After her identity had been exposed with a single remark, the smile on Liang Bing's face stiffened for an instant. But she quickly regained her composure. The flirtation and teasing in her eyes faded, replaced by scrutiny and a trace of wariness.
She had a few likely explanations. Either Si Yao had memorized her unique Dark Energy Signal, and despite her deliberate disguise and restraint, he could still detect her precisely.
Or his supposedly prophetic Kongshi Realm Divine Power—so mysterious and hard to understand—had come into play again.
Of course, it was also possible that Si Yao had learned some information about her from those little angels after spending time with them lately.
But regardless of which it was, Si Yao hadn't attacked her outright. That meant... they could talk.
"Now, you should call me Liang Bing." Liang Bing shrugged calmly and admitted who she was without hesitation.
But Si Yao seemed to have no interest in talking to her. He turned and walked away.
"Hey, hey! Don't go!" Liang Bing hurried after him again. Abandoning the act, she asked casually, "Back in Huang Village, why did you help those angel bitches deal with me?"
"I just crushed a few bugs that disgusted me," Si Yao replied without looking back.
"Bugs?" Liang Bing raised her eyebrows, getting a little angry, but forced herself to hold it in. "What's so great about angels that you'd go out of your way to help them?"
"At least they don't pollute my eyes," Si Yao replied flatly.
Liang Bing's expression froze.
She stared at him, wide-eyed, and asked in disbelief, "You... don't tell me you attacked because you thought my Demon Warriors were too ugly?!"
"I did."
Si Yao's answer was crisp and immediate, without the slightest hesitation.
The blunt, brutally honest reason left Liang Bing completely speechless.
After a brief silence, Liang Bing tried again. "Hey, so... is there any chance you'd join forces with us demons to fight the angels?"
This time, Si Yao couldn't even be bothered to humor her. He kept walking and ignored her outright.
Join forces to fight the angels? What a joke.
In his eyes, angels—especially beings like Holy Keisha and He Xi—were practically walking, inexhaustible True Point Treasuries. They were so adorable. How could he bring himself to fight them?
He was even seriously considering whether, at some point in the future, he should intervene and save Holy Keisha from the "Supernova Explosion" ambush that Carl and Liang Bing had plotted together.
After all, the number of True Points that Holy Keisha, the King of Gods, could bring him by herself was probably an astronomical figure beyond imagination.
He simply... couldn't bear to let her fall like that.
Seeing that Si Yao wasn't answering, Liang Bing took the hint. She changed the subject. "All right. Will you interfere in the war between us and the angels again?"
"Not interested." Si Yao finally answered. "Fight however you like. I don't care."
The promise put Liang Bing at ease. She then probed, "Come to think of it, you're a god with such incredible power, yet I'd never heard of you before. What remote corner did you crawl out of?"
Si Yao finally stopped and turned around, looking at her as if she were an idiot.
"You still have to ask me?" He didn't bother playing riddles with her. "You've been sneaking around and spying God knows how many times lately. You've been inside Super Seminary—and even that Juxia out at sea—who knows how many times. I bet you've dug up the family histories of every last one of those brats in Xiong Bing Lian. And now you're asking me this?"
A trace of embarrassment crossed Liang Bing's face when he called her out, but a queen had thick skin. She quickly recovered, coughed twice, and forcibly changed the subject. "Ahem... Fine. Then let's talk about... the Pangu Civilization?"
Si Yao's expression turned cold.
"I don't want to talk about that." His voice was flat. "The Pangu Civilization is in the past. It's been gone for who knows how long. I have no interest in remembering it."
Seeing his reaction, Liang Bing immediately thought of the records she'd seen earlier in Super Seminary's Database, which had been compiled when Du Qiangwei accessed it. She had a rough idea now.
It seemed the Pangu Civilization really had been completely destroyed.
Liang Bing pressed on. "Then... are there any others like you, any other Old Gods?"
"They're all dead," Si Yao replied flatly.
Liang Bing froze, then asked instinctively, "Were they destroyed by the Void?"
This time, Si Yao's voice carried a clearly discernible chill that sent a shiver down her spine.
"No."
"I destroyed them."
"..."
The next morning, under a bright sun.
Du Qiangwei flew her own powered armor directly onto the lawn outside Si Yao Villa. She didn't disturb Si Yao, instead heading straight to the Backyard, where she found Su Xiao Li awkwardly practicing with her new dagger.
"Xiao Li, could you help me with something?" Qiangwei got right to the point.
When Su Xiao Li saw Qiangwei, she remembered how badly she'd beaten Xiong Bing Lian last time and felt a little guilty. She stopped practicing and scratched her head sheepishly. "Sister Qiangwei, what is it?"
Besides, she had something on her mind, too. Last time, she'd gone along to Liangshan to see the monkeys, but her boss and Sun Wukong had suddenly started fighting, and everything had descended into chaos. She hadn't gotten the chance to ask what kind of "connection" she had with the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.
This was a good opportunity to ask.
Aboard Juxia, on the broad deck.
After Qiangwei and Lena explained things, Su Xiao Li finally got a general understanding of the predicament Ge Xiaolun was facing.
"Love Hormone?" She tilted her head, trying to make sense of it with the knowledge base that had just been "uploaded" into her mind. "Isn't that just a bit of Information Element running wild? That so-called kiss is just an external stimulus for his emotions, guiding his Gene Engine to compile correctly."
With Qiangwei leading the way, Su Xiao Li soon found Ge Xiaolun on the deck. He was flopping around like a fish out of water, trying his hardest to fly but unable to get off the ground.
"Xiaolun, don't resist," Qiangwei warned him first.
Su Xiao Li walked over. Instead of performing some complicated "treatment" as they'd expected, she simply glanced at Ge Xiaolun. A faint glimmer passed through her watery eyes.
In the next instant, she unleashed a carefully crafted illusion on Ge Xiaolun.
His struggling body stiffened abruptly, and his eyes instantly grew unfocused.
A few seconds later, he suddenly burst into tears, sobbing as torrents of tears poured down his face.
Then, under Qiangwei and Lena's stunned gazes, the pair of black Wings on Ge Xiaolun's back snapped fully open and carried him into the sky. He flew around overhead, sobbing so bitterly he could barely breathe. His cries were enough to break the heart of anyone who heard them and bring tears to the eyes of anyone who saw him.
Qiangwei and Lena were completely dumbfounded. They looked at each other, then turned to Su Xiao Li in confusion.
"What... what did you do to him?"
Su Xiao Li only gave them a sly smile. She held up a finger to her lips and made a "shh" gesture. "A girl's secrets are better left unknown."
With Ge Xiaolun's problem taken care of, Su Xiao Li dusted off her hands and said to Qiangwei, "Sister Qiangwei, could you take me to find Sun Wukong? There are a few things I'd like to ask him."
Meanwhile, on the distant far side of the Moon.
In the eternal shadows, Heavenly Base Four lay in the depths of a crater like a silent behemoth.
It had become the temporary base near Earth for He Xi and Angel Yan's team.
In the Main Control Room, Angel Chase had just finished a sweeping reconnaissance of the entire Solar System. Looking at the empty scan results on the Light Screen, she reported to everyone, "I've searched the entire Solar System. There's no sign of Demon One, and I haven't detected any unusual Dark Energy Fluctuation of significant intensity. I suspect... Morgana may have taken what remains of her forces and left the Chiwu Star System."
Angel Yan shook her head, rejecting the idea.
"Impossible." Angel Yan crossed her legs, her tone certain. "Morgana is notorious for holding grudges. She took a huge loss on Earth, not only losing soldiers but being forced to flee in disgrace. With her personality, she'll do everything she can to get revenge."
"Besides, even though Si Yao destroyed her Demon Legion physically, they can be revived as long as their Dark Data remains. For her, Earth's nearly ten billion people are the perfect, enormous Gene Pasture and Troop Source. There's no way she'd give up such a huge prize so easily."
After discussing it, they ultimately decided to report that Morgana might be hiding her movements and leave the overall assessment to Holy Keisha, who was stationed at Merlot Heavenly Court.
Just then, Angel Chase brought up another piece of intelligence. "Also, I've detected that the Taotie vanguard fleet has entered the Chiwu Star System and is approaching Mars. Their flight path is unmistakable. They'll likely launch a full-scale attack on Earth soon."
She looked at Angel Yan and asked, "Yan Jie, should we alert Earth Super Seminary?"
Before you continue