The boy informed the men that An Ke'an was pursuing them. They promptly followed his orders, planning to lure her into a confined space before taking action. However, An Ke'an didn't give them the chance. Frustrated by her relentless harassment, they decided to confront her immediately.
--
Meanwhile, Collins Zhan and ten soldiers arrived where Lin Shiyi and her group were struggling. For the past two hours, Lin Shiyi and her group had been pursued by star beasts, who were drawn to the scent of the intoxicated rose that had stained on them.
Lin Shiyi deeply regretted listening to Qiao Yao, which had led to their dire situation. Was the resources more important than her life? Qiao Yao must have known the scent would also stay on her yet she never informed her.
Lin Shiyi realised she must have been a pawn that could be discarded at any moment and her hatred towards Qiao Yao and An Ke'an grew more intense.
Calvin, who had harbored a crush on Lin Shiyi for nearly three years, glared at her with a mix of anger and heartbreak. As a female, he was hesitant to confess his feelings due to societal norms that dictated females could only marry males. Though some female men managed to marry other female women, such marriages rarely lasted.
Calvin had always seen Lin Shiyi as kind-hearted, but her cruelty shocked him. She had used him and Sasha as shields against the star beasts, leading to some injuries.
Li Yu managed to save Calvin and Sasha, but he was seriously injured, with a deep gash in his abdomen with blood gushing out furiously, while Sasha had twisted her ankle.
Their combat abilities were significantly reduced and they were on the verge of collapsing and becoming the star beasts dinner. Upon seeing Collins Zhan and his soldiers, Calvin collapsed in relief. The soldiers fought the star beasts, but they kept coming endlessly with no sign of stopping.
Realizing something was wrong, Collins Zhan questioned Calvin, who was too distraught to respond due to Li Yu's critical condition. The healing potion they had was ineffective for Li Yu's severe injuries. Trapped by the continuous star beast attacks, they administered first aid to Li Yu because they couldn't leave at this moment. Sasha, disillusioned by Lin Shiyi's betrayal, was glad Calvin might now notice Li Yu, who had always liked him. Sasha explained everything that had transpired from beginning to end to Collins Zhan.
Collins Zhan, sensing something amiss, found the source of their troubles and sprayed an antidote on them, reducing the star beast attacks. He then sent five elite soldiers after Mingyu, armed with the antidote. Once the star beasts were dealt with, Li Yu was rushed into a healing capsule. Collins Zhan, staring at Lin Shiyi with a terrifying gaze, demanded, "How did you get your hands on intoxicated rose?"
"I..I didn't." Terrified, Lin Shiyi denied any involvement.
But under Collins Zhan's intense scrutiny, she broke down.
"I..I wanted to set An Ke'an up but who would have thought she possessed an S-level star beast. So I decided to destroy the people around her first. That way I would first destroy her mental health before taking her life." Lin Shiyi said with a resentful and disgust expression.
That is not what she wanted to say!! She wanted to say Qiao Yao had ordered her to do so in exchange for resources, but she couldn't control her mouth. It was as if someone was controlling her body, no matter how hard she resisted there was no effect.
Collins Zhan frowned feeling the name An Ke'an sound familiar.
"You mean the girl with silver hair and purple eyes?" Collins Zhan eyes narrowed as he asked.
"Yes." Lin Shiyi confirmed.
"What did she ever do to you?" Collins Zhan asked feeling a surge of dislike towards Lin Shiyi.
"Why should she be born into a rich family? Why do I have to flatter her every time I see her? Why is she so blessed?! If not for her father An Tangxing, who does she think she is?!" Lin Shiyi shouted with resentment and jealousy written all over her face, but deep inside she was terrified.
What's going on?! Someone save her!! Even though that was what she thought, she never had the intention to say it out loud.
Collins Zhan, Calvin and Sasha were stunned seeing Lin Shiyi's face. They never expected a young girl like her would possess such intense hatred.
Collins Zhan, recognizing the girl An Ke'an as the daughter of An Tangxing, became even more suspicious. He ordered Lin Shiyi to be locked up, convinced she was merely a pawn in a larger scheme involving the rare and expensive intoxicated rose.
Collins Zhan sighed, now he knew why he felt familiar with An Ke'an. Turns out she was An Tangxing's daughter. Collins Zhan had two older brothers and a younger sister, their mother died not long after their sister was born.
Collins Zhan's father was an unfaithful man. It wasn't even two months after their mother had died that their father brought back a female man and his twin sons.
The twin sons were just like his father when it came to lust. When his younger sister became fifteen years old, these twins attempted to rape her and his older brother happened to appear at that moment. Being an hot tempered guy and sister-con, a bloody fight occurred among them.
Both his older brother and one of the twins lost their lives in the fight, the other twin lost his third leg, and his younger sister became traumatized by this experience. After all she was there throughout and couldn't do anything.
After this incident, the remaining three siblings never had a good life in that house due to the resentful nature of their stepfather. And the three of them were too young to resist. Before his younger sister could come of age, she was sold to the An's family. It was a good thing her husband was a good man.
But life became harder for her family when they found out about her son's high intelligence. After An's family had abandoned An Tangxing, his younger sister came to his second brother and pleaded to him to adopt the young and battered An Tangxing.
Collins Zhan couldn't recognize An Ke'an because every single member of An's family possessed amber eyes. Though An Ke'an resembled An Tangxing a lot, he didn't associate her with him due to her eye color.
As Lin Shiyi was dragged away, Calvin felt lost, her true nature shattering his image of her.
"Brother, this could be a good thing. What if you never found out she had such a personality?" Sasha tried to comfort her brother.
Calvin smiled bitterly but didn't say anything. Maybe this was really a good thing after all.
Meanwhile, Qiao Yao almost vomited blood due to the backlash but she held back. That was close, she would have been exposed if she hadn't acted faster. All she had to do was erase the memory of her from Lin Shiyi.
Qiao Yao narrowly avoided exposure by erasing Lin Shiyi's memories of her.
'There will always be a next time, I just have to be patient.' Qiao Yao thought and her mood improved a little.
--
Right now, Mingyu felt he had never been so embarrassed in his whole life. Who would have expected he would get kidnapped naked?! Completely naked!!
"At least get me some clothes!" Mingyu yelled with his face flushed with embarrassment and anger.
"Why are you so embarrassed? It's not like you are a female, besides there's nothing to see in that immature body of yours." One of the kidnappers said mockingly.
They were currently in hiding. They didn't expect target one would be so powerful. She dealt with five of their elite men without any sweat which scared their leader.
Now they were ordered to go into hiding and wait for further orders.
Hearing their taunting tone, Mingyu almost exploded. What did they mean by immature body? Which kind of man can take such insult?!
But before he could complain, the kidnappers sealed his mouth and wrapped him up in leaves like a zongzi. The only difference was that his leaves were bright yellow.
"We've been given orders. Target one has retreated along with target two. All we have to do is ambush them and keep them as long as we can before the backup arrives." One of the kidnappers reported to the others.
"Yes sir." The others answered.
--
"Mingyu has been kidnapped?!" An Ke'an arrived at the place with Gia where Mingyu was supposed to be, but he was missing.
Before she could figure out what was going on, K15 reported he was kidnapped.
"Why didn't you inform me immediately?" An Ke'an asked K15 feeling angry and worried.
"None of the gadget was on him." K15 answered meekly feeling his master's anger.
"He has a tracker on his inner shirt right?" Gia asked a little confused.