When Xiao Mu opened his eyes again, he was in a metal pod at Spirit Pagoda Headquarters.
A cold metal ceiling. Blinding white light.
Xiao Mu sat up and rolled his wrists. When he stepped out of the pod, the corridor was already in chaos.
Staff in white lab coats sprinted through the halls, clutching data pads. Red alerts flashed across their screens, stinging the eyes. Someone shouted into a communicator, their voice cracking:
"The Primary Spirit Ascension Platform's core temperature is abnormal! The data link is down! Requesting emergency shutdown!"
"We can't shut it down!"
"What do you mean, you can't shut it down? Do you know how much damage this is causing the Spirit Pagoda?"
No one answered. Xiao Mu didn't care, either. If he'd made enemies, so be it.
He leaned against the wall, watching the farce. Na'er stepped out of the pod behind him, her silver eyes sweeping over the chaos before she came to stand at his side.
"Brother, what did you do?"
"Nothing."
"You made quite a scene. Aren't you worried about offending the Spirit Pagoda?"
"They offended me first. When they're no longer useful, they don't need to exist."
Xiao Mu couldn't bring down the Spirit Pagoda by himself—not yet—but he could still throw the entire organization into chaos.
He wasn't afraid of making enemies. Everyone below the gods was just a normal carbon-based life-form, and he had ways to kill them.
If a thousand degrees wasn't enough, he'd use ten thousand. Something would kill them eventually.
Tang Wulin and Xie Xie tumbled out of their pods almost at the same time, with Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi right behind them. Wei Xiaofeng rubbed his temples, looking utterly bewildered. Gu Yue came out last, her expression calm, though inside she was at a loss.
Her teacher would be arriving in a few days. How was she supposed to explain this? Xiao Mu had only damaged the Spirit Ascension Platform's environment, right?
"Xiao Mu!" A staff member rushed over, his lab coat collar askew and sweat streaming down his face. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Does it matter what I do inside the Spirit Ascension Platform?"
"You've seriously damaged the Spirit Ascension Platform!"
"The Spirit Ascension Platform swallowed my reward. Why aren't you saying anything about that?"
"That was the chief tower master's decision. It has nothing to do with us."
"Relax. I retaliated against everyone equally."
At that, the staff member couldn't help feeling that something was very wrong.
Wu Zhangkong hadn't said a word the entire time. Seeing Xiao Mu's confidence, he figured the boy wasn't afraid of offending the Spirit Pagoda. The War God Temple under the Federation must be backing him.
Still, repairing the Spirit Pagoda's Ascension Platform shouldn't be difficult. They'd fixed it quickly last time.
The group left the Spirit Pagoda, and the night wind hit them with the briny scent of the sea. In the distance, Eastsea City's lights glimmered like a field of stars floating on the water.
Wu Zhangkong walked at the head of the group, his white coat fluttering in the wind. He didn't say a word from beginning to end.
The bus was parked by the roadside, its engine still running and a wisp of white smoke rising from the exhaust pipe.
Xiao Mu boarded last and took a window seat. Na'er came over and sat beside him. "Brother, are you sure it's all right?"
"It's fine. You don't need to worry. Qiangu Dongfeng must be panicking right now."
Xiao Mu still wasn't satisfied. He opened the laptop he always carried and tapped out a few more lines of code.
He reversed payments made to the Spirit Pagoda's corporate account.
For example, if someone spent a hundred thousand to buy a Soul Spirit from the Spirit Pagoda, they'd get their hundred thousand Federation credits refunded after paying.
Qiangu Dongfeng could leave the internet entirely if he wanted. Though Xiao Mu hadn't built this cybersecurity system himself, compared with Blue Star's, it was full of holes.
The bus pulled away. Its tires rolled over the road with a steady hum. No one in the cabin spoke. Tang Wulin leaned back with his eyes closed, resting, while Xie Xie tried to strike up conversations with people around him.
Gu Yue gazed out the window, unconsciously tracing something on the glass with her finger.
She was still wondering how to explain it to her teacher.
"Brother, I want barbecue later," Na'er said suddenly.
"We'll go as soon as we get off."
The bus stopped in front of Eastsea Academy, and everyone filed out. Xiao Mu took Na'er by the hand, but instead of heading into the academy, he turned toward Gourmet Street.
"Xiao Mu, aren't you going back to the dorm?"
"No need. You guys go ahead."
At the same time, on the top floor of Spirit Pagoda Headquarters,
Leng Yaozhu stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond them, the city's lights spread out like a sea of stars across the ground. She glanced down at her communicator. There was no signal at all.
She tried three times, but couldn't get through.
"Interesting."
She stepped outside the Spirit Pagoda's grounds, and the signal returned.
All communications had failed within the Spirit Pagoda's grounds.
"The Spirit Pagoda must have offended someone. This feels like a child throwing a tantrum, but it's a vicious one. No one will come to the Spirit Pagoda now."
She turned and went back inside.
Staff raced through the halls, the hems of their lab coats flying. Red alerts flashed on their data pads, stinging the eyes.
"What's going on?" She stopped a young man.
"Tower Master Leng, all signals are down inside the Spirit Pagoda. People are filing complaints. And..."
"And what?"
"All the payments we collected have been refunded to their original accounts. I went outside to contact the Federation, and they said there's a network error and they're working on it."
"This is clearly an attack on the Spirit Pagoda."
In truth, Zero's ability to breach systems surpassed the defenses of everyone in the Federation.
Leng Yaozhu suspected the Federation was targeting the Spirit Pagoda. No other organization could have pulled this off.
Unless there was some kind of powerful backing in the tech world, too.
Leng Yaozhu slipped her phone back into her pocket and headed for the elevator. Her high heels struck the floor with crisp clicks.
She'd leave this mess for Qiangu Dongfeng to handle. He was the one in a hurry, not her.
The Qiangu Family had the final say in the Spirit Pagoda, after all.
The elevator doors slowly closed, shutting out the chaos in the corridor. The metal car descended, its cold white light falling across her face.
She was going to Eastsea City to meet her newly accepted disciple.
As for the Spirit Pagoda's mess, Qiangu Dongfeng had obviously brought it on himself. He could handle it however he liked.
The elevator doors opened, and Leng Yaozhu strode toward her mecha. It was black, like a phoenix spreading its wings.
The cockpit opened, and she climbed inside. The engine roared to life.
The scenery began to flow past, from Spirit Pagoda's glass curtain walls to the city's elevated roads, then into the dim night.
She watched the signal on her communicator slowly fill back up, and gradually relaxed.
Meanwhile, in Heaven Dou City,
The night sky was a deep blue curtain, dotted with sparse stars. Clouds covered part of the moon. The city slept beneath him, its lights connected like a winding river.
Suddenly, a streak of red light rose from the edge of the city.
It was a Red-Grade Mecha.
Inside the cockpit, Mu Ye studied his route. Eastsea City. Estimated flight time: forty-two minutes.
He was going there to find Xiao Mu.
Although Xiao Mu had a Martial Soul consisting of both hands, judging by the strength he displayed, there was a ninety-eight percent chance it was a body-type Martial Soul. It showed up as two hands because they were different from the rest of his body.
Perhaps they had some special ability.
"Second Awakening should reveal the special ability of those hands. At the very least, he should have a Silver Awakening."
As Mu Ye analyzed things, he felt he was getting closer to the truth.
As for Qiangu Dongfeng, he had finally used his connections to find out, more or less, that the person he'd offended was in Eastsea. He even knew the address.
Dong Zi'an gave him one last warning. "The kid's still young. How can you blame him? And don't get beaten up!"
Hearing that, Qiangu Dongfeng was baffled. What did he mean, he might get beaten up? He was a Limit Douluo, after all.