Helpless Lian Feng

"You need to be careful. From now on, you mustn't let him overwork his brain, much less become agitated. Otherwise, his condition will deteriorate further."

"All right. Thank you for your hard work, Yu Qin."

Lian Feng nodded firmly, her voice carrying the relief of someone who had narrowly escaped disaster.

"It's all part of my job."

Yu Qin packed up the medical equipment and asked casually,

"By the way, where's Qiangwei? The general is so badly injured. Why isn't she here?"

Lian Feng paused.

Then she turned to look outside the door.

A red-haired girl was leaning against the wall, toying with a throwing knife.

Yu Qin tactfully finished packing her equipment, nodded to Lian Feng, and pushed the door open to leave.

The tapping of high heels against the metal floor gradually faded down the corridor, leaving quiet air and the steady beeping of the monitor.

Lian Feng took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and walked over to Qiangwei.

"Aren't you going in to see him?"

Qiangwei briefly stopped twirling the throwing knife in her hand, then continued.

She glanced inside through the observation window in the ward door.

Du Kao lay quietly in the hospital bed, the green glow of the monitor casting faint shadows across his face.

"No."

Qiangwei's voice was flat.

"There's no point in me going in. If he wakes up and sees me, it might even upset him."

"How could it?"

Lian Feng frowned. "Qiangwei, you're his daughter."

Qiangwei's fingers stilled.

She turned her head, her lips pulling into a smile devoid of warmth.

"His daughter?"

She gave a low laugh.

"Heh. He's never treated me as his daughter."

Qiangwei's gaze settled somewhere at the end of the corridor, her voice carrying a deliberately flattened calm.

"Auntie Lian Feng, have you ever seen a father offer up his own daughter as a bargaining chip?"

At those words, Lian Feng felt as though someone had squeezed her heart.

"Qiangwei, that's not how it is."

"The general really does love you. It's just... there are things you simply don't understand."

"I don't understand?"

Qiangwei sheathed the throwing knife at her waist in one clean, decisive motion.

"Then let's talk when I do."

She turned and walked away.

"I'm leaving. Sorry to leave him in your care."

"Qiangwei..."

Lian Feng called out, but the figure did not stop.

Qiangwei's steps were steady and decisive. She rounded the corner and vanished from sight.

Lian Feng stood where she was, looking down the empty corridor with a sigh.

She was about to turn back into the ward when she caught sight of a figure that had suddenly appeared.

It was a middle-aged man in a dark robe, his bald head gleaming, his kindly face bearing a hint of unfathomable composure.

"Professor Ryze?"

Lian Feng froze for a moment.

"What brings you here?"

Ryze approached and glanced inside through the observation window in the ward door, his expression so calm that it betrayed nothing.

"I came to see old Du."

"Tell me, what exactly happened to you two? How did he get hurt so badly?"

Lian Feng shook her head, her brow tightly furrowed. "I don't know either."

"The general was asking me whether I'd found those two people, and I was just about to answer. Then I turned around and found him kneeling on the floor."

"By the time I went to help him up, he was already like this."

After hearing her account, Ryze frowned.

He entered the Dark Plane and quickly reviewed Blue Star's information layer.

Lian Feng was telling the truth. The Dark Plane's records showed exactly the same thing.

That was strange.

One moment, Du Kao had been asking about those two people's whereabouts; the next, he had become a drooling imbecile.

The causal link between the two had been completely severed.

Ryze fell silent for a moment, and a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

What if someone erased the information records in Blue Star's Dark Plane and forcibly altered the short-term memories of everyone present?

That way, any means of tracing them would lead to an inexplicable dead end, while the culprit could vanish without a trace, like water merging into the sea.

A slight chill ran down his spine.

Anyone capable of doing that had to have immense computing power supporting them.

In other words, the culprit controlled a Celestial Computer.

At that thought, Ryze's gaze darkened.

The factions that possessed Celestial Computers in the Known Universe could be counted on one's fingers.

However, Blue Star had recently become an arena for the gods' power games. Any of them could be making moves in secret.

"Professor Ryze, do you know why the general suddenly became like this?"

Lian Feng's voice drew him out of his thoughts.

Ryze came back to himself, his expression returning to its kindly, harmless appearance.

"Oh, I don't know either. Perhaps he's been under too much pressure lately."

He spoke casually, but inwardly, he was rapidly weighing another matter.

Whether Du Kao lived or died, frankly, he did not care.

As long as nothing happened to the Galaxy Power, that was enough.

As for Du Kao, if that pawn was ruined, so be it.

Besides, how many people who possessed a Celestial Computer were easy to deal with?

He had no intention of risking his life against someone that ruthless over a useless fool.

"By the way, Lian Feng."

Ryze changed the subject. "Have you found those two people's whereabouts?"

Lian Feng shook her head, a flicker of frustration crossing her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Deno Three hasn't found them on Blue Star."

"Perhaps they've already left Blue Star. That's possible too."

Ryze did not respond.

The timing of those two people's appearance was far too convenient. They had appeared in the very alley where Ge Xiaolun had been beaten up, and had just happened to activate the Galaxy Power gene.

No matter how he looked at it, this did not seem like a coincidence.

Someone was setting things up.

Was it Lieyang?

Ryze shook his head.

Although Pan Zhen and his people wielded considerable power, they were not capable of creating a Galaxy Power out of thin air.

They lacked the technological foundation.

The demons?

Morgana was busy resurrecting her Demon Legion. She most likely had no time to play these games on Blue Star.

The angels?

That was possible.

The Angel Civilization had indeed been involved in the Galaxy Power's genetic engineering project back then.

That woman He Xi's mind was as intricate and elusive as a needle in the sea. Perhaps she had secretly kept another blueprint back then.

Of course, Karl remained the most suspicious.

That madman who had turned himself into a Phantom Body was obsessed with studying everything about the Void.

And the Galaxy Power was precisely the weapon the Super God Academy had designed to counter the Void.

If Karl truly intended to dismantle that line of defense at its source, creating his own Galaxy Power to replace Ge Xiaolun would fit perfectly with his sinister, far-reaching approach.

At that thought, Ryze's back teeth involuntarily clenched a little tighter.

"Professor Ryze."

Lian Feng spoke again, her voice filled with earnest hope.

"Do you know anyone who can cure the general? The Taotie invasion is imminent. Without the general in command, Ge Xiaolun and the others won't be able to handle it on their own."

"After all, they're still just a bunch of children."

Ryze withdrew his gaze and put on a perfectly measured, wry smile.

"Well... as you know, I hardly have any friends. So I'm afraid I can't help, much as I'd like to."

He sounded sincere and helpless, as though there truly was nothing he could do.

Lian Feng lowered her eyes and remained silent for several seconds.

She could tell that this was merely an excuse for Ryze not to help.

As an instructor at the Super God Academy, he knew countless extraordinary and capable people, yet he simply refused to act.

But the survival of Deno Remnants like them to this day depended entirely on the Super God Academy's protection. She did not dare show the slightest dissatisfaction.