How are you more skilled than a bandit, kid?

"All right, enough nonsense. Once it's done, I'll reward you according to your merits."

The voice over the earpiece remained calm.

"Okay."

The man in the leather jacket removed the account restrictions, and when the final layer of the databank slowly opened, he saw the Federation Central Bank's complete records.

But when he saw the number on it, he froze on the spot.

0?

Inside that massive account, there was actually 0!

Could it be that the Federation's Skyscraper Tower was playing the tax evasion game too?!

The man in the leather jacket paused, then immediately contacted his communicator.

"My lord? My lord?"

He kept calling toward the other end of the communicator, but all that came back was dead silence.

"I've been tricked!"

The man in the leather jacket suddenly realized the problem.

Just as he was about to withdraw, something unexpected happened.

Suddenly, a tremendous force struck him, sending him flying until he slammed into the metal wall.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

The man spat out a mouthful of blood. When he fell, metal fragments from the wall scattered across the floor.

A burly figure in military uniform blocked his path, looking at him with bright, piercing eyes.

"You're Zhan Jing, known as a master of mental control, a criminal expert, a two-word Battle Armor master, and one of the Twelve Apostles of the City of Sin, aren't you?"

Ye Feng folded his arms and said flatly, "I hereby declare that for the crime of invading Federation security, an offense of the gravest nature, you are now under arrest. I advise you to give up all resistance and confess honestly."

As soon as he finished speaking, with a clatter of movement, a group of similarly uniformed, armed soldiers rushed in through the door. Their cold gun muzzles pointed at Zhan Jing, as if they would fire without hesitation at the slightest move from him.

They were soldiers of the Xiao Long Special Operations Group, and Ye Feng was the group commander.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Zhan Jing had just tried to struggle when two soldiers stepped forward, drove their knees hard into his spine, and, ignoring his struggles, put special soul-guided handcuffs on him. They pressed down on his shoulders and forced him to kneel before Ye Feng.

Zhan Jing looked at Ye Feng and saw no embarrassment at having his plan exposed. Instead, he asked with keen interest, "Impressive. Mind telling me how exactly you discovered me?"

Ye Feng's brows furrowed tightly. Looking at Zhan Jing, who seemed so fearless, an ominous feeling instinctively rose in his heart.

"You don't need to know. Take him away."

"Wait!"

Zhan Jing suddenly raised both hands and grinned.

"Ye Feng, commander of the Xiao Long Special Operations Group, a rising star of the Federation military's younger generation, thirty-four years old this year. Not only do you have a lovely daughter, you also personally keep an eye on the child of a major general couple who once promoted you. Am I right?"

"You?!"

Ye Feng's pupils contracted slightly.

"If this hadn't been deliberate, do you think I would have let myself be captured so easily?"

"Now, respected Commander Ye, please, immediately, right now, remove my shackles while kneeling in the same posture."

Ye Feng's expression changed slightly.

In an instant, an ear-piercing alarm went off with a shrill "beep, beep, beep," and the lights inside the entire databank dimmed considerably.

That was not all. Every light in the whole Skyscraper Tower went out, leaving only the places touched by the sunlight outside with a little remaining brightness.

Not only that, Ye Feng's communicator suddenly rang, and a low voice sounded from it.

"Hello, Commander Ye. I am Yongye. Others call me the Eternal Night Monarch."

At this point, the Eternal Night Monarch paused, then continued, "You don't need to ask me why I'm here. I can only tell you that not only are the lives of more than ten thousand people in the entire Skyscraper Tower in my hands, but so is that child you care about..."

At this point, the Eternal Night Monarch's voice paused, then he said mockingly, "If you don't want to see that child appear before you in five equal pieces, I hope you'll listen to me from now on. Of course, you're free to report this to the military. You can try challenging whether the inescapable net we've laid over the past year has any flaws."

At the same time, Lin Yuan was walking along the road leading to Skyscraper Tower. Unlike before, the once-noisy street had now fallen quiet.

"Wah!"

A loud cry rang out.

Lin Yuan looked in the direction of the sound and saw that inside the bag of a furtive-looking person, something unknown was wriggling. The sound had come from inside the bag.

That person seemed to notice Lin Yuan's attention. He looked back at him, then hurriedly ran toward the wilderness.

Lin Yuan: ...

All right, I take back what I said about the people on Sin Planet being smart. Is this how a normal child wriggles?

The corner of Lin Yuan's mouth twitched slightly as he mocked inwardly.

But out of respect for the other party's professional ethics, and to see what kind of stunt he was trying to pull, Lin Yuan still chased after him. As he ran, he shouted, "Stop! Stop right there!"

Only after that person had run more than ten kilometers and reached an open area did he suddenly turn around, look at Lin Yuan, and let out a cackling laugh.

"Kid, you're—holy crap, what the hell is that?!"

Before the other party could even finish speaking, Lin Yuan reached out and tugged lightly. The backpack on his back flew straight toward Lin Yuan. Then Lin Yuan gave a gentle push with his right hand, and in an instant, the backpack was sent flying away.

The man: ?

He could not help saying, "Aren't you afraid you'll hurt the child in the bag?"

"Uncle, you've already fallen so low as to become a robber. Don't you even understand basic common sense?" Lin Yuan looked at him with the gaze one reserved for the intellectually disabled.

"All along the way, the frequency of the struggling inside that backpack never changed. Even the crying followed a pattern of one loud wail every five seconds. What child cries like that?"

The man: ...Why does it feel like you're even more practiced at this than I am?

"Heh. If you saw through it, then why did you still follow me? Kid, you're finished!" the man barked coldly. In an instant, a suit of mecha with sharply divided yellow and purple colors suddenly appeared.

The mecha was roughly three meters tall, and the man merged into the yellow-purple mecha.

Technology really is getting more and more advanced. Judging by his Soul Power fluctuations, he should only be at the four-ring Soul Ancestor level, right? Yet he can actually pilot a purple mecha? No, this doesn't seem to be a purple mecha. It should be a model with performance close to a purple mecha.

Lin Yuan was slightly surprised inwardly.

At the same time, the man fired a signal flare into the sky. In an instant, Lin Yuan heard rustling sounds.

Before long, four yellow-purple mechas swiftly flew over. The five mechas immediately formed an encirclement around Lin Yuan.

The man in the lead wasted no words. An electric voice rang out.

"Attack!"

The five mecha pilots controlled the right arms of their mechas, rotating them slightly. The mechas immediately flew up and reached their mechanical claws toward Lin Yuan, a fierce wind suddenly sweeping at him.

Suddenly, Lin Yuan made an extremely simple movement.

He spread both hands, then gently brought them together.

In an instant, the five mechas accelerating at full speed suddenly froze in midair!

"What's going on?!"

Inside the mecha, the man kept operating it and roared, but the piercing alarm was like an iron hammer pounding against his heart, thud, thud, thud. Immediately after, an emotionless mechanical voice sounded.

"Warning, warning... Core about to detach. Core about to detach..."

"What the hell is happening?!"