Action Dialogue
Kuwano had no idea where he was.
She felt like she had walked a long way, but it was still dark and foggy all around. Her head also ached, and it felt like something was constantly chattering in her ears.
Until a sliver of light appeared ahead.
Sangye ran toward the light.
It was a desolate wasteland, only slightly brighter than the space where we were now, shrouded in the gloom of approaching night.
A man and a woman are placing something under a tree in the wilderness.
The two then left in a hurry, seemingly unable to see Sangye standing not far away.
Sangye stood still, gazing at the tree.
It was a mulberry tree, miraculously surviving on land that had been parched for many days.
The man and woman had just abandoned a frail infant under the tree.
Not long after, faint crying could be heard coming from inside.
Kuwano knew what it was.
After hesitating for a moment, Sangye still walked over.
Out of sheer will to survive, a frail baby girl managed to squeeze out a harsh, hoarse cry, like that of a kitten.
Kuwano didn't know if she really looked like this when she was a child, but she also knew that this was not the real world, and that it was all her imagination.
Not long after, a similarly thin wolf staggered over from a distance. It followed the sound of crying, circled the baby girl a few times, bared its teeth, but ultimately did not bite.
It's anyone's guess what this beast was thinking during that short period of time.
It lay down and warmed the baby girl with its belly.
Both the man and the wolf gradually fell into a deep sleep.
Kuwano was an outsider; she could only watch. No one heard what she said, and she couldn't touch anything.
She crouched down, gazing at her tiny self. Wrapped in swaddling clothes, her belly rose and fell with steady breathing. Perhaps she was starving, for she didn't cry out once more.
The surrounding black fog gradually thinned out from its initial thick and heavy state.
As the sky and earth changed color once more, another figure approached from afar.
That was Du Yuan when she was younger.
She wore ordinary clothes and had her hair tied in a bun. Although she was unadorned, her demeanor still revealed her to be a woman of noble status.
She spotted the thin, weak beast under the tree from afar.
"Poor thing," Du Yuan said, taking small steps forward and reaching into his sleeve to pull out a few pieces of raw meat to eat. "Oh dear, what's this?"
Du Yuan only discovered that a baby was curled up under the wolf's belly when he got closer.
"Another abandoned girl." Du Yuan picked up the baby girl and lovingly stroked her face. "You all come with me."
The wolf swallowed the raw meat from Du Yuan's hand, stood up, shook its stiff body and tangled fur, and followed Du Yuan away.
"Look how pitiful you are. Take a bath when you get back. I'll fatten you up."
Du Yuan's voice faded into the distance.
"Mother," Sangye called out softly, not expecting Du Yuan to hear her.
"Hmm?" Du Yuan stopped in her tracks, looking around as if she had really heard it.
Sangye was standing right behind her, but Du Yuan couldn't see him.
"I must be too tired and hallucinating. Let's go, let's hurry back to Shifangwu. Our master is still waiting for us." Du Yuan's figure gradually disappeared.
Daylight broke. The black fog completely dissipated in the sunlight.
The surrounding scenery began to blur, then solidified again.
"Sang Sang—"
"Sang Sang————"
"Kang Ye!!"
The shouts grew clearer and clearer.
Sangye suddenly opened his eyes again. What came into view was a sycamore tree dancing anxiously, its branches violently striking a cloud of pitch-black mist.
"You're finally awake!" the sycamore tree said, annoyed. "You scared me to death! What did you bring into this cave?"
With a wave of her hand, Sangye grasped the wisp of mist in her palm. The mist carried a bone-chilling cold and an intense sense of discomfort. Her spiritual power repelled the mist.
Kuwano sensed that this was the spiritual power of a "kindred spirit," also originating from a guide.
It can invade mental constructs and create nightmares. The identity of this guide is self-evident.
"Who are you?"
Just as Sangye was thinking about how to bring this black mist out of the mental landscape, a cold male voice suddenly drifted out from the black mist, as chilling as the mist itself.
Ever since Song Yu heard that the Capital Star had sent investigators, he had been feeling uneasy.
Over the years, he has been very careful in his actions, and apart from the surveillance footage that Eugénie had placed somewhere, he felt that he had not given anything away.
But things seemed to be getting out of control. Something must have gone wrong. But he couldn't figure it out.
The nightmare mental energy that Song Yu injected needed to be activated by him. After activating it as usual, he was waiting for feedback.
However, something was amiss. He could sense that the nightmare spiritual power he had planted was getting weaker and weaker, to the point that it was practically dead.
Muli Star has no other guides as powerful as him; he's an S-rank! Even if a guide accidentally ingests a special nutrient solution, they'll just have a nightmare and that's it. Song Yu's nightmare will be gradually expelled by the guide's mental power.
The guide who can dispel his nightmares must either have stronger mental power than him or have broken the nightmare.
Either way, it made Song Yu feel uneasy.
Each of his nightmares is a mental clone of himself, and he can communicate directly with these mental entities.
So he couldn't help but ask.
"And who are you?" Sangye asked knowingly.
"Stop playing tricks, I'll find out about you first thing tomorrow morning!" The words had barely left his mouth when Song Yu realized he'd been too hasty and given himself away. He'd had a successful career on Muli Star for years, yet he'd become so flustered at the slightest setback.
"You're a strange person. You're the one who invaded my mental landscape, yet you're threatening me?" Sangye said calmly. "I remember the Empire has a law that invading a mental landscape without permission is a serious crime, isn't it?"
Song Yu paused for a moment, then sneered: "Do you have any evidence? Can you find me? Who can enter your mental landscape and prove within it that the black mist is related to me?"
Everything that happens in the mental world is not monitored or recorded, and is difficult to track. Song Yu is invincible by taking advantage of this bug.
Other sentries and guides can't, but Sangye can.
Because anything that enters her cave can be taken out through her storage ring.
Kuwano is the biggest variable.
Sangye sneered twice, stuffed the black mist into the jade marrow, threw it back into his storage ring, and unilaterally severed the connection.
The military records the level of spiritual entities and spiritual power, as well as the external manifestations of spiritual power.
There was nothing I could do before because I couldn't bring him out, but now he's come to me on his own.
*
In the executive palace, Song Yu, who was suddenly awakened, frantically smashed everything around him.
Porcelain, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, even bedposts.
He was as violent as a sentinel in a mental uproar.
The noise attracted the officers on duty, who rushed over to investigate.
Jima was also awakened, and she heard Song Yu angrily rebuking the officers on duty from afar.
The terminal suddenly lit up—it was very quiet in sleep mode and went unnoticed by anyone—a communication initiated from the military intranet, from top to bottom, leaving no record.
The message came from a long-dormant contact whose titles, except for Marshal, were all grayed out, indicating that he was now merely a figurehead.
Lin Changli: Major General Jima, please hand over the password and biometric authentication for Executive Officer Eurenia's ward.
This is not a discussion, it is an order.
Jima steadied her breathing and looked around at the noisy room from afar.
She knew who Lin Changli was, and she also knew that Song Yu had been exiled because he had offended the royal family.
But can she trust him?
Before she could hesitate for long, Lin Changli sent a second message: We have a way to wake up Ms. Eugenia. You need to keep Song Yu calm and prevent him from noticing anything unusual at the hospital.
"I'm going to kill you all! A bunch of useless trash!" Song Yu seemed to have gone completely mad. He suddenly rushed out of the room, followed by his two bodyguards.
Jima hid in the storage room next door, making up her mind.
She typed in a few numbers and sent them, then unlocked the biometric authentication on the terminal.
Lin Changli: Received.
Upon receiving the message as read, all text records disappeared from bottom to top, making them unviewable on Jima's end.
Eve will faithfully record everything, but only one person in the world can view Lin Changli's records.
Jima pretended to have just come out of her room and called out to Song Yu, who looked irritable, "What are you doing? Who made you unhappy again?"
Song Yu's ferocious expression shifted several times before he forced out an ugly, half-smiling look: "I just suddenly thought of some unpleasant things."
Jima looked at him quietly for a few moments. "As you know, the capital planet sent people to check Muli Star's tax records," she lowered her voice. "The accounts are well-done, but they're too perfect, without any problems at all, which is actually the biggest problem. Don't cause trouble at this crucial time; you don't want to be found to be suspicious, do you?"
Song Yu's expression turned even uglier, but he still managed to squeeze out the words through gritted teeth: "Of course I won't. After all, my dear sister is still lying in the hospital. If anything happens to her, she'll probably be thrown onto Black Tower Star."
Jima could tell it was a threat, but she hoped it wouldn't be after tonight.
"Are you very free? Why aren't you asleep yet?" Jima was much calmer than him. "We'll be checking the tax records of various nutrient solution factories tomorrow. Instead of wasting your time getting angry, why don't you go back and check them?"
*
In the hospital, the sentries lay scattered about, each with a look of fear on their face, as if they had been attacked by something irresistible.
The air was filled with a scorching spiritual energy, so intense that it made people's nerves twitch and they were unable to resist.
This was an overwhelming disparity in mental strength. They couldn't even press the alarm.
Not to mention the doctors and nurses.
Someone walked past them.
The fallen sentry was only visible by his boots; it was impossible to tell if he was male or female. All that could be discerned was that there were two of them.
The top floor of the hospital is a sealed-off area.
After Lin Changli entered the password and lost biometric authentication, the door slid open silently to both sides.
The scene inside was exactly the same as outside, except that one person was still sleeping peacefully.
Eugenia was hidden in the room at the very end, and Gemma had taken good care of her for many years. Her face was pale but she was not sick or weak, and her muscles had only atrophied slightly.
“Executor Eugenia, I’ve finally met you.” Sangye extended his mental energy to check and found that her mental landscape was filled with a thick black mist, which even his mental energy could not penetrate.
"Shall we take her back to Black Tower Star?" Lin Changli asked.
“Take it back to Black Tower,” Sangye said. “The medical conditions on Black Tower are better than here, and I’ve been thinking about something. What did Eugenie discover back then that made Song Yu do such a dirty trick? I think she must have some evidence that can connect all the evidence and lead to a conviction.”
Sangye said softly, "She's actually your aunt?"
Lin Changli paused for a moment.
Eugénie knew her brothers very well, and knowing she couldn't do anything more, she chose to protect herself.
As Lin Changli left the hospital, he sent a command to Eve, the mainframe on the capital planet, instructing her to destroy all the surveillance footage from the hospital during that time.
Seeing all this, Sangye pondered, "Private companies also have surveillance cameras. Can Eve check them?"
"Not necessarily. Not all networks will connect to Eve. Eve primarily serves the military and government. It is the most intelligent AI, but not the only one. More private companies will choose cheaper AI that is also free from military surveillance and protects their privacy. If needed, Eve can force access or secretly infiltrate."
"Have Eve access the Rufu Group's network—secretly—and have her check if the surveillance footage is complete and if there are any signs of modification or editing. It will probably take many years to investigate, at least from the year Song Yu entered Muli Star."
Lin Changli nodded. "You suspect that Eugénie has some surveillance footage, and that she's hidden it."
Sangye nodded: "If my guess is correct. And I'm also thinking about something else. Besides Jima, Eugénie's most trustworthy people are Eve. Eve would never betray her. If she had surveillance footage, she would either give it to Eugénie or upload it to Eve. I don't think Jima has it, otherwise she wouldn't be in such a passive position. The recording can only be with Eve, so why didn't Eve on Muli Star issue any prompts or warnings?"
"Does the Executive have any special authority over Eve?" This was the only guess that Sangye could make.
Lin Changli shook his head: "As far as I know, no. The Empire would not authorize such a dangerous act. Otherwise, the executives' power on their home planet would be unrestricted."
“If I put the surveillance footage—maybe a small hard drive or a DRAM chip—in Eve’s server room, but I don’t tell Eve what it is, Eve will obviously see it on the monitor and might even ask about it. But if I tell Eve, ‘Please save it for me for a while, don’t read it, I think it’s safer here,’ and these kinds of DRAM chips are common and inconspicuous in Eve’s server room, and Eve scans it and finds no viruses, will she react in any other way?”
Eve is an intelligent artificial intelligence; how would she judge this matter?
"With the authority of an executive officer, I don't think Eve would refuse, nor would she specifically report such an unimportant matter—especially since Muli has been peaceful for the past few decades. Although Eugénie later fell ill, illness is common among humans."
Lin Changli paused for a moment: "To speak directly with Eve, unless she initiates it, we can only go to the server room and 'ask her face to face'."
This is a defensive measure; Eve almost never replies to any discussions or casual chat online. She only executes commands. The scientists who designed her wrote this into her underlying code to prevent human greed from taking hold.
Entering Eve's server room requires passing through multiple layers of security. In fact, most people have no idea where the server rooms on each planet are located.
Sangye said softly, "Then let's go to the computer room."
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