387-393

Chapter 387: Unfilial Daughter!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Although the imperial operator had managed to pull a distance away from Ling Xiao and evaded Ling Xiao's sure-kill hit, he was still so nervous that his head was covered in sweat. Earlier, he had thought he was going to die for sure — Ling Xiao's speed had just been too fast; he could not keep up with the other's pace at all. But right at that border of life-or-death, his anchored spiritual power had miraculously loosened and he had undergone a breakthrough. At the moment when the sword would hit him, he had managed to increase his mecha's speed by several times, dodging that sure-kill hit with the barest of margins.

However, he was still a little too late. Even though he had avoided his vital points from being hit, he was unable to avoid the attack completely. In the end, he lost the left arm of his mecha, but the imperial operator was already very satisfied with this outcome. After all, he had still managed to survive the attack of a god-class operator.

Still, the imperial operator was not foolish enough to believe that he could fight toe-to-toe with a god-class operator just because he had achieved a breakthrough in his spiritual power. Even though this breakthrough had elevated his mecha control skills by another level, making it so that he could wield all aspects of his imperial mecha even better than before, at the heart of it, he was still just an imperial operator. He had not advanced to god-class, and no matter how strong an imperial operator became, he would still be no match for a god-class operator ...

Thus, there was only one word in his mind — "RUN"! Only by successfully escaping from this god-class operator's hands would he have any future to speak of. This unforeseen improvement in his abilities made him even more eager to find a way to save himself ...

Of course, these notions merely passed through the imperial operator's mind in a split second. In the eyes of the spectators, as soon as the imperial mecha's arm had been efficiently chopped off by Ling Xiao, the imperial mecha had instantly chosen to turn and run, flying off at top speed in an attempt to escape. The imperial mecha seemed to be desperate to run away — he pulled out all the stops on his engines, and his mecha actually shot away like a beam of light, instantly escaping over a kilometre away.

The imperial mecha's flustered demeanour as he escaped shocked Ling Lan's and Qiao Ting's teams greatly. Just think — not too long ago, before Ling Xiao had arrived, how arrogant and haughty the imperial operator had been towards them, treating them as if they were merely a group of ants whose lives were his to snuff out as he wished. Unexpectedly, the imperial mecha who had frightened them so much was actually so pathetic once he was up against General Ling Xiao, only managing to resist for one round before turning tail to run.

Everyone stared fervently at the grand and mighty mecha of Ling Xiao's hovering in the air. When would they be able to reach the level of General Ling Xiao, able to scare the wits out of the enemy just by showing his face?

Qiao Ting's emotions were running high — he could not help but clench his fists. Having been called the second Ling Xiao all this while, would he be as great as General Ling Xiao in the future and become the thirteenth god-class operator of the Federation?

"I will definitely succeed!" Qiao Ting vowed to himself in silence, a glimmer of ambition passing through his eyes.

Seeing the imperial mecha choose to run away in the end, Ling Xiao could not help but snort, his eyes brimming with cold intention. If anyone could see Ling Xiao's expression now, they would certainly be shocked that the always gentle and mild-mannered General Ling Xiao could have such fearsome killing intent. Ling Xiao was not a saint — the moment the opponent's butcher knife had ever threatened the life of his darling daughter, Ling Xiao had never even considered letting him leave with his life.

The air beside Ling Xiao's mecha twisted once more and the massive mecha actually disappeared mysteriously right before the crowd's eyes. In the midst of everyone's bewilderment, Ling Xiao's mecha had already appeared a kilometre or so away to block off the imperial mecha's escape route.

With all of its engines engaged at maximum power, the imperial mecha's speed was already at the limits of an imperial mecha. Three seconds later, the mecha had already gotten several kilometres away from where Ling Xiao was. On his mecha's screens, there was no sign of Ling Xiao's massive mecha in pursuit. The imperial operator's anxious heart finally settled somewhat. Did this mean that he had already managed to escape?

However, before he left planet Newline for good, the imperial operator would not believe he was truly safe yet. The Divine Wind system of god-class mecha was a heaven-defying existence — if he did not run far enough, he would be easily caught up to by the god-class mecha using its Divine Wind system.

The imperial operator did not slow down his speed, instead pushing his mecha's engines desperately to continue powering forwards. At the same time, he did not forget to send an emergency alert to his companion, the other imperial operator remaining at the dormitory district, to tell him that Ling Xiao was here and to retreat quickly and stop bothering with those Federation troops. The imperial operator knew well that the appearance of a god-class operator meant that they had no chance of winning this battle anymore. He believed that the Empire's commander-in-chief would also agree with their decision; several thousand ace operators were not as important as one imperial operator.

Right then, this imperial operator did not know that his companion had already died by Ling Xiao's hand, that this alert he just sent would never ever be received by the other.

Just then, directly ahead of the imperial mecha, the air suddenly warped to suddenly reveal a large mecha in his path. The other's appearance was too sudden, and the imperial mecha was travelling at its top speed — the ten or so metres between them was not enough for the imperial operator to make any adjustments to his controls to alter his flight path. He could only watch helplessly as his mecha barrelled straight towards Ling Xiao's mecha.

"Bastard!" The imperial mecha knew that a collision was inevitable. A ruthless light appeared in his eyes, and he quickly turned his mecha's beam shield up to its maximum defence setting. Instead of decreasing the power of his engines, he revved them even higher, pushing his mecha's speed another notch higher to send his mecha hurtling towards Ling Xiao like a terrible metal missile.

At the last moment, the dire situation made the imperial mecha decide on an internecine outcome — even if he died, he would bring Ling Xiao along with him!

The opponent's decision merely caused a trace of derision to appear in Ling Xiao's eyes. He did not dodge, only stating calmly, "Divine Shield system!"

received his command and instantly activated the Divine Shield system. The already radiant and beautiful mecha was suddenly covered by a pale blue light all over its body, instantly illuminating the darkness of the night even further ...

A tremendous 'boom' rang out as the two mecha collided head on! The intense shockwaves caused by the collision could even be felt by Ling Lan and the other cadets several kilometres away. On the screens of their mecha, the image of the two mecha colliding was played faithfully. Even though their speed was incomparable to that of a god-class mecha, the capture function of their cameras was still extremely powerful, recording this thrilling scene with great precision.

This scene caused everyone's expression to change drastically. Despite knowing in their hearts that General Ling Xiao was sure to be fine, they could not help but worry whether General Ling Xiao would sustain some injuries due to this devastating collision.

Perhaps the heavens wanted to test the hearts of these cadets even further, for before their initial worry could subside, the imperial mecha abruptly exploded. Boom boom boom! Consecutive explosions rang out and the entire night sky was instantly a blanket of smoke. Ling Lan and the rest could only see several fireballs continuing to burn within the thick smoke, which then swiftly plummeted from the skies to crash heavily into the ground.

Some of the fireballs crashed on dry grass, and very soon, the ground was aflame. From a tiny ember, the flames grew till it was a roaring blaze wreathed in thick smoke, where it then finally began to spread rapidly across the ground ...

However, right then, no one was paying any attention to the situation on the ground. Ling Lan and the rest were staring anxiously out into the air, waiting for the smoke of that imperial mecha's self-destruction to dissipate. Finally, General Ling Xiao's once again emerged before the group. The mecha hovered in the air, steady and immovable. The bright blue glow surrounding its outer shell was completely unchanged, and the twelve wings behind it were just as radiant and eye-catching as they were at the start.

All this proved that the impact of an imperial mecha's intentional collision and the force from its self-destruction was not enough to cause any damage to a god-class mecha! Everyone present could not help but be astounded at the sight — as expected of the acknowledged strongest ultimate weapon of the human world. Imperial mecha one level lower than it was nothing before it.

"So this is god-class mecha!" They all looked at the god-class mecha with impassioned eyes. All their awe and exclamations were finally condensed into this one sentence. 's monstrous power had been deeply reflected in their hearts; it became their lifelong goal from this point onwards.

Very soon, Ling Xiao operated his mecha to return to Ling Lan. He slowly descended to the ground, looking down at the mecha his daughter was piloting as he did so, and his heart twinged in pain.

The outer shell of the ace mecha Ling Lan was piloting was currently covered in scars. These battle scars proved that his baby daughter had experienced several battles already within this period of time. His precious daughter who should have grown up wilfully beneath his wings, had to act like a man because of him and rely on her own skills to seek survival on the cruel battlefield ...

This was all because of his incompetence as a father! If only he had not fallen for that trap 16 years ago, then his precious daughter would not have had to live such a hard life. For the first time, Ling Xiao registered deeply that he had done something wrong. He even imagined what if he had rushed here only to find that his daughter had already met some great misfortune ... Ling Xiao could not help but shudder. He absolutely could not allow such a thing to happen, or else he would never be able to forgive himself for the rest of his life.

"General Ling Xiao, so glad to meet you!" Ling Xiao's silence made Ling Lan feel rather awkward, and she also did not want to have an emotional father-daughter reunion right here on this brutal battlefield, so she took the initiative to set the scene.

"General Ling Xiao?!" The way Ling Lan had addressed him caused all of the self-remonstration deep in Ling Xiao's heart to scatter. He felt his teeth and gums aching, wishing dearly that he could grind them against something ... was he only going to hear his daughter call him 'General Ling Xiao' after rushing here over several hundred thousand li? This unfilial daughter!

Is it so difficult to call me 'daddy' just once? Ling Xiao forcibly suppressed the urge to blurt out this question with much effort, stiffly turning it into a different question. "Hn, can you still continue to fight?" He could not bear to push his daughter; after all, he was the one who owed his daughter, having been absent for 16 years of her life. The time before them was still long — one day, he would have his baby daughter willingly call him 'daddy'! Ling Xiao vowed silently to himself.

"Of course!" Ling Xiao's question made Ling Lan sigh in relief. She had really been worried that Ling Xiao would be displeased with her form of address and expose their relationship ... alright, Ling Lan was still somewhat unaccustomed to having such an awesome and impressive dad. Sometimes, when a father was too outstanding, it was a lot of pressure on the child.

Chapter 388: Weak!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Ling Lan's team members who knew about General Ling Xiao's relationship with their boss also knew that this father-son pair was rather strange in their interactions. They definitely did not give off the typical intimate feeling other father-son pairs did. Therefore, the members were not too surprised by their boss's impassive reaction.

Meanwhile, Li Lanfeng and Li Shiyu had no clue about Ling Lan and Ling Xiao's relationship. Even though they were rather surprised at how Ling Lan could keep so calm in the presence of the military's idol General Ling Xiao, when they considered how Ling Lan was perpetually cold and unemotional, they no longer thought anything of it. They just took it as a personality issue of Ling Lan and did not suspect anything else.

Ling Lan's calm and toneless response was followed by a beat of silence — Ling Xiao suddenly did not know what kind of attitude he should use when treating his baby daughter now. If he used the tone of a superior speaking to a subordinate, even if he could bear to do so, if his wife Lan Luofeng found out, he would definitely meet no good end ... if he acted a little more intimate, he wondered whether this would irritate his daughter, because his daughter's behaviour indicated that she did not want to reveal their relationship and expose her identity.

Ling Xiao once again felt it profoundly — it was truly very difficult to be a satisfactory father for a daughter 1 ...

Right at that moment, Qiao Ting on the other end had also operated his mecha over, bringing his faction members in tow. He came up to stand beside Ling Lan and said excitedly, "General Ling Xiao, hello. I am a 4th-year cadet of the First Men's Military Academy, Qiao Ting. It's nice to meet you." His words were similar in meaning to Ling Lan's greeting at the start, but compared to Ling Lan's cold indifference, Qiao Ting's tone of voice was obviously much warmer and more excited.

Ling Xiao turned his head to look at this ace trainee mecha who had come forwards uninvited. He knew that this must be one of the outstanding students of the military academy — mind you, for a 4th-year cadet to have already advanced to ace operator status was extremely rare, as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. And so, he operated his mecha to give Qiao Ting a nod in response.

This attitude of Ling Xiao's was exceedingly normal. Even though Qiao Ting was an outstanding cadet, Ling Xiao had seen more than his fair share of this type of talent. At his current level, Qiao Ting was not yet able to gain Ling Xiao's acknowledgement. As one of the twelve god-class operators of the Federation, one of the ten great generals, Ling Xiao's standards were undoubtedly very high.

However, having a comparison, Qiao Ting did not think so. They were both cadets piloting trainee mecha, but Ling Xiao's attitude when treating the other ace operator was obviously warmer. This made Qiao Ting feel a little unhappy; he felt he was being treated coldly. In the military academy, the instructors had high hopes for him and the other students gathered around him like stars around the moon. Thus, he naturally felt that he had the right to garner the same treatment as the other ace operator ...

Ling Xiao naturally knew nothing of these little thoughts running through Qiao Ting's mind. Right then, his daughter was the only thing he could see. If not for the strangers around, Ling Xiao would have directly pried Ling Lan's mecha open so that he could see for himself that his daughter was truly safe and unharmed. However, Ling Xiao was after all Ling Xiao. He knew that in this situation, he could not do as he wished. In order to find out his daughter's true condition, Ling Xiao decided to put a swift end to the battle.

Thus, he said, "After regrouping, head for the dormitory district immediately!" That said, Ling Xiao's giant mecha once again disappeared from the group's sight, leaving no trace behind. If not for the roaring flames left behind by the fall of the imperial mecha, everyone could have imagined that General Ling Xiao's presence here had merely been a wishful dream.

Seeing Ling Xiao leave, Ling Lan let out a mental sigh of relief. At this time, Little Four finally leapt out from the little black room he had been confined to and shouted indignantly, "Boss, you're a coward! Not even daring to call out 'daddy'! I look down on you!" It turned out that Ling Lan was afraid that Little Four would be too excited at seeing Ling Xiao and affect her emotional balance, and so had shut Little Four up in that little black room when Ling Xiao had approached her.

Ling Lan said helplessly, "This is a battlefield. It's not appropriate for me to call him that here."

"I'm not listening, not listening! You're just afraid and cowardly! Are you ashamed of having Ling Xiao as your daddy?" Little Four covered his ears, showing that he would not accept any of Ling Lan's explanations. Instead, he continued to question Ling Lan with an even angrier tone.

"How could I be ashamed of that? I'm very proud to be Ling Xiao's daughter! I'm just more afraid that I'll disgrace Ling Xiao," Ling Lan told Little Four bitterly, her expression a little lost.

The reason why she could accept the virtual world Ling Xiao was that she understood that that Ling Xiao was fake — it was only a remnant spiritual imprint. Thus, she could let her emotions run free and call the other 'daddy' without reservations, and the other's reaction was just as she had expected, immensely happy and content. And that was all — things ended there, and there was no future to worry about.

But now things were different. The present Ling Xiao was a real person. He had feelings, he possessed all seven emotions and six desires — he might accept her now with his selfless fatherly love, but he could also become disappointed in the future, and become angry and hate her ... Ling Lan was afraid that once she accepted Ling Xiao, she would become weak and start hoping for even more.

Over these past 16 years, in order to support the burden of the entire Ling family on her shoulders, Ling Lan had already learned how to be strong and independent, accustomed to handling everything on her own. Ling Xiao's return changed everything she had already gotten used to, and this made Ling Lan somewhat panicked.

What flustered Ling Lan even more was Ling Xiao's full berth of fatherly love. He displayed it so obviously, and the enthusiasm and intensity of it were so distinctly different from her father's demeanour in her previous life; her past father's eyes had always been full of fatigue and weariness. This was another reason why Ling Lan had been avoiding the issue, unable to examine her true emotions too closely.

Yes, it wasn't that Ling Lan did not want to accept Ling Xiao; she was just afraid that one day in the future, those love-filled eyes of Ling Xiao would also end up filled with distaste and weariness ... Ling Lan did not want to experience that kind of hurt ever again. It was just as Little Four had said — weak, she pushed away Ling Xiao's overflowing fatherly love again and again, even though she knew that her response would hurt Ling Xiao a little.

"Like this, can I become a daughter Ling Xiao would be satisfied with?" Ling Lan asked Little Four with a sad smile. Already trained to be a cold-blooded and ruthless killer by the learning space, she could no longer be that soft and gentle, sweet and adorable little girl in Ling Xiao's mind's eye.

Little Four was taken aback by Ling Lan's question, and then his entire face collapsed into a deep frown. He found that what his boss had said was not wrong. Already used to seeing his boss's cold, fierce, and domineering demeanour, Little Four really could not imagine her acting like a petite and sweet young miss instead. Thus, Little Four consoled her with a face full of regret, "Boss, my condolences!"

Ling Lan wordlessly flicked Little Four's forehead and then ignored Little Four's woeful eyes of condemnation. Somewhat dejectedly, she said, "I can only take things one step at a time. If ..." She did not finish her sentence. One day, if she managed to overcome the barriers in her heart, perhaps she would be able to call Ling Xiao 'daddy'.

Ling Lan very quickly gathered her emotions. Turning to check on her team, after she found that they were all unharmed, she moved to lead her team back to the dormitory district. Ling Lan knew well that her father must have already gone ahead to wrap things up there.

Just then, Qiao Ting, who had similarly finished settling matters with his team, called out to her, "Please wait!"

"Something the matter?" Ling Lan paused and turned her head to ask. At the critical moment, Qiao Ting did not choose to abandon his companions and subordinates — this had turned Ling Lan's impression of Qiao Ting favourable.

"May I ask, which year and specialization you are from?" Qiao Ting really wanted to know who this other ace operator was. Who exactly was this person who had also managed to advance to ace operator like him?

Qiao Ting's question caused Ling Lan to quirk a brow, but she did not answer.

Ling Lan's silence made Qiao Ting even more unhappy. His frustration and disappointment at being treated coldly by Ling Xiao rushed to his head and he found himself blurting out, "Do you know General Ling Xiao?" Or else why would General Ling Xiao treat you so warmly yet treat me with such cold indifference? This was the only reason Qiao Ting could come up with during this short period of time.

Ling Lan could not help but laugh at his question. No matter how cool she had tried to play it, Ling Xiao's behaviour had still raised some flags. For some reason, Ling Lan suddenly felt really happy — though initially she had not planned on answering, her good mood prompted her to ask in return, "Could it be that you don't know General Ling Xiao?"

Ling Lan's question rendered Qiao Ting instantly speechless. Mind you, in the Federation, aside from those newborn children who knew nothing, as long as one was a mentally aware Huaxian, there was no way one did not know General Ling Xiao. As such, Qiao Ting's previous question was a rather silly one.

Qiao Ting was just about to change the phrasing of his question when he heard Ling Lan say evenly, "General Ling Xiao ordered us to head to the dormitory district immediately. I think that, General Ling Xiao probably would not want us to dawdle."

Ling Lan's words caused Qiao Ting's heart to clench in fright. He swallowed his questions and looked searchingly at the ace trainee mecha before him for a moment before turning to order his faction members to head swiftly for the dormitory district.

Watching the disappearing figures of Qiao Ting's group, Li Lanfeng, who had been silent all this while, asked, "Rabbit, are we leaving it like this?" Qiao Ting's previous overbearing and impolite behaviour had seriously ruffled Li Lanfeng's feathers — though of course this was also because Li Lanfeng already had some negative bias against Qiao Ting to begin with, so all of Qiao Ting's improper behaviour was magnified endlessly in his eyes.

"We'll clash again in the future. Leiting will not forget the grudge established this year. In at most two years' time, they will challenge us again." A smirk appeared on Ling Lan's lips. Qiao Ting's refusal to act against his companions had indeed improved Ling Lan's opinion of him, but she also deeply disliked the inherently overbearing and haughty side of him.

It should be said that Ling Lan had also cultivated a robust air of dominance from her training in the learning space. However, her dominance was deeply embedded in her bones and was not waved about on the outside. As such, regarding Qiao Ting who was equally dominant, she naturally felt slightly repelled — this was perhaps the logic behind the theory of keeping kings away from each other 2 .

Ling Lan's words made Li Lanfeng recall that time a while back when the New Cadet Regiment had gone up against Leiting in an arena battle. He knew that Leiting would definitely enact their plan for revenge when the time was right, and so he said, "When it's time for the mecha fight, count me in."

Ling Lan was surprised. "Aren't you part of Wuji?"

Li Lanfeng chuckled and said, "We're just collaborators. Wuji will not be comfortable letting us external allies join them." Just like Zhao Jun, who was also excluded from the group. Li Lanfeng rubbed his jaw as he suddenly thought, ' Perhaps next year, he could also lure Zhao Jun over ... 3 '

Zhao Jun, who was currently hiding in the dormitory district, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He anxiously checked his surroundings, but other than cadets, he could only see more cadets. There was no sign of any danger at all. He scratched his head in confusion, unsure where that sense of danger had come from ...

Chapter 389: Li Yinfei!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

By the time Ling Lan and the others arrived at the dormitory district, the entire battlefield had already entered the end stages of clean-up. Ling Xiao, hovering in the air, was like a large mountain to the invaders, pressing down on them till they could not even breathe. On top of that, if anyone tried anything, a beam from Ling Xiao would strike them down mercilessly, killing them instantly.

This type of combat power had sapped away all the fight in the intruders. The only reason why they had not put down their weapons and surrendered yet was that they still held on to that last thread of hope in their hearts. They were praying that their fleet in space would descend on planet Newline to shoot Ling Xiao down and rescue them.

Of course, they were disappointed in the end, because the ground forces sent them the images captured by their satellite after their signal communications were restored. These images showed them that their last hope was currently under attack on all sides, surrounded by the four Federation fleets which had come to provide reinforcements, unable to even protect itself. Thus, they stopped hoping for a miracle, put down their weapons, and surrendered to become prisoners of the Huaxia Federation.

Without the help of a starship, mecha of imperial level and below had no way of breaking free of gravity by themselves to return to space. 1 Therefore, if they did not surrender, their final outcome would be to die here on the battlefield. Not everyone could view death with equanimity. Thus, when the first person laid down his weapon, everyone else followed suit, which finally marked the end of this battle sparked by an air invasion.

The ground forces very quickly took the prisoners who had surrendered into custody, and then they began clearing up the battlefield as they searched for any survivors. Meanwhile, after a brief period of panic and chaos, the dormitory district also began their own rescue efforts under the lead of the instructors. That shot by the imperial operator had caused a great number of casualties among the cadets. For a time, the entire military academy was plunged into a sad and depressing atmosphere.

The fighting on the ground had come to an end, but the fighting in space was still in full swing. The four fleets had arrived so quickly at planet Newline all because of Ling Xiao.

As Ling Xiao had piloted to rush towards planet Newline, he had also sent out a request for assistance to the four large fleets. Although Ling Xiao had not known for sure back then what exactly was going on on planet Newline, with how Ling Lan had notified him, Ling Xiao believed that the situation on planet Newline must already be very bad. At first, Ling Xiao had suspected that the horrifying demon beasts around planet Newline had begun to rampage, so he had wanted to let the four large fleets help evacuate the cadets from the planet to ensure their safety.

This was truly a stroke of luck — as soon as Ling Xiao arrived in the space of planet Newline, he noticed countless unidentified starships and immediately knew that this must be an invasion. Ling Xiao thought of the four fleets on their way, and since he was also very worried about his daughter's safety, he decided to ignore these starships, sneaking by right under their noses to fly into planet Newline. It had to be said that god-class mecha were indeed truly frightening. They were able to completely conceal their own signals and images, preventing them from being picked up by the radars of many starships; thus, he was able to sneak into planet Newline completely undetected.

The final outcome was that the enemy starship fleet was totally annihilated under the combined attack of the four Federation fleets. Even though some of the starships managed to escape from the blockade to run from the planet Newline sector, they were chased down in a frenzy by the four large fleets.

It had to be said that the invasion of planet Newline, which was an attempt to kill off the Federation's future seeds of hope, had utterly crossed the line of all of the upper echelons of the Federation. Whether it be the government or the military, no matter which faction they were from, they all issued the kill order. Even though the factions harboured all sorts of conflicts of interests, they still shared the common goal of protecting the future of the Federation. Therefore, everyone chose the same way of handling things, and that was to use bloody means to keep the surrounding countries in line via fear, telling them that the Huaxia Federation was not as easy to provoke as they thought.

In the end, this invasion ended with the complete annihilation of the intruders. However, the casualties of planet Newline were severe enough to shock the Federation government and the military. Over half of the ground forces were sacrificed in the battle, and almost all of the various mecha squads were crippled by their losses as well. What saddened them even more was that out of a hundred thousand cadets, eight thousand had died in this battle. These cadets had all been excellent seedlings for the various military positions in the future, but before they could even debut on the battlefield, they had already lost their wings here in the military academy. This was their fault as the older generation.

For such a large fleet to have infiltrated the Federation deep enough to seek out and come to planet Newline, there was no doubt that something must have gone wrong with some departments within the Federation. The price paid in blood spurred the government and the military to no longer take things easy — the president and the three grand marshals of the military signed a joint order to clean out the spies and secret agents hiding within the ranks. Even some parasites who had disregarded national interests for their own personal gain were also cleared out in the process.

This operation was called Operation Bloodstain. The severity of the methods employed left those spies and secret agents fortunate enough to escape discovery frightened and jumping at shadows, not daring to act any further in the interim. This allowed the Federation to have unusual smooth-sailing in the subsequent battles for revenge, and the Federation quickly harvested the fruits of triumph in battle.

Of course, regarding Ling Xiao's appearance at planet Newline, military headquarters had many questions. After all, Ling Xiao should have been busy establishing the 23rd Division several thousand light-years away — why had he appeared at planet Newline at that time? However, Ling Xiao's appearance had been extremely timely, and his command to gather the four large fleets had also been extremely accurate. This had salvaged the situation, preventing the Federation from a loss of at least five generations of potential talent.

This result was a great relief and comfort to the president and the three grand marshals of the Federation; as such, the feat certainly qualified as extraordinary merit. However, they still summoned Ling Xiao back for an inquiry. When they found out that Ling Xiao had snuck into the military academy undercover out of worry for how his son was getting along in the school, they all burst out into laughter.

They laughed at Ling Xiao for being overly attached to his son, but were also very glad that Ling Xiao had rushed over to planet Newline because of that. The president and the three great marshals were well aware that if Ling Xiao had not been there, this invasion would definitely have ended up in favour of the enemy. At that time, what they would have received would have been news of the complete annihilation of the First Men's Military Academy. And the result of this outcome would inevitably have been their resignation, for only that would be able to extinguish the rage of the people.

Still, even with Ling Xiao's involvement, the casualties among the cadets had reached as high as eight thousand ... Luckily, the government's crisis unit was very efficient, adeptly turning the public's focus onto the enemy, with especial emphasis on the several thousand prisoners they had captured. When they found out that many nations had participated in this air invasion, there was an immediate public outcry. The voices of anti-war sentiment instantly vanished without a trace, and the public enlistment rate which had been steadily declining by the year increased by leaps and bounds within that month.

The president and the military were instantly relieved. Subsequently, in order to pacify the angry public, the president and the three great marshals finally came to a consensus — they gave the order to launch a full offensive on the Duolan Alliance, which was the weakest nation among the members of the invading enemy alliance the Federation had been able to identify through their investigation.

Perhaps afraid that the Federation would expose their doings and affect their grand image of being a supreme nation, the Dosa Empire 2

unexpectedly kept their silence in the face of the Huaxia Federation's attack on Duolan. Meanwhile, though the Huaxia Federation clearly knew that the primary culprit was the Dosa Empire, out of fear that the entire human world would be once again dragged into a world war as soon as their two nations clashed, the Huaxia Federation chose once more to endure this slight, determined to extract their pound of flesh from Dosa's accomplices instead.

Just when the Federation retaliated against Duolan, "Tranquil Night", a requiem for the innocent cadets who had died in the battle, spread rapidly from within the virtual world. Perhaps because the lyrics resonated with the sorrow in the hearts of the cadets and those family members who had lost someone in the battle, and also due to its sad melody which carried undertones of strength and resilience, the singer of said song instantly became the favourite singer of the academy cadets ...

Without support from the Dosa Empire, and without internal spies to leak the military tactics of the Federation, the Federation's attack on Duolan proceeded smoothly. One month later, the Duolan Alliance was utterly razed and Duolan was officially claimed as Federation territory. This victory caused the Federation to descend into wild celebration, and the lingering grief from the air invasion was significantly eased.

In the meantime, after a month's time, not only was the rage of the military and the public slowly subsiding, within the restored First Men's Military Academy, the initial grief and rage suffusing the campus were slowly fading back to calm. The anger, fright, and worry in every students' eyes were also gradually settling into calm as well, and smiles began to appear on the cadets' faces again.

"Boss, great news! Great news!" Early in the morning, Xie Yi flew down the stairs with a face full of excitement. He should have just gotten up and must not have taken the time to wash up, for his entire appearance was extremely dishevelled. Xie Yi did not notice Ling Lan scrunch up her brow slightly at his appearance as he shouted at her loudly in excitement over the breakfast table.

Ling Lan was unimpressed by his fervour. She lifted the white napkin by her side to dab at her lips before setting it down on the table. Only then did she look up to glance sharply at him.

At his boss's cold and fierce gaze and expression, Xie Yi instantly woke up from his buzzing excitement. He swiftly lowered his head, no longer daring to make such a fuss.

Witnessing Xie Yi being shut down, Qi Long, who was sitting at one side, began to snicker. Han Jijyun wordlessly nudged him, reminding him to leave Xie Yi some face, while Luo Lang threw a cold glance over at Xie Yi like Ling Lan had — whatever Boss disliked, he disliked as well.

As for Lin Zhong-qing, he did not raise his head but continued to focus on his breakfast. It had nothing to do with him after all; Xie Yi had brought this all on himself. Fine, when it was just them on their own, Ling Lan's team was not as united and loving as they appeared outside. Whenever there was a chance, the members would absolutely step on each other while they were down.

"Tell me then, what exactly is this great news that has gotten you so excited," said Ling Lan calmly when she saw that Xie Yi had been sufficiently cowed.

Hearing this, Xie Yi knew that his boss was not truly angry, and his interrupted enthusiasm reared up once again. "Boss, Li Yinfei is coming to our school!"

"Li Yinfei?" Ling Lan's brow furrowed. Who was this again 3 ?

"What?! Li Yinfei is coming? Is that for real?" Before Ling Lan could recall who this person was, Qi Long had already exclaimed in excitement, "Xie Yi, how did you find out about this?"

"Just now I went onto the academy forums, and the moment I logged on, I saw this news. Everyone is excited by it right now." Sensing a fellow fan, Xie Yi's excitement was further amplified.

Han Jijyun and Luo Lang shared a look, also unable to recall at that moment who this Li Yinfei was that had Qi Long and Xie Yi so excited.

Beside them, Lin Zhong-qing set down his chopsticks and said softly, "Tranquil Night!"

"Ah, it's her?!" Luo Lang cried out instantly. Just recently, he had also been very obsessed with this song.

Chapter 390: Decadent Voice!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Han Jijyun also came to a realisation. It had to be said that 'Tranquil Night' was indeed a divine song — its singer, Li Yinfei, had instantly ascended from being an unknown singer to soulful diva. Her rise had truly been meteoric. Even more admirable was the fact that she had purely intended to sing a requiem to comfort the souls of the fallen, and thus had never revealed her true face to the public. She was only known by her voice for now.

"Why did she suddenly choose to come to our school?" Han Jijyun was also extremely curious about Li Yinfei.

Xie Yi replied, "A while back, wasn't the Federation citizens clamouring for Li Yinfei to show her face? Due to public pressure, Li Yinfei's management company finally chose the First Men's Military Academy as the performance venue for the debut of Li Yinfei's true appearance. That's why, the ninth day of the next month is the time when Li Yinfei will take the stage in person at the military academy. We'll be the first men to ever see her true face ...!" Xie Yi could not hold back his excitement at this point and began to howl like a wolf.

His words received Qi Long's hearty agreement. So, in no mood to continue eating, Qi Long left his half-eaten breakfast to run upstairs to log into the virtual world and started looking up any news he could on Li Yinfei.

Qi Long and the others' conversation enlightened the initially befuddled Ling Lan. She had heard 'Tranquil Night' before, and it was indeed an excellent song. Little Four had once analysed it before, and had come to the conclusion that the singer must be someone with an awakened innate talent. The talent she had awakened should be Decadent Voice — it could make it much easier for her to bring the audience into the emotional realm of any song she sang — so Li Yinfei's success was to be expected. Of course, both the melody and lyrics of the song were equally worthy of being considered classic. The combination of these multiple factors culminated in the legend of Li Yinfei.

"What a bunch of green youths," sighed Ling Lan mentally. Although 'Tranquil Night' was indeed extremely mellifluous and touching under the accentuation of Li Yinfei's Decadent Voice, as Ling Lan's spiritual power was extremely strong, she was not as affected and was not as crazy and obsessed with the song as Qi Long and the rest.

Very soon, under Qi Long, Xie Yi, and the others' eager anticipation, Li Yinfei's first live concert officially opened at the academy's stadium. Qi Long and Xie Yi made an executive decision — without notifying their boss, they bought tickets for the entire team. It should be known that Ling Lan had no interest at all in going to the concert with a bunch of men to idolise a female singer ...

Of course, after Qi Long and Xie Yi did such a stupid thing, they were also afraid that their boss would settle the score with them later. Thus, they cunningly argued that this was a team activity for Ling Lan's team, and that the both of them would sponsor the funds for it. As the boss, Ling Lan needed to take the lead and participate as well so that she did not hurt the team members' fragile little hearts.

Ling Lan thought about it and found that she had nothing much to do on that day; furthermore, she had yet to see what a live concert in this world was like. Out of curiosity, she agreed to lead the team to experience the concert in person.

It had to be said that Qi Long and Xie Yi had carried out their plan well. Heaven knows what methods they used, but they had actually managed to obtain great seats in the fifth row right in front of the stage. Meanwhile, the few rows before them were taken up by the top ranking people of the various major factions in the academy. Thunder King Qiao Ting of the Leiting Mecha Clan had also shown up and was seated in the second row.

As for the first row, it was of course filled up by the top brass of the academy along with the instructors. Li Yinfei's decision to hold her first live concert at the military academy was extremely welcomed by the administrators. After all, everyone knew that the song 'Tranquil Night' had been specially produced for the innocent cadets who had died in the invasion. Li Yinfei's choice to hold the concert here showed her respect for the First Men's Military Academy.

Ling Lan had just taken a seat when Li Lanfeng, who had been following right behind her all this while, reacted the swiftest, immediately snatching one of the seats beside Ling Lan. Luo Lang was not to be outdone. Although he was a step slower, he still managed to snatch the other seat beside Ling Lan. Thus, the two of them were like the door gods Heng and Ha 1 , securely framing Ling Lan on the left and right.

Although Qi Long and the rest also wanted to sit beside Ling Lan, being a beat slower than Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang, they could only rub their noses in resignation at this result and sulkily choose some other place to sit.

Only Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan were trailing behind the team with morose faces. The both of them were obsessed with research and had no interest in whatever so-called singer. They felt that, instead of being so idle as to come here and waste time, they might as well have stayed in their own labs and continued to work on their own topics of research.

However, Ling Lan had said that this was a clan event and no one was allowed to be absent. Hence, the two of them had no choice but to compromise and pry themselves out of their labs for this excursion. Still, even so, brimming with reluctance, they had naturally dragged their feet till they were at the very rear of the team. Only after everyone had taken a seat did they settle down in the two outermost empty seats. However, they were soon engrossed in their own research again. Even though they had left their labs and the environment here was indeed rather terrible, this would not affect their calculations of certain formulae ...

The whole audience waited eagerly for Li Yinfei to take the stage. Finally, the time came and all the lights turned dim. Everyone involuntarily began to scream and cheer in loud fervour, because they all knew that the concert was about to officially begin ...

'On one particular tranquil night' ... a clear voice softly crooned in the large stadium. With no lights, in a shroud of darkness, this voice sank even more deeply into everyone's souls. The initially passionate cheers began to decrease in volume, until the scene was finally completely silent. Led by the singing, all of the cadets were brought back to that night once more, that intense and violent battle, and the helplessness they had felt at the time once again descended upon them. The entire venue became still and silent — everyone was silently mourning their innocent schoolmates and companions who had died that night ...

"Listening to Li Yinfei sing live, it's even clearer how powerful the other's Decadent Voice is." Little Four finally could not help but emerge to say. He had never seen such a powerful manifestation of innate talent powers before; it was actually able to control the emotions of the entire audience of forty to fifty thousand people.

"It is indeed very powerful. There's really no way to defend against this Decadent Voice!" Although Ling Lan knew the other was using an innate talent, she still felt that Li Yinfei's singing was very beautiful, making her unwilling to resist. This feeling made Ling Lan frown silently. If someone used this type of ability to try and influence her decisions, would she fall for it?

"Because Decadent Voice is not an attack-type ability, she belongs to the natural series of power users. As long as the user has no evil intentions, no one would bother defending against it." Little Four was pulling up all the relevant information in his databases as he explained, "Just like your leopard. He also has a similar type of innate talent, which will cause others to unconsciously think well of him. As long as he doesn't have any evil intentions against you, everything's fine."

Little Four's words made Ling Lan turn reflexively to look at Li Lanfeng, only for her to find that Li Lanfeng's brow was tightly furrowed, as if he didn't really like Li Yinfei's singing. What was up with that? Ling Lan was extremely puzzled. Mind you, even Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan who had been mired in their research at the start had been involuntarily pulled out of their research the moment Li Yinfei had started to sing. They were now just as enraptured by the singer's Decadent Voice as the others.

Ling Lan's puzzlement was immediately picked up by Little Four. He too felt it was rather strange, so he began searching manically through his databases again. Three seconds later, he finally found a so-called research hypothesis. "Boss, according to the databases, similar innate talents might repel each other. Li Yinfei's Decadent Voice and your leopard's innate talent might be somewhat different, but their final manifestations are extremely similar. Could it be that their innate talents have this sort of mutually repelling nature?"

"Highly probable. Well, that's fine. At least if we ever meet this kind of person again, there will be someone on the team who can keep a clear mind." Ling Lan believed this was a good thing. She did not want to have her emotions affected without clear reason, to the extent that she might even change her decisions unwisely. At this point, Ling Lan suddenly recalled when her dad had first laid eyes on the leopard. The corners of her lips curved involuntarily, and there was a trace of laughter in her eyes.

No matter how powerful one's innate talent was, there would always be someone who would not be taken in by it. Li Lanfeng's innate talent made others relax their guard unconsciously around him and feel like getting closer to him, but this innate talent was utterly useless against her dad Ling Xiao, and even had a reverse effect. Compared to the others, like Li Shiyu and the rest of her team, her dad was able to treat them kindly and agreeably. However, when it came to Li Lanfeng, her dad's face had been an icy tundra, and he had completely ignored Li Lanfeng. This hurt Li Lanfeng considerably, unsure what he had done to displease General Ling Xiao ...

Could it be that her dad also had a similar awakened innate talent as the leopard? So the two of them sensed some mutual rejection? Considering the fact that her dad was a national idol, Ling Lan felt that this hypothesis was very likely to be true ...

Right then, Ling Lan could not know that Ling Xiao did not like Li Lanfeng purely because Li Lanfeng had crawled out from Ling Lan's mecha at the time they had first met. No father would not react well to a boy who had randomly appeared by his daughter's side and seemed intimate with her.

"Actually, this type of ability only carries a hint of suggestion. It won't really cause any dramatic influential effect. Otherwise, the Federation government would not just let these singers and performers with these innate talents move around freely. It's clear to see that the government considers these people safe 2 ." Little Four used the facts to inform his boss that the powers of these individuals were not as formidable as she thought they were.

"War will always bring great harm, and these innate talent users can help console the sorrow of the masses. The Federation needs them." Little Four's explanation let Ling Lan come to an understanding immediately. She knew why the government would promote these singers and performers — they could skilfully dampen the public's anti-war sentiments. It should be said that the methods of the Federation government in this time was already very sophisticated. It made full use of every person in its reach, making it so that everyone served the machinations of war.

At the end of the lovely yet mournful 'Tranquil Night', the cadets were still immersed in their emotions when, suddenly, a lamp lit up in the centre of the stage, and a graceful silhouette slowly rose from a platform in the centre. It went without saying that this was the singer everyone had been waiting for, Li Yinfei. Everyone was instantly shaken out of their stupor and began to scream and shout uncontrollably. The initially calm cadets reverted to their original age at this time, becoming wild and fanatical.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming to see my concert. I'm very happy. I had originally only wanted to give the souls of those innocent cadets who had died some peace and comfort, which is why I composed this song 'Tranquil Night'. I never expected this song to be so loved by you all. I'm grateful for the support and attention. Next, I would like to dedicate a new song of mine to all of you —— 'Never Give In!'"

Li Yinfei's voice was extremely lovely, soft and gentle with a trace of warmth running through it. Even a sad song like 'Tranquil Night' still held that share of irrepressible warmth despite its deep sorrow. Of course, right then, without the sad tone from the first song in her voice, the warmth in Li Yinfei's voice was all the more apparent.

Chapter 391: The Same Face ...

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Accompanying Li Yinfei's voice, all the stage lights turned to focus on her body, allowing everyone to see Li Yinfei's figure clearly. However, this was soon followed by deep sighs from the entire venue. It turned out that Li Yinfei's face was currently covered by a thin veil through which only a pair of exquisitely charming slanted almond-shaped eyes could be seen. The play of lights and shifting of emotion in those eyes actually conveyed an erotic allure — even without having seen her face, everyone could tell that this Li Yinfei was most certainly a stunning enchantress.

When the song "Never Give In" began to play, Li Yinfei once again touched the hearts of the cadets. This song was extremely powerful and Li Yinfei sang it with passion, as if telling the cadets that the enemy's invasion would never break the Huaxians' iron bones 1 . Stirred up by the singing, everyone present rose to their feet. All the cadets clenched their fists emotionally, loudly joining in when the line 'never give in' appeared in the chorus segments.

By this point, no matter how thick Ling Lan was, she knew that this Li Yinfei was bound to be part of the military. Otherwise, it was unlikely that both her songs would cater so closely to this battle of the military academy. The military had truly planned this well — Li Yinfei's arrival and these two songs would inevitably fan the cadets' hatred towards the intruders to an extreme. It could be conceived that all the cadets here would become the central supporters in fighting back against these intruders in the future.

Right at that final moment, at the crescendo of the song, Li Yinfei ripped off the veil on her face, revealing her peerless face ... all of the cadets who had been loudly singing 'never give in' earlier abruptly fell silent. In that instant, they had truly been shocked silent by Li Yinfei's peerless beauty.

This was Li Yinfei — leaving aside her enthralling voice, she also possessed a peerless face capable of bewitching the masses!

Li Yinfei's true appearance stunned everyone present. In the second row, Qiao Ting, whose face was initially composed, felt his heartbeat speed up when he saw Li Yinfei's true face. He could not suppress a surge of desire in his heart, thinking, "This is a woman worthy of me. I must get her!"

Li Yinfei's peerless beauty similarly startled Ling Lan. As another girl, Ling Lan had actually been attracted for a moment by Li Yinfei's face as well. However, Ling Lan was a girl after all, and combined with all the insane torments of Instructor Number Five in the learning space, Ling Lan's heart had been trained to be extremely tough and cold. She would not be easily bewitched.

After calming down, when Ling Lan once again gazed at Li Yinfei's face which was beautiful enough to topple cities, she noticed that that face made her feel somewhat ill at ease. Even though it was exquisitely beautiful, exquisitely alluring, even worthy of being called peerless and unmatched, for some reason, Ling Lan just felt that there was something off about it. There was just some natural grace missing — what exactly was this about?

Ling Lan's brow was lightly furrowed. Just as she was mulling over the issue, Li Lanfeng by her side suddenly began trembling uncontrollably. Not only that, his two hands, which he had placed on top of his knees, also began to tremble uncontrollably ...

Ling Lan's heart clenched. She could not help but recall the air invasion when Li Lanfeng had been sitting in the auxiliary seat of her mecha and what had happened then. Could it be that some issue had cropped up again with the leopard's worrying physical condition?

Concerned, Ling Lan could not help but extend her right hand to hold Li Lanfeng's trembling hands. This move made Li Lanfeng jerk in surprise. He whipped back his head to look at Ling Lan, his red eyes actually filled with despair, pain, and even a trace of insanity. That look was as if he had been abandoned by the entire world ...

"Leopard, are you alright?" asked Ling Lan with a serious expression, having sensed something wrong with Li Lanfeng.

Ling Lan's question seemed to have rescued Li Lanfeng from being drowned in his own world — his gaze quickly cleared up. Regaining his composure, Li Lanfeng flipped his hands to grasp Ling Lan's right hand. He clasped it tightly, as if holding on to a life-saving piece of straw, unwilling to let go. The force of his grip actually made Ling Lan feel a hint of pain.

Ling Lan had always hated skin contact with others. She was just considering whether to fling off Li Lanfeng's hands when she registered that Li Lanfeng's palms were coated with sweat. She then thought about Li Lanfeng's wild and desperate gaze previously and her heart softened involuntarily.

Thinking about it, she was currently a boy, so it was perfectly normal for a male companion to hold her hand every once in a while. Furthermore, Li Lanfeng really seemed to need some comfort from a companion right now ... alright, she would just take it as her good deed for the day and contribute her right hand to provide some comfort for the other. It's not like her hand would lose any flesh because of this. So thought Ling Lan with full Ah-Q spirit 2 .

In this way, Ling Lan forced herself to ignore Li Lanfeng's grasping hands. She continued to stare expressionlessly at the stage, studiously researching the problem she had just discovered ... erm, well, that was the problem with that Li Yinfei. So unnaturally beautiful, was there really nothing wrong with her?

Perhaps Ling Lan's focus was fully on Li Lanfeng, so she did not notice something else happening at the outermost edge of their row of seats. Li Shiyu, who had initially been fully enraptured by Li Yinfei's voice, currently had an unbelievably horrified expression on his face. This horror was definitely not because of the other's peerless beauty, but looked more as if he had seen a devil ...

With a clatter, Li Shiyu could not help but leap up from his seat, startling Chang Xinyuan who had been just as dazzled by Li Yinfei's appearance as the rest. When Chang Xinyuan saw Li Shiyu's horrified expression, he instantly knew something was wrong. Quickly casting Li Yinfei's appearance to the back of his mind, Chang Xinyuan asked Li Shiyu in concern, "Shiyu, what's going on?"

Li Shiyu's right hand rose sharply to cover his mouth, as if afraid that he would scream despite himself. With much effort, he finally calmed himself down, put down his hand, and said in a hurry, "Xinyuan, I've suddenly remembered something important I have to do. I need to leave immediately. Later, please help me request a leave of absence from the leader."

Li Shiyu's grim expression let Chang Xinyuan know that the other must have some serious matter to attend to, so he quickly nodded and assured the other that he would pass on the message. After that, Li Shiyu no longer had any patience to remain at the concert venue. He hurriedly ran out of the large stadium.

As soon as he left the stadium and came outside, the refreshing breeze that swept by instantly helped to clear Li Shiyu's shaken mind. As the attention of everyone in the military academy was on Li Yinfei's concert right then — if they were not at the venue watching it live, they were in their dorm rooms connected to the virtual world to watch the live broadcast — there was not a single person outside the stadium.

With lengthened strides, Li Shiyu very swiftly made his way to an area populated by trees, an absolutely quiet place. He could not wait to enter a string of numbers into his communicator. He had never taken the initiative to contact that number over these past four years, but the number had been stored deeply in his heart all this time, never forgotten.

"Yu-er, I never expected that there would ever come a time when you would contact me on your own volition. Have you thought things through and are now willing to accept grandpa's arrangements to become the first inheritor of the Li family?" On the virtual screen of Li Shiyu's communicator, a dignified old man suddenly appeared. His initially stern face actually carried a trace of a smile — it looked like Li Shiyu's taking the initiative to call had pleased him greatly.

However, Li Shiyu had no mind to appreciate the old man's feelings. Seeing the other, he shouted angrily, "Grandfather, what exactly is going on with that Li Yinfei?"

"Li Yinfei?" The old man's pleased expression abruptly turned cold. "You've seen her?" As if suddenly thinking of something, realization emerged on the old man's face. "That's right, she's currently holding a concert at the First Men's Military Academy. It's normal for you to have seen her."

"Who is she exactly?" Li Shiyu bit out, pushing the question out word by word from the between his teeth.

The old man said dismissively, "A branch descendant of the Li family. According to hierarchy, she can be considered your younger cousin."

"What I'm asking is how that face came about." The old man's diffidence broke Li Shiyu's control over his emotions and Li Shiyu could not help but growl.

This question made the old man's face turn stern and forbidding. "Is this the attitude you should have when speaking with your grandfather?"

Li Shiyu closed his eyes and fiercely swiped a hand over his face. Then, taking in a deep breath, he pushed down his growing anger before opening his eyes once more. By then, his eyes no longer held any of his previous rage, having become much calmer than before. "I apologize, grandfather, that was my transgression. But please, can you tell me, what's going on with that face of Li Yinfei's?"

Li Shiyu's behaviour gentled the old man's attitude considerably, and he answered lightly, "That face ... is anything wrong with it?" as if he did not understand Li Shiyu's meaning.

"Grandfather!" Li Shiyu cried out loudly once more, "You clearly know ... clearly ..." Somewhere where the old man could not see, Li Shiyu's low hanging left hand had already balled up into a fist. Perhaps from using too much strength, the veins were actually bulging on the back of his hand. It was clear to see how angry Li Shiyu was at this moment, but because the other party was his grandfather, he had no choice but to tolerate it.

"Clearly know what?" asked the old man in return. Just when Li Shiyu's tolerance was about to run out and he was going to explode in anger, the old man added, "Are you trying to ask why Li Yinfei looks exactly like your eldest cousin brother Li Mulan?"

This question made Li Shiyu calm down instantly. "I want to know why you're doing this."

"Why are you asking me this?" The old man's expression turned indifferent once more.

"Without your approval, Li Yinfei could never have appeared in the public eye, much less become a singer. In order to secure the status and dignity of the family head, the Li family would never allow someone with an appearance similar to the family head to show their face to the world." Li Shiyu understood the Li family too well — Li Yinfei looked so much like his eldest cousin brother and so should never exist. Even if she was allowed to exist, she should still have been forced to change her face — this was a sign of respect towards the family head from the main branch as well as the inheritor.

"Li Mulan is currently still not the family head," replied the old man after several seconds of silence.

"But eldest cousin brother is the first in line to inherit," growled Li Shiyu once more. Just because of his body, his cousin could not become strong, and so they felt they could just step all over his cousin's dignity like this? For the first time, Li Shiyu began to hate the Li family as a whole. Towards that Li Yinfei who possessed his eldest cousin brother's face, the intention to kill stirred in his heart ...

"Don't do anything stupid. The matter of Li Yinfei was approved during a meeting of the family elders. Even I had no way of preventing it," barked the old man, seeming to sense the killing intent in Li Shiyu's heart.

"No way?" Li Shiyu laughed scornfully. If grandfather truly wanted to stop this from happening, how could he have no way? Li Shiyu was all too familiar with the methods his grandfather could employ.

Chapter 392: No Longer Li Mulan!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Li Shiyu's extremely obvious mockery caused the old man's expression to stiffen, but he very quickly recovered his composure. The two of them faced each other in silence for several beats, and in the end, the old man sighed, a trace of fatigue appearing on his face. Softly, he said, "Even though I'm a grandfather to the both of you, I am also the family head of the Li family. I need to take responsibility for the entire Li family."

The meaning of the old man was apparent — even though he was the biological grandfather of Li Shiyu and the others, he could not disregard the interests of the Li family as a whole and do as he liked. As such, he had no choice but to make some concessions.

The old man's demeanour caused Li Shiyu's heart to clench. As if sensing his grandfather's helplessness in the face of the pressure exerted by the elders of the Li family, Li Shiyu's expression turned cold and foreboding. "The council of elders, is it?"

"Don't blame them. They are also doing this for the future of the entire Li family clan. The condition of your eldest cousin brother's body is truly too horrible, and besides ..." Here, a trace of regret could be seen on the old man's stern face.

Unfortunately, no matter how much the old man wanted to explain, Li Shiyu had already convicted the elders in his heart. He instantly interrupted to say, "Grandfather, there's no need to say any more. I understand everything. One day, I will definitely ..." Li Shiyu stopped there, cutting off the call with his grandfather. For the first time, a trace of bloody killing intent appeared in his eyes.

Li Shiyu had never wanted to take anything to the extreme and leave no room for manoeuvring — there had always remained some bit of light in his heart, some kindness and compassion. This was his strength but also his weakness. This was why he had been able to reject the proposition of becoming the first inheritor out of the sense of kinship in his heart for the sake of his eldest cousin brother. And this was also the main reason why Ling Lan had been able to entrap him into joining her clan.

But this time, the matter of Li Yinfei had directly shattered the pure innocence he held deep in his heart. He finally understood that without power or authority, once one lost all use and value, the family would mercilessly cast one out ... for the first time 1 , he hated deeply. He hated those elders who had heartlessly abandoned his eldest cousin brother and made the decision to humiliate and degrade his cousin. Also for the first time, he thought of taking revenge ... he absolutely would not forgive those elders.

The old man looked at the disconnected call signal on the device in his hand and could not help but shake his head, sigh softly, and say, "Oh Shiyu, you're still much too young."

After hanging up, Li Shiyu could not hold back the roaring flames of rage within him. He quickly rushed back to his own laboratory and shut himself inside, staying secluded within it for over a month.

Li Shiyu knew very well that this action of the council of elders meant that his eldest cousin brother had thoroughly lost all favour within the Li family. Right now, he must be having a very difficult time in the Li family, unable to do anything. If their grandfather could not resist the pressure from the council of elders in the end, giving up was only a matter of time. He needed to speed things up. Even if he could not develop a formula that could completely resolve his eldest cousin brother's constitution problem, he still needed to at least find some medicinal agent that could alleviate his cousin's condition so that he could help his cousin tide through this crisis as much as he could ...

Leaving aside Li Shiyu's burning anxiety, on Li Lanfeng's end, his heart which had initially turned ice-cold with despair had finally recovered due to the warmth coming from Ling Lan's palm. His initially trembling body gradually calmed down as well and his eyes became clear, his entire being appearing unbelievably calm.

Ling Lan had initially wanted to ask if Li Lanfeng wanted to go out to take some fresh air, but she was stopped by the cold, piercing gaze Li Lanfeng was directing at Li Yinfei.

Li Yinfei was still singing — the better Li Yinfei sang, the more worked up the stadium was, and the colder Li Lanfeng's gaze became.

It had to be said that in order to build Li Yinfei's image as a soulful songstress, her management company had indeed invested a lot of money. All five songs she sang this night were classics in their own right though the melodies encompassed various styles, mesmerising all the cadets as they listened. Of course, Li Yinfei's peerless beauty had to be given a large half of the credit. Due to the advent of gene agents and other reasons, everyone in this era, regardless of gender, was all pretty good-looking. However, it was still rare to find one such peerless beauty like Li Yinfei in the span of a hundred years.

This concert announced Li Yinfei's success. After being broadcast via the virtual world, her singing voice and her appearance made her become the idol of the hundreds and thousands of soldiers of the Huaxia Federation, turning her into one of the most famous soulful singers. Also because her songs were almost all revolving around themes of war and the military, she had a large number of fans among the troops, becoming another national military idol following Ling Xiao.

During the concert, Ling Lan was constantly worried about Li Lanfeng's physical condition, afraid that he would not be able to hold out till the end of the concert. However, as time went on, Li Lanfeng's condition seemed to improve, and by the end, he looked no different than he had at the start. Even so, the perceptive Ling Lan had still sensed that Li Lanfeng now had an additional air of determination about him.

As soon as the concert ended, Li Lanfeng quickly bade goodbye to Ling Lan, as if he had some urgent matter to attend to. The moment Li Lanfeng left, Chang Xinyuan came over to tell Ling Lan about Li Shiyu leaving partway through the concert. This piqued the curiosity of the other team members, and someone voiced the speculation whether Li Yinfei had anything to do with Li Shiyu and Li Lanfeng. After all, they all shared the surname Li, right?

Of course, this question was very quickly flicked aside by everyone. Even if Li Yinfei had some relation to Li Shiyu and Li Lanfeng, so what? Xie Yi and Qi Long may like Li Yinfei's songs, but that was all. They had no thoughts of anything beyond that. Fine, Qi Long and Xie Yi were still young, and having been pressured by Boss Ling Lan all this while, becoming strong had been the only thing on their minds. They still had not reached the point where they started thinking about love.

That said, the outgoing Xie Yi still could not repress his curiosity and sought out Li Yingjie to ask about the matter. However, Li Yingjie's response was pure confusion; he had no clue at all who this Li Yinfei was. Still, Xie Yi's question did stir up some doubt in his mind — Li Yinfei's name was indeed really like someone from their Li family.

Xie Yi was filled with contempt for Li Yingjie's reply. He laughed at Li Yingjie for not even being able to tell for sure whether someone belonged to his family, greatly infuriating Li Yingjie. Subsequently, Li Yingjie, who never really paid much attention to the chaotic family affairs of the Li family before this, finally made the decision to take any chances he had later on to get a proper list of all the descendants of the Li family branch members so that this bastard Xie Yi would not look down on him again ...

Li Yingjie could never have known that this query by Xie Yi would spark his motivation like this and actually set him on the path to discovering a great secret in the future ...

********

As soon as Li Lanfeng returned to his living quarters, he entered his room and closed the door behind him. After ensuring that everything was secure, he dialled his grandfather. On the virtual screen of his communicator, the figure of an old man appeared. It was the same old man who had spoken with Li Shiyu earlier.

When the old man saw Li Lanfeng, the indifference he had sported while speaking with Li Shiyu melted away to be replaced by a slightly bitter smile. He sighed and said, "Shiyu has already contacted me. I was just thinking when you would call me as well. Who knew you had such patience, only calling me after so long ..."

Li Lanfeng's expression was frigid as he cut in to say, "Grandpa, Li Yinfei, if I'm not mistaken, should be your doing, right?" Compared to Li Shiyu, Li Lanfeng understood his grandfather better.

The old man's smile disappeared instantly, and his face turned unbelievably stern and serious. "As expected of the inheritor I have invested so much into to cultivate, figuring things out immediately."

"This is because I know too much about your methods, grandpa. I can even deduce that your explanation to Shiyu must be that it was the decision of the council of elders. The poor Li family council of elders, once again becoming your scapegoat." Li Lanfeng's taunting was even more obvious than Li Shiyu's. The expression on the old man's face turned unbelievably awkward; compared with Li Shiyu's gullibility, this grandson of his was as wily as a ghost — nothing could be hidden from him.

Li Lanfeng ignored the embarrassment of the old man and continued to ask, "I just want to know, grandpa, why did you do this?" Li Lanfeng's current tone of voice was so cold that there was almost no warmth at all to be found in it.

"I need to have more than one plan ready." The old man's eyes turned sharp and penetrating. "I will not allow my grandson to fall to the Phoenix Thrall Fate. If things truly come to that point, Li Yinfei will be your replacement."

The old man gave Li Lanfeng a direct answer. For this matter, he had plotted over the course of several years. After much trouble, he finally found Li Yinfei who resembled his grandson as much as 50 to 60% among the Li branch family descendants. The most important thing was that both of Li Yinfei's parents were dead, so he could control everything about her. Over these past few years, he used the latest alteration technology the Li family had at its disposal, and after many experiments, he finally succeeded in making Li Yinfei resemble his grandson up to 90%. Adding on some application of make-up, at one glance, aside from temperament, Li Yinfei was almost indistinguishable from his grandson ...

The old man's answer caused Li Lanfeng's heart to seize in pain. At the heart of it, he was still too weak. That was why his grandfather did not believe he could truly defy fate and change his destiny, thus coming up with this humiliating plan for him to escape from his Phoenix Thrall Fate.

"I understand ..." Li Lanfeng closed his eyes with a heavy heart, hiding the pain he felt inside. Even his closest relative did not believe in his efforts — how would he be able to prove himself? Moreover, this decision of his grandfather's meant that he would never be able to show his real face in public anymore in the future.

He thought of the rabbit — he had once thought hopefully that, after a few more months, on his 20th birthday, he would be able to stand before the other with full honesty and tell him the whole truth ... but now, all of that was no longer possible. He could only continue to live on under the identity of Li Lanfeng, and this may be how it would be for the rest of his life.

The old man seemed to sense Li Lanfeng's grief. He sighed deeply and said, "Sinful things must be given up."

Li Lanfeng laughed tragically. So his grandfather had felt that his looks were a sinful existence? How ridiculous. If the Phoenix Thrall Fate was all because of his face, then wouldn't ruining it be enough? Why bother going through the extra trouble of manufacturing this Li Yinfei? At the heart of it, his grandfather was just trying to fool himself.

Li Lanfeng's laughter finally subsided. His eyes sprang open, sadness flashing briefly in the depths of his gaze as he peered intently at the old man for a moment before saying, "Grandpa, this is the final time I'll be contacting you. From now on, I am no longer Li Mulan but Li Lanfeng ... and I can only be Li Lanfeng!"

Hearing this, the old man's body jerked and his eyes swiftly turned red. His mouth twitched soundlessly, but in the end, he merely nodded resolutely and said, "Li Lanfeng, look out for yourself!"

The old man pressed the button to end the call and then stared blankly at the now dark virtual screen. Only after a good long while did he stir to say faintly, "I can only do this much. After this, it's all up to you, Mulan!" Having said that, his entire frame collapsed. His back bent uncontrollably into a curve, and he was no longer as confident and unshakeable as he had appeared to his two grandsons on the screen.

Chapter 393: The Lingtian Mecha Clan!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Time flew, and a year's time was over just like that.

This entire year, the First Men's Military Academy had seemed extremely peaceful and uneventful. That air invasion of the academy a year ago had put a damper on the initially tense and competitive atmosphere of the academy. Those 8000 cadets who had died in the battle had come from multiple factions, which almost encompassed all the factions in the military academy. Certain factions were hit particularly hard and were devastated by the loss of members.

Under this sort of slump, all the factions were in no mood to fight over anything. They all took the time to rest and recuperate, biding their time. The New Cadet Regiment was probably the faction which lost the fewest members in the air invasion incident. With the exception of a minor few who had died in battle with the enemy, Ling Lan's decisive arrangements had allowed most of the members to survive the crisis.

It could not be denied that those New Cadet Regiment members who had survived the battlefield found their mecha control skills improving on a vertical line within this one year. Quite a few intermediate mecha warriors successfully advanced to advanced mecha warrior level, but since they had not officially gone through a mecha practical training session, the academy instructors did not know about it yet. It could be imagined that when the members of the New Cadet Regiment finally entered their mecha practical training courses, they would certainly shock the entire military academy.

Successfully entering the second year meant that the New Cadet Regiment had said goodbye to the chapter of their lives as newbies — they would now officially enter the formal courses of their chosen specialization. This also meant that they now had the right to establish mecha clans that the academy would recognise.

Wu Jiong, Li Yingjie, as well as the other team leaders of the New Cadet Regiment all felt that it was better to establish a mecha clan earlier rather than later. By taking advantage of this time when the old factions had not fully recovered, the New Cadet Regiment would be able to set down secure roots within the military academy.

Ling Lan agreed with them, and so not long after the start of the second year, she submitted the application for the establishment of the Lingtian Mecha Clan to the military academy. This application shocked all of the factions in the academy, and many were even of the opinion that this reckless behaviour of the New Cadet Regiment was bound to be thwarted. This was because the establishment of a mecha clan required the applicant group to pass an assessment by the academy mainframe.

Just think — even if the freshmen had started training their mecha control in Mecha World as early as they could in their first year, one year's time was only enough at most for these freshmen to achieve intermediate mecha warrior status. Moreover, this was only something extremely talented students could achieve. Meanwhile, the virtual battle clans created by the mainframe as the opponent in its assessment would at worst consist of advanced mecha warriors but were more likely to be all special-class operators. Although the result of the assessment was not determined by winning or losing, how many seconds could a team made up of intermediate mecha warriors last under the attack of the mainframe's special-class mecha operator battle clan?

However, the final outcome left everyone flabbergasted — the Lingtian Mecha Clan passed the academy mainframe's assessment in one go. Everyone wanted to know the content of the assessment, but the Lingtian Mecha Clan cruelly set their assessment as a top secret document. Even the academy's principal himself could not access the battle logs of this assessment; only high-level administrators of the military at the rank of general and above would have the authorization to view them ... but would the generals even care to pay any attention to a minor mecha clan formation assessment within a military academy?

And so, this assessment became a secret, sealed away for many years. Until that time in the future when Ling Lan had already become a king in her own right — only then did she draw the interest of the high-level people in the Federation military, who then looked up the assessment records. Only then did they come to understand that King Ling had already been crazily overpowered even back during her time at the military academy ...

After the Lingtian Mecha Clan was officially established, the various smaller teams within the mecha clan began submitting their applications one after the other in close succession to the academy mainframe to form their own battle clans. The establishment of a battle clan also required a mainframe assessment, and the missions given to the various potential battle clans were not necessarily the same. Ling Lan had originally already established the Lingtian Battle Clan within Mecha World; after she submitted her application, she actually did not need to take an assessment for the academy mainframe immediately approved it.

This made Ling Lan suspect that Mecha World, which allowed the public to enter and practise their control, was in fact overseen by the military. And that mainframe of Mecha World was very likely the mainframe of the military itself. In reality, the fact that the military academy's mainframe was a split segment of the military mainframe itself was an open secret in the military academy.

Of course, there was one other reason for this speculation of Ling Lan's. The rank of her approved battle clan in the real world was exactly the same as the one in Mecha World, instantly leaping up to 5-star.

This coincidence compelled Ling Lan to be suspicious — how else would this 5-star ranking have come about? Could it be that the military academy's mainframe just happened to suffer a seizure and specially decided to gift her such a grand present? It was impossible just thinking about it.

After the battle clan was established, the original Lingtian Battle Clan members immediately joined again. However, there was one unexpected guest. When Li Lanfeng joined this time, he dragged his good friend Zhao Jun along.

In all honesty, Zhao Jun had not actually wanted to formally join the Lingtian Battle Clan. He had only wanted to sign a one-year temporary contract, but who was Li Lanfeng? His heart set on helping his rabbit increase the strength of his battle clan, Li Lanfeng naturally would not let this super-valuable combat warrior Zhao Jun go.

Thus, under Li Lanfeng's purposeful verbal provocation, Zhao Jun was unable to resist and issued a direct challenge to the clan leader Ling Lan, setting a wager for their fight along with it. If Ling Lan could defeat him, he would join the Lingtian clan and pledge his loyalty as a member of Lingtian without any reservations.

Zhao Jun was a confident person — among the cadets, only about 50 or so had managed to advance to become special-class operators, and Zhao Jun's battle strength had always been in the top three of these 50 or so special-class operators. Additionally, even adding in the one and only cadet who had advanced to become an ace operator, the Thunder King Qiao Ting, Zhao Jun's ranking in terms of battle strength had never dropped out of the top five. This was also why even though he was not someone from Wuji, the Wuji Mecha Clan still had no choice but to lay down their pride and seek him out for a partnership.

As Zhao Jun was from a third-rate planet, he had very weak backing, and though he himself had no mind to take power and wield authority, he was still an ambitious person who did not want to randomly join some unproven, lame battle clan. He wanted to be a member of some legendary battle clan — therefore, for him to submit, the clan leader needed to have strength on par with the Thunder King Qiao Ting at least. Of course, because of Li Lanfeng, Zhao Jun also hated Qiao Ting with a passion, which was one reason why Zhao Jun had not joined the Leiting Mecha Clan.

With regards to Zhao Jun's challenge, Ling Lan naturally was not afraid. Over this past year, unlike Qi Long and the rest, Ling Lan had not had to attend physical fitness classes during the day; her entire focus had been on training her mecha controls in Mecha World. Her efforts over the year had raised her status in Mecha World from intermediate mecha warrior to ace mecha master, finally reflecting her true strength in the real world.

Thus, as soon as Ling Lan logged into Mecha World and operated an ace mecha onto the arena stage set up for the both of them, Zhao Jun knew that he had lost. Reality proved that Ling Lan's ace operator status was not just for show — her control skills were so powerful that it was scary. Zhao Jun only managed to last 20 moves under Ling Lan before he was KO-ed by a sword right through his cockpit.

This kind of power thoroughly convinced Zhao Jun. After he logged off the virtual world, he shook Li Lanfeng in excitement, asking him how in the world he had found such an aberrant clan leader. Just think — Thunder King Qiao Ting had only broken through to ace operator status in his fourth year, but Ling Lan was currently only a second year, so he had beaten Qiao Ting by two years. Do not underestimate these two years ... the younger the age, even the difference of one month was enough to display the difference between the talent and potential of two people. Zhao Jun knew very well that Ling Lan's future was certain to be even better than Qiao Ting's. If Qiao Ting could be said to be the second Ling Xiao, then Ling Lan was very likely to achieve becoming the first Ling Lan.

Li Lanfeng looked at Zhao Jun who was now somewhat hysterical from excitement and found himself rather speechless. Frankly, he had been able to tell with a glance that Ling Lan had already taken it easy and shown some mercy during the fight with Zhao Jun in order to leave him some face. Otherwise, based on Ling Lan's methods, Zhao Jun would never have been able to last more than 10 moves against her. Li Lanfeng had no idea how he could tell Zhao Jun this — if he stated it bluntly, would Zhao Jun crumble from the shock and fall into a slump?

Besides, his rabbit had already become an ace operator in the first year. If he told Zhao Jun this, would his good friend be stunned silly from the overwhelming shock?

After musing about it for a long while, Li Lanfeng decided that in order to preserve the sanity of his good friend and save him from losing himself due to shock, he would mercifully keep the truth concealed for now. Li Lanfeng felt that he was truly such a kind person ...

In this manner, Zhao Jun was whole-heartedly convinced into joining the Lingtian Battle Clan, and so within the early days of its establishment, the Lingtian Battle Clan already had 10 members. Of course, there were still many waitlisted members yet to be added to the ranks. When the first year ended, Han Jijyun and Luo Lang went back home once, and they returned with several strong requests from various people.

It turned out that Luo Chao, Han Xuya, and the original members of team 072 all sent word that they would officially join the Lingtian Battle Clan once they entered an army division. In particular, Han Xuya threatened Ling Lan with extreme violence that he was not allowed to say no!

Of course, Ling Lan's plans to go to the 23rd Division had been conveyed by Luo Lang and the others to the members of team 072. Aside from a few with excellent grades who decided to apply for enlistment to the 23rd Division along with Ling Lan and the rest at the First Academy in their fifth year, the others could only wait till they properly graduated before applying.

Ling Lan naturally would not refuse these scattered companions of hers who wanted to reunite with them. Rather than taking in some unfamiliar outsiders, Ling Lan was more willing to trust these companions who had grown up together with her. Right then, Ling Lan was also secretly rejoicing that they had managed to complete that SSS-rank mission back then, promoting the clan's level up to 5-star right away so they could take in so many more people. Otherwise, she would have had to start worrying over these next few years how she could raise the level of her battle clan as soon as possible to accommodate these companions.

Having settled the matter of these outside companions, Ling Lan began to fret over the current internal members. Ling Lan had no need to concern herself over Qi Long and the other four of her original team — many years of cultivation and training had already ensured that their combat power and rapport with one another were outstanding.

However, the newly joined Chang Xinyuan was a huge problem. Even though he was extremely hardworking and tenacious, his mecha control talent was truly not that great. Over this past year, although Qi Long and the rest were still advanced mecha warriors, they had already touched the doorway to becoming special-class operators. They were now just waiting for a lucky chance, like when Li Lanfeng had encountered during the air invasion, to break through into the ranks of the special-class operators.

For an intermediate mecha warrior to advance to become an advanced mecha warrior, there was no need for any special insight. As long as they obtained enough experience and trained their control hand speed up to a certain standard, they would successfully advance. Basically, there wasn't any particular threshold in advancing from intermediate mecha to advanced mecha.