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"Finally, we’ve come to this step..."

In the eastern half of the district, a man in white looked around with a complex expression while a tall man stood beside him, his gaze vacant, his movements stiff like a puppet. Who else could it be but Hou Nanfeng?

Who would have thought that the future head of the illustrious Hou Family would become someone else’s puppet?

"Did you plan this from the beginning?"

Within the man in white, a faint voice spoke up—it was Chen Qing!

"No, the plan formed after you showed up," the King of Qin laughed. "I didn’t expect things to go so smoothly. You’ve been better than I imagined. Because you showed such high value, you tempted Zhang Zhengyuan and the higher-ups to take a risk, which gave me my chance."

"And your situation is unique, housing two souls in one body. I’ve studied the Federation’s detection data mechanisms many times; they all calculate and capture after detecting a soul. As long as your soul is in the front to attract the program, there won’t be a second detection..."

"That’s just your speculation, right?" Chen Qing frowned. "You didn’t have the chance to test it, so... you’re also taking a risk, aren’t you?"

"Isn’t that how people are?" The King of Qin spoke indifferently. "For the sake of some goal, they can’t help but play the gambler once."

"But you have a disassembly program in you too, don’t you?" Chen Qing frowned. "Aren’t you afraid they’ll just activate the program inside you?"

"Activating the program requires a tremendous amount of authority to unlock, and it’s a complex process that can’t be decided on the fly.

That’s why it was too late by the time Zhang Zhengyuan and the others realized it was me.

Those experts, when they installed the disassembly program within you to counter the threat, didn’t have time to switch, but. .."

The soul of the King of Qin suddenly looked at Chen Qing eerily: "At the last moment, Zhang Zhengyuan actually didn’t activate the disassembly program on you. That’s quite interesting."

"Why would he activate mine?" Chen Qing asked lightly. "I’m not the enemy, am I?"

"At the last moment, would he still have a heart of compassion? With a try-and-see attitude, they should have activated the disassembly program, destroying you first..."

This was the part the King of Qin couldn’t understand the most. According to his plan, Zhang Zhengyuan would have activated the program to dismantle Chen Qing just before his death.

That way, this body would have belonged entirely to him, but now, with Chen Qing still alive, an element of risk had been added.

Of course, as long as he could control the top tier, use the data specialists to restart the data equipment in the western district, he could still activate Chen Qing’s disassembly program again.

"Who knows?" Chen Qing smiled. "Maybe it’s just that my life wasn’t meant to end?"

"You’re really optimistic, aren’t you?" The King of Qin looked at Chen Qing with a smile. "Is it because of Wang Ye?"

Chen Qing: "....."

"You really trust that native."

"You guessed it?" Chen Qing looked at him.

"Is there anything to guess?" The King of Qin said with a laugh. "You let Tianji run out on purpose, didn’t you? Just to contact your Minister Wang, and having Flying Star follow along was quite creative. I’m really curious, you don’t seem like someone who likes to entrust his fate to others, do you? "

"There are always exceptions..." Chen Qing smiled.

"But what can they do to me?" The King of Qin squinted as he looked at him. "Tianji is not the combative type, and Wang Ye... just entered the transcendent, what can he do?"

"He’s very smart." Chen Qing also looked at him. "Smarter than you think..."

"Smart enough to guess my intentions and persuade a high-level person to shut me down, right?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Qing stared at him for a long time before finally saying, "So, you anticipated this?"

"Don’t think others are that foolish..." The King of Qin shook his head while directing the rigid Hou Nanfeng to request opening the command center passage.

Watching Hou Nanfeng struggle in his eyes while his body involuntarily moved like a puppet, the King of Qin recalled the past.

It was an experience he would never forget, no matter how many years passed.

When Federation children reached the age of three, they started a selection process; the smart ones received higher-level education, and the slow-witted ones were directly trained as the lowest level of operators with different ideologies instilled in them.

As they grew older, the children who had been eliminated realized what they had missed out on and regretted it to death, while the successful ones continued the endless, insane grind.

He wasn’t particularly smart as a child, so his destiny had been decided very early on: he would either dig pits for life or serve as a lowly soldier in the military.

He chose the latter, hoping to use his acquired efforts to create some miracle.

But impossible here, no matter how many military exploits he had made, no matter how outstanding his performance in the special forces tests had been in the later stages, he was still just a grunt.

It was the Hou Family who changed his fate.

In his memory, they seemed to be a big deal, proud and aloof, picking him out like one selects a piglet, choosing from the lower ranks because this was just a testing program with a slim chance of success.

It wasn’t cost-effective to use any member of a prominent family, but special forces like him, with their high cost-performance ratio, were more suitable.

They probably never expected that he would succeed so smoothly, did they?

Smoothly enough that one day he could turn the tables and threaten them themselves?

Number: 10466, General Hou Nanfeng, authority level one confirmed, requesting to open the command center passage!

-----------------------------

"Haven’t we arrived yet?"

Wang Ye and his companion followed behind Wu Xing, who had transported them to a seemingly secret base. Here, there were staff members in white robes everywhere, which looked a lot like the Longgong Laboratory at Jiangnan Academy. Perhaps this was a similar higher educational facility here?

From this perspective, the so-called Number One’s deactivation program’s location here also seemed reasonable, after all, in Jiangnan, some of the important research projects and array weapons were also kept in the Longgong Laboratory.

But Wang Ye’s brows furrowed more and more—he always felt... too slow.

Even though this Wu Xing guy seemed tense enough, it had been so long, and they were still on the way; something felt off to him.

"Minister Wang..."

Tianji’s voice suddenly appeared again in Wang Ye’s mind.

"Senior, do you have something to say?" Wang Ye quickly asked.

"They all say that the puppets made by Mister Hua Pi move stiffly. Minister Wang, despite your special experiences, you are also in a puppet body, right?"

"Yes..." Wang Ye frowned, "Senior, what are you trying to say?"

"Why does Minister Wang appear no different from ordinary people?"

"Me?" Wang Ye was taken aback, "My situation is different. My body was originally intended for Mister Hua Pi’s own use, so he used delicate carving techniques, even retaining a certain spirit body, and then... Huh?"

Wang Ye suddenly realized, stopped following, and abruptly looked toward Wu Xing.

Wu Xing up ahead had been walking briskly, only seeming to realize that Wang Ye and the others were not following after covering quite a distance. Looking back in confusion, he asked, "What’s wrong, gentlemen?"

"How much farther, General Wu?"

"Not much further..." Wu Xing pointed inward, "Past the next two checkpoints, we’ll be at one of the supercomputer locations where we can initiate Number One’s deactivation program."

"I’m quite puzzled, General Wu. You do have a way to contact others remotely, don’t you? Given the urgency, why haven’t you contacted the people here directly, to shut it down yourself?"

"Number One is a key project individual; a high-level authority is needed to initiate the deactivation program!" Wu Xing hurriedly explained.

"Are you the only one with high-level authority, General Wu?" Wang Ye asked eerily.

"Not exactly..." Wu Xing frowned, "As you mentioned just now, Number One has the ability to control others. I’m not sure who’s been controlled and who hasn’t right now. For such an important matter, of course, I must come in person."

"But when you were confirming General Hou Nanfeng’s whereabouts, you also asked outsiders. How could you be sure those outsiders you asked haven’t been controlled?"

Wu Xing: "....."

"What exactly are you trying to say, sir? Are you suspecting me?"

"Yes..." Wang Ye looked up slightly, "The situation is urgent. I ask for your understanding, General Wu!"

As the words fell, a fierce glint flashed without warning, Wu Xing’s pupils shrank, and the next second, his right hand was cleanly severed.

Blood splattered, but eerily, the arm that broke off in mid-air... was made of wood...