During dinnertime, Qiao Yi summoned his wife and son, who had lost track of time in the lab, back to the dining room. However, Chu Rong was absent.
Qiao Zhiya, puzzled, asked Chu Yan.
Chu Yan, who had sneakily watched the entire fight on the monitors, timidly glanced at Qiao Yi, who now appeared harmless and friendly in his robes, and swallowed hard. He stammered, “M-Military affairs suddenly came up, and Erge is busy. He might not come back tonight.”
Hearing this, Qiao Zhiya’s ears drooped, feeling a bit disheartened. He had hoped to have a good chat with Chu Rong after dinner.
“Qiaoqiao will have to sleep alone tonight,” Qiao Yi said gently, reaching out to pat his son’s head and handing him a magic stone inscribed with a protective enchantment. “If the black hole appears suddenly, don’t be afraid. Mom and I will be nearby.”
Qiao Zhiya snapped out of his disappointment, meeting his father’s tender gaze. His mood lifted, and he nodded in understanding.
That night, Chu Rong lay down in the healing pod of the infirmary, with Zhuang Yu beside him, flipping through examination results. She sighed with a mix of schadenfreude and sympathy, unable to help but chuckle.
‘Minor internal injuries and slight fractures, all easily treatable and not visibly apparent on the surface, but enough to cause some discomfort. Qiaoqiao’s father really… had a sense of propriety.’
During Chu Rong’s absence that night, the old butler hastily prepared a new room for him, marking the beginning of his sad new life of living separately from Qiao Zhiya.
With his parents around, Qiao Zhiya didn’t feel right sleeping with Chu Rong every night. So, he pretended not to notice the butler’s actions and only sneaked over to hug Chu Rong and nuzzle against his chest the next day when Chu Rong returned “from his busy schedule.”
Because of those hidden injuries，Chu Rong’s body stiffened for a moment, but he quickly masked it and hugged Qiao Zhiya back, lowering his head to inhale his comforting scent. He reassured him, “I will strive to become stronger.”
Qiao Zhiya looked puzzled, shaking his ears and looking up at him. “You are already strong enough. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I’ll help you take down the bad guys.”
Chu Rong looked down at him with a concerned expression, leaning down to kiss his eye gently, without saying a word.
This was their agreement with Qiao Yi, a pact of responsibility and commitment that he would strive to uphold and excel in.
After Qiao Zhiya returned to human form, Chu Huai had him and Chu Rong record a video to assure the public of his safety, which was broadcasted to calm the worried populace.
It had been over half a month since the incident on the festival day, and with reassurances from the government, the people had gradually settled down. Now that Qiao Zhiya had returned safely, their last worry was dispelled, and the shadow of that day slowly faded away.
Both the Federation and the Empire had completed their sweeps of the Blue Galaxy. The military discovered several abandoned laboratories and Zerg breeding grounds, but there were no traces of the mastermind.
While the adults were busy with monster hunting, life for the younger generation returned to normal.
Chu Yan went to military school for reporting and continued his studies. Qiao Zhiya reclaimed his communicator and applied for skipping grades again on the user side of the school system, taking time to participate in the exams.
Upon learning of his arrival at school, Sang Bu and Yun Xiachu rushed over, abandoning their current tasks to see him.
They had been very worried since hearing about his abduction by the mysterious mastermind, unable to contact him through his communicator. Since the Chu family’s residence wasn’t a place they could easily visit, all they could do was fret in silence.
“I’m fine. Those monsters were brought by Ning Tianxing and An Xei. My parents arrived in time to rescue me,” Qiao Zhiya explained vaguely, not accustomed to lying to his friends. After a few brief sentences, he quickly asked about Ning Kongran’s situation.
Since their last meeting with the military, apart from the time Yun Xiachu received books from him, they hadn’t received any news about Ning Kongran. They had been unable to contact him and were very worried.
On this topic, Yun Xiachu frowned and shook her head. “I haven’t heard from him either. Since he went out with my dad, there’s been no news from his side. My mom might know something, but she won’t say. She also rushed to the Capital Planet, saying she wants to take care of me nearby.”
Sangbu hesitated for a moment, then showed a picture on his communicator, looking at Yun Xia and asking, “Is this your family’s modified ship?”
The ship in the photo was gray-blue with a cloud pattern, and Yun Xiachu immediately recognized it as theirs. Frowning, she looked at him and replied, “Yes. Where did you get this picture?”
Sang Bu closed the picture, glanced at Qiao Zhiya, who looked puzzled, and said, “It was taken by my family’s fleet near the border.”
The Sang family engaged in border trade, with their ancestral home located on an A-level planet near the border. Their business was modestly successful, and they had a small fleet of their own. He had seen this picture during the festival at home and found it familiar, so he copied it over.
After Qiao Zhiya disappeared, he wasn’t very familiar with Yun Xiachu, so he forgot about this until now, when they brought it up again.
“Near the border?” Yun Xiachu became more perplexed. “Could my dad and them be crossing the border into the Empire? But why keep it a secret? Why haven’t they sent any messages back?”
Qiao Zhiya grew more puzzled as well, unable to come up with a reasonable explanation. Realizing that exam time was approaching, he bid them farewell and hurried to the exam hall.
After quickly completing the grade-skipping exam and handling the university suspension procedures, Qiao Zhiya hurried back home. Initially planning to continue repairing Rong Tian, he remembered his earlier conversation with Yun Xiachu and decided to return to the living room, retrieving the encrypted book that he hadn’t had a chance to fully study before.
Although Chu Rong had encountered the mastermind, he hadn’t engaged with them directly, so he wasn’t familiar with their actual capabilities. To uncover what abilities the mastermind might possess, these books that could potentially help identify the mastermind’s identity seemed crucial.
While Qiao Zhiya was trying to decrypt that, Qiao Yi and Mi Lai were pretending to study lingua franca upstairs. In actuality, they were studying the teleportation devices brought back from Chu Rong.
“It’s somewhat similar to the power transmission method of magic arrays.” Qiao Yi played with the blood-red teleportation device in his hand, green light flickering. He firmly locked the device’s fluctuations within a certain area, while his other hand quickly flipped through a magic tome.
Mi Lai had a large stone slab in front of her, with shallow red patterns on it that looked nothing like blood. She infused earth-elemental magic into it, carefully sensing it several times. Finally, with disgust, she confirmed that these patterns were also made of blood, though the blood content was slightly diluted.
“Blood, pattern-driven, can locate targets through the same bloodline and create a black hole to bring people back…” Mi Lai furrowed her brows, deeply troubled, feeling like the answer was on the tip of her tongue but unable to recall.
“Bloodline teleportation array.”
Qiao Yi paused the book on a page detailing an advanced magic array, waved his hand to put away the small device in his hand and the slab in front of Mi Lai, and nodded at the book, saying, “This mastermind actually developed something similar to a bloodline teleportation array.”
Mi Lai was stunned by this revelation, then exclaimed, “Are you saying the mastermind that captured Qiaoqiao can also draw magic arrays?”
“No, it doesn’t need to be the exact same magic arrays. They had mastered a method to tear space apart and enable bloodline teleportation.” Qiao Yi reassured her, a faint smile playing on his lips. He stood up and said, “Mi Lai, perhaps we have a way to capture all the experimental subjects.”
Mi Lai’s eyes brightened at his words and eagerly asked, “What method?”
Qiao Yi brushed aside a strand of hair from her face with his hand and replied, “Array reversal.”
Once again, everyone gathered in the Imperial High Advisor’s room, with Zhuang Yu joining them this time.
“Our priority is to ensure his safety.”
Qiao Yi spoke gently, then turned to the Imperial High Advisor to confirm, “This is just my idea. Are you sure you want to try it immediately?”
“I can no longer tolerate those disgusting things. Now we finally have a way to fight back. It just requires a bit of blood. It’s okay, let’s begin.” The Imperial High Advisor replied firmly, rolling up his sleeves proactively.
Qiao Yi looked at Jian and Qiao Zhiya, intending to ask them to leave, but they immediately showed their stance through action.
“Father, I’ll stay here with you,” Jian spoke up.
Qiao Zhiya, meanwhile, shrunk behind Chu Rong, poking his head out to whisper, “Dad, I’ve returned to human form and won’t be influenced by the experimental subjects anymore. I can help.” With that, he took out a large piece of jade and placed it in the center of the room.
Qiao Yi, helpless, agreed to his request, then stepped forward, took out his staff, used magic to shield everyone else, and began drawing the reversal array.
Vast magical power surged through the room, slowly forming layers upon layers as the array took shape.
Chu Rong immediately recognized the runes of this magic array, couldn’t help but grasp Qiao Zhiya’s hand, as if afraid he would disappear again.
Sensing his unease, Qiao Zhiya hurriedly held his hand back and nuzzled against his arm.
The magic array quickly took shape. Mi Lai stepped forward, drawing a large earth-elemental confinement and protective array on the ground, almost covering the entire room, then stood in the array and gave Qiao Yi a nod, starting to infuse it with magic.
Qiao Yi walked over to the Imperial High Advisor and gestured for him to extend his hand. Infusing magic into his blade, he cut through the skin, allowing his blood to form another, smaller traction array above the green array.
The Imperial High Advisor’s face gradually turned pale, and the medical instruments protected by the isolation barrier began to sound alarms. Zhuang Yu immediately moved into action, swiftly injecting medicine into the Imperial High Advisor to stabilize his condition.
As the blood gathered, the formation finally took shape. Qiao Yi released the Imperial High Advisor’s hand, and Zhuang Yu hurried forward to bandage him.
In mid-air, the green light and the red glow of blood mixed and intertwined. Qiao Yi directed the bloodline traction array to merge with the previous array, signaling the Imperial High Advisor to release his power. Immediately, the Imperial High Advisor complied, and a gentle force unlike magic or spiritual energy filled the room.
After absorbing Imperial High Advisor’s power, the array began to spin wildly. The air in the room was gradually distorted, then the red light vanished, fully integrating into the array. The green light surged, and the magic array suddenly expanded, accompanied by a faint, muffled roar of a beast.
It worked!
Qiao Zhiya was excited yet nervous, while Chu Rong stepped to his side protectively.
As the magic array expanded, its radiance reached its peak, and the roar of the beast became clearer. A force seemed to resist the traction of the magic array faintly. Imperial High Advisor, weakened, gradually weakened the power he released.
In a panic, Qiao Zhiya immediately released his own power, rushing towards the magic array.
Sensing the new dragonic power, a golden hue faintly tinted the light of the magic array. The roar of the beast became more pronounced, then a flash of black light, and a struggling, roaring experimental subject appeared in the room.
With a sharp glare, Mi Lai’s earth-elemental magic surged into a massive hammer, striking down on the struggling subject, which fell to the ground, imprisoned by the magical cage.
The most difficult part had passed. Next came the second, the third… The Imperial High Advisor began to show signs of influence from the experimental subjects, scales gradually appearing on his body. Zhuang Yu quickly began administering yellow leaf tree potion to him.
The jade in the room began to lose its color. The bloodline traction array consumed too much energy, and Qiao Yi’s strength began to wane. Qiao Zhiya quickly increased his power output, temporarily taking over, then brought out more jade.
Chu Rong also began laying out jade, even thoughtfully placing some ink jade next to Mi Lai.
Mi Lai glanced at him briefly, grunting as a reluctant form of gratitude.
