An hour later, the two of them arrived on a border planet.
It was a fourth-tier planet, just like Lu Qiao’s homeworld. The facilities on the planet were somewhat outdated, and there were few people around.
By now, dawn was just beginning to break. Galactic time had reached six o’clock, and Lu Qiao and Yan Qiu were finally able to move separately.
When Cheng Yi, Yan Qiu’s subordinates, Luo Yu, and Ji Zhuyun crossed paths, it had been four-thirty Galactic time. The location was a night-market street, though naturally, not a single shop on the street had been open at that hour.
Yan Qiu’s subordinates had already discovered Cheng Yi’s whereabouts before arriving on the planet. Once they had finally caught up with him on the night-market street, the two sides exchanged fire. What Yan Qiu’s subordinates had not expected was that, at a time like this, the Second Prince and Ji Zhuyun would also appear. The two of them seemed to have been arguing, with Ji Zhuyun chasing after the Second Prince all the way there.
The moment the three parties came face-to-face, the Second Prince was grazed by a stray round of ammunition. Then, in the very next second, Cheng Yi suddenly collapsed, leaving everyone completely baffled.
By now, residents had begun gathering on the night-market street. Fortunately, the local administrator arrived in time and brought people to seal off both ends of the street.
After Cheng Yi collapsed, apart from being touched briefly during the examination, his body had not been moved from its original position.
And when Lu Qiao saw the corpse, he froze slightly.
Cheng Yi was somewhat thin, and the clothes he wore were also rather worn. It was only natural that, while living as a fugitive, he would not have been able to keep himself looking polished. But more importantly, half of the human-skin mask was still stuck to his face.
Lu Qiao frowned, feeling an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Yan Qiu noticed his expression and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“…Do you have a picture of what he looked like wearing this?” Lu Qiao asked instinctively. “A picture from when the human-skin mask was still intact.”
“Yes. Every time Cheng Yi’s whereabouts are discovered by us, he changes his disguise after escaping. Before this incident, when we confirmed his whereabouts, we managed to capture a photo of him.” Yan Qiu’s subordinate immediately opened his terminal and brought up a holographic photograph.
In the photograph, Cheng Yi wore a hat, his hands tucked into his pockets, his expression cold and indifferent. And the way he looked while wearing the human-skin mask that was still on his face…
Lu Qiao’s expression changed.
“I’ve seen him!”
Yan Qiu’s subordinate froze, while Yan Qiu frowned. “When?”
“Back when I went home.” Lu Qiao could hardly believe it himself. “Before the gene mutation incident broke out, I was digging for bamboo shoots in the mountains and ran into him!”
Lu Qiao had actually forgotten about the man he had encountered on the mountain long ago. But perhaps because that man had given him such a strange feeling at the time, Lu Qiao remembered his appearance very clearly. The moment he saw the photograph, he immediately recognized him.
…That guy had actually been Cheng Yi!
He had actually crossed paths with Cheng Yi back then!
Wait.
No wonder. No wonder…
Lu Qiao vaguely remembered listening to a voice message from Yan Qiu while standing in front of that man. The moment the voice message ended, the man had immediately started asking him questions. Lu Qiao had found it inexplicable at the time.
Now he realized that Cheng Yi must have recognized Yan Qiu’s voice back then…
Lu Qiao told Yan Qiu everything that had happened that day, and Yan Qiu’s expression became extremely grim.
“That time, he should have fled to your home planet after escaping my subordinates,” Yan Qiu said after a pause, his voice low. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you apologizing to me for?” Lu Qiao hurriedly said. “Don’t be like this. I’m fine. Cheng Yi didn’t do anything to me.”
Yan Qiu’s expression did not improve in the slightest.
Lu Qiao took his hand and comforted him. “I’m really fine.”
It was just…
Lu Qiao suddenly remembered something else.
That time, he had assumed Cheng Yi was an ordinary person and told him to hurry and escape. After that, he had had no energy to pay attention to anything else happening around him. After knocking out the rampaging, irritable rabbit, Lu Qiao himself had also passed out from overusing his consciousness power.
And only now did he vaguely remember that after he had fainted, he had felt something touching him in a daze…
It had been consciousness power.
Lu Qiao’s expression changed.
What had touched him back then had been consciousness power.
He had completely forgotten about it!
What had happened that day had been far too chaotic. After being touched by consciousness power, he had immediately fallen into a coma, and after waking up, he had been faced with a huge mess to deal with. He had never thought of this incident again.
It was only now, when he carefully recalled every detail of what had happened that day because of Cheng Yi, that he finally remembered!
Lu Qiao immediately stepped forward, dropped to one knee, and tried to use his consciousness power to examine the corpse in front of him.
At this moment, only an hour and a half had passed since Cheng Yi’s death.
Back when Lu Qiao had been teaching Ye Lan and the others at the military hospital, Ye Lan had also taught him quite a lot.
A person’s consciousness body was composed of consciousness power and a “core” similar to the human soul. After a person died, both their consciousness power and core would gradually dissipate, and it would take a full twenty-four hours for them to disappear completely.
At this moment, there should still have been a large amount of Cheng Yi’s consciousness body remaining.
The consciousness power of a consciousness manipulator was different from that of an ordinary person. An ordinary person’s consciousness power only differed in strength, whereas a consciousness manipulator’s consciousness power also differed in its texture. Every consciousness manipulator had a unique quality to their consciousness power.
As long as Lu Qiao could sense the consciousness power Cheng Yi had left behind at this moment and compare its texture with the consciousness power that had touched him back then, he could determine whether Cheng Yi had been the one probing him while he was unconscious…
However, Lu Qiao soon froze.
He frowned and carefully examined it twice more. Then he stood up, looking suspiciously around him. He closed his eyes and extended his consciousness-power tendrils outward.
Yan Qiu stepped forward and asked, “Is something wrong?”
Lu Qiao kept his eyes closed and said, “His consciousness power and core have been completely emptied. That isn’t normal.”
Cheng Yi had only been dead for an hour and a half. How could his entire consciousness body have disappeared without a trace?
Yan Qiu asked, “Then what are you looking for now?”
Lu Qiao muttered, “I just feel like something’s wrong. Wait, let me take a look…”
Lu Qiao himself was not sure what he might find. The situation was simply too strange, and he had no clue where to begin, so he could only examine everything he possibly could.
However, very quickly, he was astonished to “see” fragmented pieces of a consciousness body drifting through the air above the night-market street.
More precisely, they were fragments of the core wrapped in traces of consciousness power.
After sensing them, Lu Qiao confirmed that this was the same consciousness power that had touched him on the mountain. He could also almost be certain that these fragments of the consciousness body had come from Cheng Yi!
And back then on the mountain, the tendril of consciousness power had touched him and immediately withdrawn. Lu Qiao had not even noticed it.
Cheng Yi’s consciousness power, just like his own, was completely silent and imperceptible!
—But how could fragments of a person’s consciousness body possibly spill out of their body and drift through the air?!
Consciousness power could extend out from a consciousness manipulator’s body, but it remained connected to the body. A consciousness body itself should have had no way of leaving the body, let alone existing completely separate from it!
This was completely beyond Lu Qiao’s understanding!
He opened his eyes and grabbed Yan Qiu’s hand. His palm was sweating.
“I feel like something’s wrong, but I don’t understand…”
Yan Qiu glanced at him and suddenly asked, “How would a consciousness manipulator commit suicide?”
Lu Qiao froze.
That’s right.
Before coming here, Yan Qiu had already suspected that Cheng Yi’s death was related to consciousness power. Judging from the situation now, Yan Qiu suspected that Cheng Yi had not been “killed,” but had instead “committed suicide.”
And perhaps it had not even been a suicide born of desperation, but one carried out for a specific purpose.
How would a consciousness manipulator commit suicide?
Lu Qiao did not know.
What he had discovered at this moment was completely beyond his understanding.
And Cheng Yi’s use of consciousness power had clearly gone far beyond anything Lu Qiao could have imagined.
Lu Qiao swallowed and forced himself to calm down.
“I don’t know. But I can take a look at exactly what he did an hour and a half ago.”
With that, Lu Qiao closed his eyes and continued extending his consciousness power, his tendrils spreading in every direction!
Inside the C1 Star Region Administration Bureau.
The medical starship had arrived half an hour earlier, and Luo Yu and Ji Zhuyun had been taken directly to the medical room at the research station.
Throughout the journey, Luo Yu had kept his head lowered, looking exhausted and saying nothing.
Ji Zhuyun had also remained silent, his expression grim.
There was a graze from a round of ammunition on Luo Yu’s shoulder. Fortunately, it was not serious. After the doctor treated the wound, he examined Luo Yu again.
After finishing, the doctor said, “There’s nothing else wrong. Do you feel any other discomfort?”
Luo Yu shook his head.
The doctor and nurse exchanged glances.
Ji Zhuyun said to them, “Please go outside for a moment.”
The doctor looked at Luo Yu again, then could only nod and lead the others out.
Only the two of them remained in the small lounge.
After a moment of silence, Ji Zhuyun said, “Luo Yu, I’m your guard now. There’s no way I can leave you.”
Until four in the morning, Luo Yu had been tossing and turning restlessly, so of course Ji Zhuyun had not been able to sleep either. He had kept an eye on the man’s every movement.
Ever since becoming Luo Yu’s guard, he and Luo Yu had been inseparable. It was just that in the imperial palace, he and the other guards took turns standing watch and resting. Even when resting, they stayed in the outer room outside Luo Yu’s chambers, so it could hardly be considered sharing a room.
He had never expected that when the two of them actually slept together, this guy would become so uncomfortable.
Thinking of this, Ji Zhuyun clenched his fists.
Since when had Luo Yu become this resistant to him?
But running out of the hotel after four in the morning was also far too reckless.
“Next time you travel, you can bring two guards with you,” Ji Zhuyun said slowly, suppressing the emotions churning inside him. “You can have the other guard sleep in the room with you, while I stand watch outside.”
This trip had been arranged by His Majesty the Emperor, who had ordered Ji Zhuyun to accompany Luo Yu. Of course, even if His Majesty had not said anything, Ji Zhuyun would have tried to remain by Luo Yu’s side and protect him. But with His Majesty personally giving the order, Luo Yu could hardly refuse.
What had delighted Ji Zhuyun at first was that, after hearing the Emperor’s instructions, Luo Yu had not brought anyone else besides him.
There was no rule saying that a prince could only bring one guard when traveling, yet Luo Yu had chosen to do exactly that. Ji Zhuyun had thought that perhaps things between them had finally begun to change.
He had not expected that after arriving at the C1 Star Region Administration Bureau, Luo Yu would quickly become cold and irritable again. And that night, he had even thrown a fit and run out of the hotel simply because he did not want to share a room with him.
Ji Zhuyun truly did not understand.
What he found even harder to tolerate was that Luo Yu had actually ended up getting hurt because of this.
Outside the imperial palace, guards were required to protect the prince at close range, even while the prince was resting. Ji Zhuyun’s actions might have satisfied his own selfish desires, but at the same time, he had also been following the rules.
If Luo Yu still insisted on making such a fuss under these circumstances, then Ji Zhuyun might as well not have come to his side at all.
Ji Zhuyun’s heart gradually grew cold.
He looked away and said indifferently, “Please get some rest. Tell me when you want to leave, and I’ll make the arrangements immediately, Your Highness.”
His tone made Luo Yu tremble, and he looked up in alarm.
But Ji Zhuyun had already stood up and walked toward the door, his back seeming somewhat cold and distant.
Luo Yu got up and ran after him, grabbing Ji Zhuyun’s hand.
“Ji Zhuyun!”
Ji Zhuyun froze and turned to look at him.
Luo Yu was trembling violently, his eyes red and filled with panic and helplessness.
Seeing him like this, Ji Zhuyun’s heart ached again. He turned back and frowned.
“Luo Yu, what exactly are you thinking?”
“I’m sorry, I…” Luo Yu trembled even more violently, his reaction somewhat abnormal.
Ji Zhuyun sensed that something was wrong. His heart sank.
He grabbed Luo Yu by the shoulders, his voice tense.
“What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”
“I—I…”
Luo Yu was trembling so badly that he could barely stand. He collapsed directly into Ji Zhuyun’s arms, convulsing as if he were having a seizure.
Ji Zhuyun immediately opened the door and shouted toward the room next door, “Doctor! Doctor!”
The doctor and nurse quickly came running over.
By then, Luo Yu had already fallen to his knees. Ji Zhuyun hurriedly lowered himself with him, holding him as he knelt on the floor.
“Luo Yu? Luo Yu!”
Luo Yu gripped Ji Zhuyun’s arm with all his strength and cried out hoarsely, “Kill me, Ji Zhuyun. Kill me, hurry! I can’t take it anymore. I really can’t—”
Ji Zhuyun stared at him in shock.
“You… What are you talking about?”
The doctor broke into a cold sweat.
“Hold the Second Prince down. I’ll take a look!”
But before Ji Zhuyun could respond, Luo Yu suddenly stopped convulsing. His entire body went limp, as if he had fainted.
Ji Zhuyun’s expression changed.
“Luo Yu?!”
The young man slumped limply in his arms, completely motionless. The doctor and nurse immediately crowded around them, intending to lay him flat on the floor and administer first aid.
But the instant several pairs of hands touched him, the young man suddenly opened his eyes.
His gaze was clear.
Everyone froze.
Ji Zhuyun was stunned, then let out a huge sigh of relief. His heart was pounding rapidly, sweat beading on his forehead. He gently stroked Luo Yu’s cheek and called out, still shaken, “Luo Yu?”
However, the young man turned his face away, avoiding his hand.
Ji Zhuyun stiffened.
The young man turned his face to the side. From Ji Zhuyun’s angle, he could see the enormous crystal outside the glass window.
The corners of his lips curled upward as he murmured, “I’ve finally gained complete control of this body.”
Ji Zhuyun heard this and did not understand at first. After a moment, he asked blankly, “What are you talking about?”
The young man turned back and smiled at Ji Zhuyun.
“I’m sorry, but your Luo Yu has been gone for a year already.”
If Luo Yu’s cold attitude before had merely made Ji Zhuyun feel that something was strange, then the person standing before him at this moment had absolutely nothing of Luo Yu left in either his expression or his tone.
Ji Zhuyun froze.
In the span of a single second, countless details flashed through his mind. His pupils contracted sharply, and his sense of danger moved faster than his thoughts.
Amid the startled cries of the medical personnel around them, he reached out and grabbed the person on the floor by the throat.
His voice was icy.
“Who are you?”
The young man bared his teeth in a grin.
“You’re asking too late.”
The next second, Ji Zhuyun, the medical personnel, and the staff at the end of the corridor—all the people inside the C1 Star Region Administration Bureau—were struck head-on by an invisible, soundless force and collapsed unconscious to the floor.
In an instant, the entire research station was left with only one person still conscious.
He slowly stood up and dusted off his clothes. Then, step by step, he walked toward the edge of the corridor and pressed his entire body against the glass window, gazing almost obsessively at the enormous crystal outside.
He began to laugh softly.
“I finally get to see you, World.”
Fourth-tier planet, night-market street.
Lu Qiao eventually stopped in an alley on the right side of the night-market street. A few drops of blood stained the ground beneath his feet.
“This is where Luo Yu was attacked?” he asked hoarsely.
“Yes. May I ask what’s wrong?” Yan Qiu’s subordinate asked, confused.
This was where the fragments of Cheng Yi’s consciousness body were most concentrated.
If Cheng Yi’s arrival on this planet had not been a coincidence…
If Luo Yu’s appearance here at four-thirty in the morning had not been a coincidence—
If Cheng Yi had committed suicide, and had shattered his own consciousness body—
If Cheng Yi had shattered his consciousness body in order to move it outside his physical body—
Then what exactly had his purpose been?
Lu Qiao thought of something and turned to the man beside him.
“What exactly happened before Luo Yu started acting strangely?”
Yan Qiu was about to answer when he suddenly received a call.
He exchanged a glance with Lu Qiao before answering.
Luo Ye’s hurried voice came from the other end.
“Luo Yu ran into Cheng Yi? Is he all right?”
Yan Qiu said, “Just a minor injury. He was sent to the C1 Star Region Administration Bureau for treatment.”
Luo Ye breathed a sigh of relief, then said, “That’s good. By the way, before this incident, Luo Yu wouldn’t let us talk about it, and Father wouldn’t let us tell anyone either. But I’ve always felt that something was wrong… Luo Yu started acting strangely a year ago. You know something happened to him back then.”
“Mm.”
Luo Ye paused before lowering his voice.
“He was pranked by Fourth Brother back then and accidentally ended up in the Blue-Eyed Star Nation. Sai’er and the others discovered that Cheng Yi was in the Blue-Eyed Star Nation around that same time, right… Do you think that was a coincidence? Luo Yu ran into Cheng Yi again this time. Could it be…”
Yan Qiu’s expression darkened.
He said to Luo Ye, and at the same time to Lu Qiao, “It wasn’t a coincidence.”
Although Lu Qiao had not heard what Luo Ye had said to Yan Qiu, he immediately understood what Yan Qiu meant.
Luo Yu and Cheng Yi crossing paths had not been a coincidence.
And the fragments of Cheng Yi’s consciousness body were most concentrated in the places where Luo Yu had been.
If fragments of his consciousness body could spill out of his physical body, then naturally, it was also possible for them to enter someone else’s body.
Lu Qiao did not know what would happen if one person were invaded by fragments of another person’s consciousness body, but it was not difficult to guess.
Especially since Luo Yu’s personality had already changed long ago. Now, it was clear that his change in personality must have been related to Cheng Yi.
The ultimate target toward which all of Cheng Yi’s actions had been directed had gone beyond everyone’s imagination.
But clearly, he had already achieved it.
Lu Qiao spoke rapidly.
“Contact the C1 Star Region Administration Bureau. Luo Yu may very well be under Cheng Yi’s control!”
At the same time, he remembered the question Luo Yu had asked him while pretending to be one of his subordinates during the adjutant assessment.
“Have you ever seen the Milky Way and gears?”
Lu Qiao’s entire body jolted, and his heart gave a heavy thump.
He suddenly remembered the “dream” he had had more than an hour ago.
His consciousness-power range had expanded rapidly. So even though he had been on that vacation planet with Yan Qiu at the time, his consciousness power had unconsciously stretched outward in his sleep and still managed to reach the World Core System.
And after his consciousness power plunged into the World Core System, he had seen the Milky Way and gears!!
Lu Qiao’s scalp went numb.
What was Cheng Yi trying to do?!
Was his ultimate target the World Core System?!
The moment this thought occurred to him, he staggered backward, and Yan Qiu caught him.
Lu Qiao murmured, “Yan Qiu, can the World Core System be controlled by someone?”
Yan Qiu froze.
He was just about to answer when he suddenly stopped.
Lu Qiao looked at him blankly.
“Yan Qiu?”
The next second, the man collapsed.
Lu Qiao was startled. He immediately turned around and caught Yan Qiu in his arms.
And he watched with his own eyes as everyone on the night-market street collapsed one after another. Birds in the sky dropped from the air one by one, while the flowers and grass along the roadside rapidly withered.
In merely one second, the entire world fell silent.
Only Lu Qiao remained standing, awake and watching everything happen.
He trembled slightly and tightened his arms around the man.
His voice shaking, he called out, “…Yan Qiu?”
The man in his arms did not respond.
He was not even breathing.
Lu Qiao stared blankly at Yan Qiu, then at the people who had collapsed all along the street in the distance. He began trembling harder and harder.
Could the World Core System be controlled by someone?
If someone controlled it…
What would happen to the world?