The Panhuman Alliance, the rebuilt Venal Galaxy, the brand-new Half Moon Hill Villa.
The night had fallen long ago, but in the darkness, Avril quietly got out of her bed. After rubbing her somewhat dry eyes with her snowy-white hands, she opened her wardrobe and put on a pair of blue jeans, white sneakers, and a pink travel jacket.
Softly exhaling, Avril took from an exquisite box on her dressing table a prepared spatial ring. She opened the balcony door, bathing her body in the silver moonlight.
Her golden hair swayed in the wind. Avril seemed rather worried, but her jewel-like eyes flashed with determination.
Who was Avril waiting for in the dark night? Since she had taken out prepared travel gear, was she going on a trip? With her silent actions, not waking her maids or butlers, was Avril planning to travel far on her own?
In short, Avril’s actions on this moonlit and starry night were very strange, but what happened next was even more bizarre. A small, strangely-shaped warship appeared at the Jian family home, avoiding the Venal Galaxy’s seven layers of powerful defenses, arriving like a ghost.
Those familiar with the warship models of the alliance would have quickly recognized that this ship belonged to none of them. Even its cloaking system activated and deactivated without a single energy pulse.
The warship bathed in the moonlight and then vanished in the sea of stars, and Avril had vanished as well. The night remained the same, but that golden waterfall of hair and that incredibly cute and adorable face was no more.
However, the strangeness did not end there.
Twenty-seven minutes and nineteen seconds after Avril left the Jian family home, a boom resounded through the calm Half Moon Hill Villa!
*Rumble!*
Avril’s bedroom exploded!
A strong glass door had existed between the balcony and the bedroom, but now, this door was blasted to pieces! The bedroom was turned into a large barn!
*Whoosh whoosh whoosh!*
The Jian family’s bodyguards arrived at the scene, countless flashlights piercing through the darkness, countless eyes uneasy, frightened, and unaware of what to do next!
“Where’s the young miss?!”
“I don’t know!”
“Who broke this door?”
“I don’t know…”
“Then what do you know?!” Pang Xing furiously roared, not caring that he was the Jian family’s head butler.
“Get searching already! If something happened to the young miss! I… I’ll have your heads!” Pang Xing’s face turned cold, his gaze dark and sinister.
*Whoosh whoosh whoosh!*
Several hundred figures vanished into the darkness to search for Avril. Alas, where could they start searching for Avril in the vast sea of stars.
…
In a forest not far from Half Moon Hill Villa, two black silhouettes stood, observing everything that transpired within the Jian family home.
“It seems that they don’t know where Avril has gone, either?”
“It seems so.”
“Then what do we do?”
“Let’s wait until daybreak. If they really can’t find her, then we can only give an honest report.”
“Strange. How is it that Avril happened to disappear exactly when we arrived? Does she have the ability to predict the future?”
“Impossible! No one can predict the future.”
“Then how can you explain the fact that she disappeared the moment we arrived?”
“I can’t explain it.”
A sorrowful mood quickly spread, the frantic faces of servants and bodyguards visible everywhere.
Bad news always spread fast. A dozen or so minutes later, the Venal Galaxy’s general police headquarters activated its emergency contingency plan, hundreds of thousands of police officers beginning to search the streets for Avril. Twenty-five minutes later, the Venal defense headquarters began to execute a thorough search. Thirty minutes later, the public security force, border force, special defense force, and intelligence apparatus received Avril’s picture and secret orders to search for her.
In the middle of the tension and unrest, the sky gradually brightened, and those two mysterious figures in the forest vanished without a trace.
…
“Grandfather.” Mu Fuping pouted as she buried her beautiful face in Mu Qiyun’s chest. Snake Isle was in ruins and devoid of life, a sight that left Mu Fuping stunned and frightened.
Mu Fuping had been able to drag Patriarch Mu Qiyun, who had not shown his face in the Law Realm for several decades, to Snake Isle. Whether it was through tantrums or threats, it was clear that Mu Fuping enjoyed incredible status and favor in the Withered Mu Clan.
Alas, they had still come too late. In all this devastation, there was no sign of Xia Fei.
Yu Jin creased his brows and hastily walked over to Mu Qiyun. The Yu Clan had suffered a sudden calamity, and even the ancestral shrine had been destroyed, so Yu Jin had a rather nasty expression on his face. As the chief steward, Yu Jin was now the acting patriarch, responsible for surveying and cleaning up the scene.
Bowing, Yu Jin asked, “Venerable Patriarch Mu, for what reason have you asked for me?”
Though he was in no mood to speak with outsiders, Yu Jin remained respectful. After all, Mu Qiyun was the patriarch of the Withered Mu Clan, a Law Overlord! Let alone the Yu Clan, no one in the Law Realm would dare to be rude to this elderly gentleman.
Dryly coughing, Mu Qiyun replied, “My precious granddaughter is looking for someone in your Yu Clan. Who was it again…”
“Xia Fei,” Mu Fuping softly said, her voice somewhat scratchy.
“Right, Xia Fei. Where is he? Hurry and take me to him.”
Yu Jin frowned. He naturally knew about the relationship between Mu Fuping and Xia Fei, but he had not expected Mu Fuping to place such importance on it. Her father refused to help, so she had gone to the venerable master of the Mu Clan, instead! This was a mighty god!
“Venerable Master Mu, at the final moment, Xia Fei broke out of the Sky Curtain, destroyed the outer shell around the Yu Clan’s ship, and escaped into the sea of stars, vanishing without a trace. We’re still looking for him.”
As he spoke, Yu Jin pointed at the massive hole in the sky. The warship’s outer shell protected the Yu Family from the harsh conditions of space, and Xia Fei’s escape through it had panicked everyone in the Clan. Fortunately, the Law Enforcement Board had arrived on time and had used law force to temporarily seal the breach, thus avoiding an even greater disaster.
Mu Qiyun’s eyes twinkled as he excitedly asked, “He destroyed the Sky Curtain?! What cultivation does that young man have?”
“Level 2 Law Sovereign,” Yu Jin respectfully reported.
“That’s before the Dragon Ascension Conclave. Xia Fei is now a level 4 Law Sovereign.”
Yu Jin, Mu Qiyun, and Mu Fuping turned their heads and saw that the speaker was none other than Busey, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Dragon Ascension. At his side was the young master of the Feng Clan, Zanian Feng.
“Only level 4, yet he broke through the Sky Curtain?!” Mu Qiyun muttered in disbelief.
Mu Qiyun was their senior, so Zanian Feng and Busey both bowed and greeted him. Besides that, Zanian Feng lightly nodded at Mu Fuping.
A helpless look appeared on Yu Jin’s face. With Busey here, there were now five Law Overlords gathered on Snake Isle! This was his first time seeing such a force.
“What did you mean when you said that Xia Fei broke the Sky Curtain and escaped? Why did he need to escape?” Busey’s dark face turned stern as he coldly asked.
“We’re not sure, but everyone in the Yu Clan saw him break through the Sky Curtain and the ship’s outer shell to escape,” Yu Jin said. “Perhaps he was suffering from a guilty conscience.”
“Guilty conscience?!”
Everyone was confused. Had Xia Fei done something terrible that he would have a guilty conscience? What had Xia Fei done?”
“Impossible! Big Brother Xia Fei has never wronged the clan in any way. He has no need to run!” Mu Fuping clenched her teeth and retorted.
Mu Qiyun shook his head. His granddaughter was the apple of his eye, but she was too simple and stubborn. In the man-eat-man world of the circle, anything could happen.
Yu Jin softly said, “Xia Fei entered the Sky Curtain alone, but the numerous experts of the Yu Clan present on the scene were unable to do so. Xia Fei was only a Law Sovereign, so how could he get through the Sky Curtain? Someone must’ve let him in.
“In addition, if he didn’t commit any crime against the clan, why would he run away?”
Everyone was taken aback, and even Mu Fuping had nothing to say. The situation looked very bad for Xia Fei, and his actions did not stand up to scrutiny.
“The patriarch has passed away, and I have many matters to attend to, so I won’t keep you company anymore. As for this incident, the Yu Family has already reported it to the Law Enforcement Board. The seniors at the board will decide whether or not Xia Fei was among the assassins.”
Yu Jin bowed and left. As Zanian watched Yu Jin leave, he said, “Xia Fei’s in big trouble this time.”
Mu Fuping’s eyes reddened, almost on the verge of tears. Mu Qiyun hastily went to comfort his beloved granddaughter; alas, his efforts did little.
“I accompanied the members of the Law Enforcement Board in inspecting Snake Isle. Other than members of the Yu Family and some bizarre golden skeletons, there are no other bodies to be found. It seems like someone already cleaned up the crime scene,” Busey coldly said.
Mu Qiyun nodded. “There’s an expert here with a cultivation on par with mine, and they specialize in concealment. The Law Enforcement Board’s investigation won’t find anything. This person was very meticulous in their clean-up.
“As for the golden skeletons, those are the work of the Yu Clan’s legendary Dragon Sealing and Dragon Unleashing Marks. In life, they were Law Emperors of the Yu Family, and in death, they’re sealed in an eternal dimension with a part of their cultivation. Yu Jiang even used the last resort of the clan, so we can see that it’s an extremely desperate battle.”
All was silent. For such a bitterly fought battle to leave no trace, it was clear that someone had cleaned up the area, but Xia Fei’s choice to escape left everyone confused. Why would he run?
Zanian suddenly said, “Xia Fei is smart, and he had a reason for everything he did. I think that he must have had some unspeakable predicament so he chose to escape.”
Mu Fuping blinked and looked at Zanian. There was finally someone speaking up for Xia Fei, and Mu Fuping felt extremely grateful.
“There’s one situation in which I would also choose to escape,” Zanian Feng said.
“What situation?”
“My opponent was powerful to an unfathomable level and I had no one whom I could trust,” Zanian Feng stated. “Xia Fei broke through the Sky Curtain, but he chose not to stay with the Yu Family. This can only mean that he trusted no one in the clan and trusted no one in the Law Enforcement Board. If this was some enormous conspiracy that involved many other parties, Xia Fei would have no idea who was involved, who was his enemy, and who was his friend. The only option he would have would be to escape. There are many times when the unseen enemy is the most frightening.”
Busey creased his brows and asked, “You’re saying that Xia Fei believed that staying with the Yu Family was dangerous so he left even if he had to be suspected of killing the patriarch?”
Zanian Feng gave a slight nod and shot a glance at the distant figure of Yu Jin.
Everyone was startled. Busey sternly said, “His choice might’ve been correct, but being wanted by the Law Enforcement Board is now unavoidable. As the only living participant, the Law Enforcement Board will undoubtedly seek him out for an explanation.”
Busey’s speculation was on the mark. The Law Enforcement Board carelessly inspected the crime scene, and on the same night, it issued an arrest warrant for Xia Fei!
Sometimes, life was just like this, and one was helpless to stop it. Not long after arriving at the Law Realm, Xia Fei had once again been forced onto the path of the fugitive.
