After arriving on the island for training, Tao Xiu quickly found an opportunity to meet Su Ya, but the first thing he asked was not whether Su Ya was doing well, but what Tao Rui had done during this period, whether he had won people's hearts, or done anything unusual.
Su Ya's good mood vanished instantly. She said unhappily, "I'm your girlfriend, not your subordinate. I'm not responsible for keeping an eye on him. If you want to know how he's doing, ask your henchman Yi Wen. Don't you let him do everything? Even when I came to you for help early during my estrus, you asked him to bring me the suppressant. Do you know how close we were to getting into trouble then?"
"What happened? What happened then?" Tao Xiu's face changed instantly. He held her arms tightly and stared at her.
Su Ya regretted blurting out her words and quickly tried to make amends. "I meant almost. Yi Wen is an Alpha, didn't you consider that he might be affected? Luckily, he threw the inhibitor to me and locked me in the room. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened? How dare you ask? Shouldn't you have come in person for something like this?"
She was upset, but Tao Xiu was even angrier. "If you're so afraid of accidents, you shouldn't have even joined the military academy! Do you think this is just a game? Your previous mishaps were minor. What if you went crazy on the battlefield? That would be a real disaster. Have you ever imagined that? Every soldier in the field would go crazy over you. That wouldn't just ruin the battlefield, it would ruin you, too. Have you thought about that?"
"I won't let that happen," Su Ya said stubbornly. "I'm prepared. I've asked Yi Wen to get me some easily hidden micro-inhibitors. I carry three of them with me. Nothing will happen again, you can rest assured."
I don't think you're in the mood for a date anymore, are you? I'll team up with Yi Wen, and you can go observe your good brother. I don't want to waste such a good practice opportunity because of you.
Su Ya flew away in the mecha in a huff. Tao Xiu angrily kicked a tree, feeling very aggrieved.
Suddenly, a teasing voice came from the tree, "Brother, why are you so angry?"
"who?!"
Tao Xiu raised his head abruptly, his weapon raised instantly. Seeing it was Tao Rui, he didn't feel relieved, but instead, his alarm bells rang, "When did you come?"
Tao Rui shrugged. "Before you. Seeing you were so excited, I didn't want to interrupt you. You want to know what I've been doing recently? You can just ask me directly. I've been training hard and busy improving my grades. I got A+ on all the tests in school. I also watched the video of you losing to me over and over again, found some of your shortcomings, and came up with a better way to defeat you. That's about it."
"How shameless!" Tao Zheng was furious, but also provoked by his words. He immediately took out his mecha from the space button and jumped in. "If you have the guts, fight me in real combat! You just used tricks to get away with winning, and you really think you're so powerful?"
Tao Rui spread his hands and said, "I have no problem fighting you, but the problem is that the commander-in-chief won't allow us to fight. If I hurt you, the commander-in-chief's wife will call me in for a talk. Besides, I've already defeated you, and won so beautifully, so it seems there's no need to compete with you anymore, don't you think?"
These words were a great humiliation to Tao Xiu. He had been having bad luck recently and urgently needed something to re-establish his prestige and win back his father's attention. He felt that defeating Tao Rui was the most important thing to do.
He angrily fired a shot at the branch beside Tao Rui, "Start the war! Stop talking nonsense, today I will let you see the difference between S-level and A-level!" After that, he fired another shot at Tao Rui.
Tao Rui jumped down from the tree, as if dodging the bullet, then quickly took out the mecha and jumped in.
The next second, the two mechas collided with each other.
They had a tacit understanding and neither of them used weapons, just close combat. Tao Xiu wanted to prove that his defeat was just a moment of carelessness, and that his fighting skills were definitely much better than Tao Rui's.
He was also on guard against Tao Rui's sudden tricks and using something to plot against him, but Tao Rui, like him, always fought him with only his mecha body.
What surprised him was that he was completely unable to crush Tao Rui, and was even gradually losing the upper hand!
Tao Rui punched Tao Xiu on the head and said gently, "Have you had enough? The commander-in-chief doesn't allow us to fight. If they find out, we won't be able to escape. This is the first time we've been alone together since the last fight, and you're fighting again?"
"I have been waiting for this opportunity. I just want to defeat you! You have always been my defeated opponent, in the past and in the future!" Tao Xiu was stubborn and attacked fiercely. His voice was cold and angry. He couldn't understand why he couldn't break through Tao Rui's defense.
Tao Rui asked, "What do you mean? Just because you lost to me today, you have to fight me again next time we meet? Do we have to fight every time we meet as brothers?"
"I'm not your brother! You will definitely lose today!" Tao Xiu shouted, and suddenly his arm turned into a knife, slashing towards Tao Rui!
Tao Rui spun around to avoid the blow and knocked Tao Xiu down with a sweeping kick. He seemed to be enraged by the blow and turned his arm into a weapon, starting to attack Tao Xiu fiercely without showing any mercy, targeting Tao Xiu's weaknesses with every attack.
Levels are not absolute in any era, and cross-level battles have always existed, especially after finding the opponent's weaknesses. It seems that every attack can greatly reduce the opponent's combat power, while one's own level remains unchanged. The result is naturally that the party with the exposed weakness will lose.
No matter how Tao Xiu dodged or attacked, Tao Rui could always find his weakness. When they hurt each other at the same time, instead of hurting the enemy by a thousand and themselves by eight hundred, Tao Rui would be hurt by a hundred and Tao Xiu by a thousand.
Such an astonishing ratio made Tao Xiu quickly feel powerless and completely at a disadvantage, being suppressed by Tao Rui. Tao Rui seemed to be really angry with him and did not hold back at all, hitting him repeatedly until his mecha was scrapped, and then pulled him out of the mecha and threw him to the ground.
Su Ya, who hadn't waited for Tao Xiu to catch up for a long time, brought Yi Wen back. Unexpectedly, the first thing she saw was Tao Xiu lying on the ground gasping for breath, while Tao Rui was standing there fully armed, and Tao Xiu's mecha at his feet had become scrap metal.
Su Ya and Yi Wen were both shocked. Virtual combat in a mecha pod was one thing, but face-to-face, close-quarters combat was another. Su Ya had always considered herself very strong, but even against Tao Xiu, she felt a significant gap, unable to make up for the level difference.
However, now she saw it with her own eyes. Tao Xiu was beaten by Tao Rui again and was unable to fight back. This fact made her question her life.
Yi Wen immediately contacted the Commander's Palace and reported the situation to the Commander's wife. When Su Ya ran to help Tao Xiu and questioned Tao Rui, the instructor had already run over. He looked at them angrily and said, "How much do you love fighting? Follow me! The Commander's Palace has issued an order to return to the Commander's Palace immediately!"
Tao Rui came out of the mecha and said apologetically, "I'm sorry to have troubled the instructor."
"Don't say anything, just get on the spaceship."
The instructor asked Yi Wen and Su Ya to help Tao Xiu walk together. Tao Xiu's condition was not very good because it was not a mecha cabin simulation, but actual combat. When the mecha was hit, his body would become weak and his spirit would become depressed.
What hit him the most was that Tao Rui actually defeated him. He was even more ferocious than last time, making him completely unable to resist. He even felt for a few moments that Tao Rui was going to kill him!
So he was now unable to recover from his shock and had no energy to maintain his composure. He was actually helped onto the spaceship by two people in front of his classmates.
The spaceship quickly rushed back to the Commander's Palace. The Commander's wife had already informed the Commander, and both of them were waiting for them.
The doctor quickly examined Tao Xiu and said cautiously, "The Second Prince is fine. He just needs to rest. However, the recovery time will depend on the situation. It may take three days, ten days, or even longer. It depends mainly on the Second Prince's mental state."
The doctor was being conservative on purpose to avoid being blamed for anything that went wrong, but the commander-in-chief's wife hated Tao Rui so much that she strode up to him and was about to hit him.
Tao Rui immediately stepped back, frowning and saying, "Please respect yourself and be aware of your status."
"You! Tao Rui, as an older brother, you keep bullying your younger brother..."
Tao Rui interrupted her with feigned anger, "Tao Xiu is looking for trouble with me and attacking me. Should I not fight back and just stand there and let him hit me? I also want to ask the Commander's wife, what exactly are you and your son trying to do? One of you specifically challenged me, and the other held me accountable afterwards. Do you think I'm an eyesore?"
"How dare you!" the commander snapped. "How dare you talk to your mother?"
Tao Rui angrily said, "She's not my mother! Tao Xiu isn't my brother either. I'm living a normal life, why should I put up with them? You want to blame me for doing it? First look at why I did it!"
As Tao Rui spoke, he projected the filmed footage onto the entire wall. Everyone present clearly saw that it was Tao Xiu who was provoking him, threatening to defeat Tao Rui and calling him a defeated opponent.
In the video, Tao Rui repeatedly emphasizes that the commander forbids them from fighting, but Tao Xiu attacks him, forcing him to fight back, saying he's been waiting for such an opportunity. Tao Rui gradually becomes infuriated, and only in the latter half does he actually fight back, accusing him of failing to be a good brother and being unfairly accused.
At least from this video, it was definitely not him who did anything wrong. Even the commander-in-chief's wife no longer had the right to blame him.
Tao Rui pressed on, "How can I stay out of trouble? Just because I don't have a mother and my clan's support, I have to endure Tao Xiu's provocations and humiliation time and time again? How many times has he defeated me in front of my classmates? Have you ever asked? Now, every time he loses, you teach me a lesson. Do you think I'm easy to bully?"
Tao Rui deliberately acted agitated and angry, shouting, "Believe it or not, I can do something big even if I risk everything. I'll make all of you lose face!"
"Tao Rui!" the commander shouted, telling him to shut up.
At this moment, they were filled with mixed emotions. They were wary of Tao Rui going crazy and doing something reckless, but they were also uncomfortable with Tao Rui becoming increasingly powerful and out of their control. They were also annoyed by the fact that such disturbances had appeared in their peaceful lives.
All this was because Tao Rui and Tao Xiu were at odds, a deep grudge between them. The only way to restore peace was to allow Tao Xiu to gain the upper hand again, but it was clear that Tao Rui was unwilling to give in and would never let Tao Xiu get his way.
The commander felt a headache and said coldly, "You go back. Tao Xiu will be put in solitary confinement. Both of you will reflect on your mistakes behind closed doors."
"What's the point?" Tao Rui questioned, "Wait until he comes to me next time and then attacks me?"
"What do you want?" The commander narrowed his eyes and looked at him, suspecting that he had some thoughts that he shouldn't have, and wanted to use this to suppress Tao Xiu and fight for his own rights.
Tao Rui, like someone of his age, took a deep breath as he faced the commander, as if his father's love had completely died. He finally made up his mind, "Send me away, like an ancient vassal king, and keep me far away from here. I really don't want to see you guys anymore! I just want to do research quietly in the lab and live a quiet life. I'm fed up with all this mess you guys are making!"
Such bold words made the commander's face darken, but it gave the commander's wife an opportunity. She immediately cried and said to the commander, "If he wants to go, then let him go. He's becoming more and more rebellious as he grows up. I don't believe he can stay in such a remote place. Won't he cry and shout to come back when the time comes? Send him out to reflect on his mistakes, otherwise he will beat Tao Xiu to death sooner or later.
My son, if anything happens to him, I will be dead!"
The Commander's wife, married to him for over twenty years, had instantly nailed what was most important to him. An S-rank Alpha was a once-in-a-century phenomenon. He had recently been training Tao Xiu and had noticed his rapid progress. How could he let Tao Rui harm him? Even if Tao Rui defeated him again, the significance of S-rank was different. He was definitely a role model destined for the annals of history. Given time, he would undoubtedly cultivate Tao Xiu.
He wasn't sure if Tao Rui's cultivation level, which he'd achieved through some ancient tome, would have any side effects. He didn't need to think twice about the weight of his two sons on the scale. Furthermore, Tao Rui had mentioned his mother and her clan twice recently. He didn't know if he'd noticed anything, but he definitely couldn't give him the chance to discover the truth. Staying away from here might be the best option.
He felt that Tao Rui had become a little arrogant because of the public attention he received due to his promotion in rank. As the commander-in-chief's wife said, he should let Tao Rui go out and reflect on himself, and when he came back he would be the honest son again.
So he stood up and walked to Tao Rui, saying with a sullen face, "Okay, then it's as you wish."
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