a sigh of relief and said joyfully, “It must have been a smoke bomb from the slaughterhouse, nothing to…”

Before he could finish, the countdown hit zero.

The next moment, everyone heard a massive explosion.

The sound did not come from the Alliance members monitoring Sirius but from the slaughterhouse’s live broadcast.

Everyone looked up.

That glance caused the faces of those in the meeting room to change dramatically.

The head of the Han family stood up abruptly after a brief pause.

The location shown on the screen was his home.

To be precise, the Han family residence was affected because the primary target of this slaughterhouse attack was the Shen family on Imperial Star.

“Imperial Star!?” The familiar buildings on the screen made everyone unable to sit still.

Zhou Xing’s face was extremely grim as he directly dialed the communications for the Imperial Star Alliance base, angrily demanding, “What the hell are you people doing!?”

What was Imperial Star?

It was the current location of the Alliance headquarters, touted as the safest place in the entire interstellar era!

It had the most secure defense systems and the most formidable stationed troops.

Now they were being told that the slaughterhouse bombed Imperial Star?

This wasn’t just a provocation; it was a direct slap in the face!

The people at the Imperial Star Alliance headquarters were also panicking.

Three years ago, when the headquarters was still on the highest star, it had been bombed.

The entire highest star was destroyed, forcing the headquarters to relocate to Imperial Star.

To avoid a repeat of the incident three years ago, Imperial Star’s defense system had been made nearly impenetrable over the years.

Moreover, Imperial Star was different from the highest star of the past.

The previous highest star was merely the Alliance’s office location, with no ordinary citizens residing there.

Imperial Star, however, had many citizens and families residing there.

The star system where Imperial Star was located had a permanent population of 2 billion.

If anything happened with this population density, they would be gravely accountable.

“It wasn’t indiscriminate bombing; it was targeted demolition,” the Alliance official who received the message said in a deep voice.

But hearing this, the expressions of those present became even uglier.

Targeted demolition meant only specific areas were bombed.

The slaughterhouse… only bombed the Shen family.

Oh, and the nearby Han family residence.

As the official finished speaking, two lines of text appeared on the slaughterhouse’s live broadcast.

**[Target eliminated]**

**[See you next time]**

Pop.

Shortly after the text appeared, the live broadcast was cut off.

“…The entire Shen family, including the head of the family and all core members, were covered by the bombing,” someone reported.

Zhou Xing was furious, “Weren’t you supposed to keep them under surveillance first?”

“The decision after high-level discussions was to keep the remaining members of the Shen family at home and deal with them later.”

The “later” meant after this secret meeting provided a decision.

It had always been like this.

On Imperial Star, Ji Fu sat high up, eating ice cream while watching the thick black smoke in the distance.

“The Alliance has long favored aristocratic families. Even if they kill and burn, these noble families won’t go directly to the interstellar prison,” Qin Chu Yue’s mocking voice came from nearby.

“I know the process well. They are first placed under house arrest, then given a token sentence, and after a comfortable rest, they can change their identities and enter the Alliance again.”

Ji Fu lowered her head, pulling up a piece of information.

This was information intercepted from Shen Qinglan’s light-brain.

Her guess was correct; after seeing her black mech, Shen Qinglan had destroyed much of the information stored in his light-brain.

The purpose was simple: his sister Shen Qingxue was on another starship.

Even if he died, as long as the information was not exposed, the Alliance would protect his sister.

And indeed, the Alliance only put Shen Qingxue under surveillance but announced that the Shen siblings were intercepted and killed by the slaughterhouse.

After all, the Shen siblings were raised as ‘geniuses’ with many injected drugs.

Shen Qinglan had hurriedly erased much, but Ji Fu, upon fully invading, still found usable information.

Among them were records of multiple talent transfer injections for the Shen siblings.

The records only showed drug codes, but Ji Fu confirmed through the changes in Shen Qinglan’s body detected by the light-brain that these drugs were the extracted talents.

Many records showed Shen Qingxue receiving the most injections.

The so-called shared talents were taken from others!

After using shared talents, Shen Qingxue needed large doses of special nutritional fluids each time.

And in just half a year, she had injected seven talents.

“March 7, X-level, Star+ impact, failed.”

“April 15, 2X-level, Star+ impact, successful.”

…

“November 23, 4X-level, Ultra-star impact, failed.”

The most recent record was before the third interstellar exam.

The ‘X-level’ probably indicated the strength or dosage of the injected talent.

These so-called prodigies, appearing superior on the surface, were secretly nurturing their talents with the blood and flesh of others.

They used these talents to trample on others and gain fame in interstellar exams.

Everyone from Shen Qinglan to each member of the Shen family deserved to die.

She didn’t intend to let them go.

The Alliance’s control over Imperial Star was indeed very strict.

All starships entering Imperial Star underwent thorough searches.

This ensured no dangerous items were brought into Imperial Star.

But these rules were not as stringent for the major families.

Routine inspections were conducted, and starships were docked and checked, but valuable items were not scrutinized closely.

For example, the rare materials of the Shen family.

Shen Qinglan kept her confined on the Shen family’s super starship for three days, during which she thoroughly invaded the Shen family’s internal network.

Before the auction, Shen Qinglan had already consciously started moving valuable items from the experimental base to Imperial Star.

The transport was minimal, with only one starship moving items daily.

The ammunition was placed on this starship before the operation began.

Lan Wei first replaced the rare materials and then acted once the starship set off.

The Wujin was equipped with a powerful stealth system that ordinary superstars couldn’t detect.

At that time, the Shen family hadn’t had any issues yet, and since they were transporting valuable items, the Alliance turned a blind eye, not realizing Ji Fu had used the time difference to send the ammunition in advance.

She watched as the Shen family turned to dust in the bombing, finally finishing her ice cream.

Ji Fu leapt down from the high point, pulled up her hoodie, and walked towards the residential area.

Imperial Star’s roads were extensive, and the civilian area was particularly winding, home to many ordinary citizens.

Before the Alliance headquarters moved to Imperial Star, this area had already been a residential area for many citizens.

After passing through this area, towering skyscrapers rose, contrasting sharply with the buildings here.

In the sunlight, the buildings gleamed with a cold mechanical light.

Here was the base established by various aristocratic families on Imperial Star, not ordinary residences but metallic office buildings.

Ji Fu, carrying her small backpack, walked directly into the area.

It might be hard to believe, but she came today at the invitation of the Imperial Star aristocracy.

And the person who invited her was quite unexpected.

**[Beep, verification passed]**

Ji Fu retrieved her student card and was taken by a patrolling guard in a hover car to the core area inside.

The building’s lock opened.

Someone quickly approached and led Ji Fu inside the building.

This place, along with the entire Imperial Star Alliance headquarters, was under very strict system protection.

The Alliance headquarters was impenetrable unless one was inside.

The same applied to the aristocratic families.

Moreover, this base had no substantial content; it was merely a signal that the aristocracy was following the Alliance in constructing Imperial Star.

**[Beep, arrived at target floor]**

The elevator stopped, and Ji Fu looked up to see Huang Peilan sitting with her back to her.

Months had passed since they last met, and now they met in this manner.

More interestingly, Ji Fu raised her eyes and saw a large mech in front of Huang Peilan.

The innermost part of this mechanical building was entirely hollow.

Inside stood the historical super-star mech of the Huang family.

Ji Fu remembered its name: Universe.

Huang Peilan turned and saw her, standing up and softly saying, “You’re here.”

Ji Fu nodded.

Huang Peilan, now almost fifty, didn’t show her age. Her first words upon seeing Ji Fu were, “Yuwen asked me to say hello to you.”

Ji Fu paused, looking up at her.

Huang Peilan’s expression was calm, and she continued softly, “Her body has completely recovered. The doctor said she could formally enter one of the three major military academies next year.”

“I’m considering enrolling her in the Interstellar Academy. What do you think?”

Yuwen’s education didn’t need Ji Fu’s opinion.

Similarly, the precious mech of the Huang family shouldn’t be so openly displayed before her.

Ji Fu looked up at her, “What does the head of the Huang family want to say?”

Huang Peilan smiled lightly. The person before her was indeed very clever.

She looked at Ji Fu openly and sincerely said, “Nothing much. I just wanted to show you the Huang family’s attitude.”

“If possible, the Huang family could be a good ally.”