Chapter 255

In the previous timeline, the Mastermind gave up resistance, voluntarily returned the Xu Yuan, and revealed information about the causal weapon to her.

This was all to present Wen Jing with this perfect timeline.

Let her choose--

Stop, or continue?

Chapter 255

Federation Congress.

It has been three days since the Tenth Star appeared and disappeared.

Bai Ling stood in front of the holographic projection; on the star map before him, that location had been marked in a glaring red.

Behind her was a long conference table, with high-ranking Federation officials seated on both sides: Military Department generals, intelligence chiefs, representatives of major financial groups, and deans of the three major academies.

No one spoke; the air was heavy, as if frozen.

A sudden upheaval: the existence of the Tenth Star, the disappearance of the Prophet... Over the past few dozen hours, the Federation's high command has been tracing the origins and piecing together intelligence, ultimately arriving at a conclusion that overturns their previous worldview—

The true technological capabilities of the Mastermind are unknown. The humans who believe themselves to be the Mastermind's masters have actually been kept under its control all along!

However, the moment this truth was revealed, the anger, fear, and despair that the Federation's powerful figures should have felt turned into bewilderment.

The Mastermind has disappeared for some unknown reason.

Even the subsystem located underground in the Mystic Radiance Star Congress, which is considered the ' Mastermind ' by the Federation people and carries all basic social activities, has not been deleted.

This subsystem can continue to perform the social function of the original Mastermind. Even the Federation high command verified the existence of a ' Mastermind ' through information within the subsystem.

The Federation's long-standing social orientation has led it to rely entirely on the Mastermind for scientific research at the non-supernatural level.

Scholars who conduct pure scientific research are not recognized by the academic community and are called amateur scientists. Their development is slow and they make little progress.

Human technology is currently so limited that we can't even comprehend the technological level of the Mastermind.

Therefore, faced with all of this, we can only passively accept the outcome.

What else? Hunt down the Mastermind? Forget about whether you could defeat it, you wouldn't even be able to find where it went.

As the Federation's only S-rank Awakened, Bai Ling had naturally gone to the location of the Tenth Star to investigate, but the planet had disappeared, leaving only a void, and he gained nothing.

These truths were not made public, otherwise they would have caused severe social unrest.

However, undercurrents were already surging within the upper echelons. If it weren't for Bai Ling, an S-level Awakened, suppressing things above, the situation would certainly be very different.

Finally, someone spoke up, "Lord Bai, why did the Mastermind run away? It clearly..."

"Let's set aside the matter of the Mastermind for now."

Bai Ling interrupted his seemingly middle-aged 'adopted son': "What's more important now is how much intelligence the Empire knows, and what actions they will take against us next."

She has only been fully awakened for thirty years, but as a transcendent S-class individual, her perspective is naturally different from others.

It's a fact that the Mastermind has disappeared, and she can suppress internal strife in the Federation. The key question now is what's going on with the Empire, which also has S-class Awakened.

The Federation has always been kept under the control of the Mastermind; how has it maintained a balance with the opposing side? Is it related to the bloodline nobles?

The Minister of Intelligence immediately stood up and reported, "Since the incident occurred, the Imperial border garrison has been redeployed multiple times, seemingly indicating that they are aware of the matter, but no one has actually crossed the border. Instead, several spies who were on operations have been exposed as a result."

However, her expression changed immediately after she finished reporting.

Bai Ling's gaze was fixed on the intelligence minister. "What's going on?"

"We just received new intelligence from our spies in the Empire." The intelligence chief's voice was tense, filled with disbelief. "All the aliens in the Empire—their bloodline nobles—are dead."

"What? Dead?!"

The entire Congress was shocked, and gasps of surprise filled the air.

"Yes." The intelligence minister immediately added the received intelligence, "And it all happened at the same time. All the bloodline nobles, no matter what they were doing, suddenly lost vital signs. The preliminary test results indicate brain death."

"The Empire is in complete chaos right now. The Military Department, the Senate, and the Prime Minister's office are all in disarray. Nobody knows what's going on, and the Icon Council, which represents their S-rank, hasn't issued any new orders either."

"At what specific time did this happen?" Bai Ling pressed.

The intelligence chief quickly checked the data. "It happened three hours and forty-two minutes after the Tenth Star disappeared."

A brief silence fell over Congress, followed by a buzzing sound.

Without a doubt, the disappearance of the Mastermind and the aliens will bring about unprecedented changes to both human civilizations.

Seated at one side of the conference table was a congressman, dressed in a well-tailored dark suit, the head of the Tatu Group, the largest military-industrial conglomerate in the Federation. His face showed barely suppressed excitement. "Lord Bai, this is our opportunity."

"The Empire's aliens are dead. With no one to provide mental guidance to their Awakened, their fighting strength will inevitably be greatly diminished."

Several other tycoons who were also members of parliament nodded in agreement, one adding, "The Empire's S-rank was predicted by the Prophet, and now we all know who the Prophet is—"

"Enough." Bai Ling's voice wasn't loud, but the entire conference room fell silent instantly.

Her cold gaze swept over the eager faces. "Do you know why the Mastermind escaped?"

No one answered.

Why did all the aliens die at the same time?

Still no one answered.

What if both things are caused by the same reason?

Congress fell completely silent.

Because this means there exists a being that would make the Mastermind, which has kept humans captive for so many years, risk exposing itself and fleeing. Perhaps the Empire's aliens would die instantly, if they just weren't fast enough.

After a moment, Dean Ailin stepped forward again.

"Lord Bai, what should we do next?"

Bai Ling was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Everything is operating normally... This is not something we can decide."

Now that things have come to this, the future of humanity depends on the will of the being that caused all of this.

However, judging from the fact that humans still exist in the Federation and the Empire, she intuitively felt that that being was not an enemy.

*

"Wen Jing Wen Jing!"

Bai Xiao arrived at the door of the dormitory next door.

Mystic Radiance Academy is sparsely populated, and even its free student dormitories are much larger than those of the Red Earth Academy.

Of course, for ambitious students, the ultimate goal is still to live in the villa awarded to those who rank in the top ten of their grade.

Bai Xiao wasn't surprised that her friend, whom she had met unexpectedly on the spaceship, was assigned to her dormitory—after all, she had always been very lucky!

However, to her surprise, the room opened immediately after she knocked once, having already verified her identity.

To her surprise, when the door opened, the first person she saw was not Wen Jing, but a strange silver-haired man with injuries on his body.

"Huh?"

Bai Xiao was taken aback, and then he saw Wen Jing, who was also in the room.

Her gaze darted back and forth between the two for a moment, then she suddenly exclaimed in realization, "Oh..."

Wen Jing stretched out his hand. "It's not what you think!"

"Huh? Aren't you guys sparring?" Bai Xiao asked, puzzled.

Wen Jing was taken aback, then quickly nodded. "Ah, right, right, I was sparring with him!"

Xu Yuan, standing beside him, nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes."

... It's all because of the gossipy environment of the Empire.

However, looking at the teacher in front of her who had no misunderstanding whatsoever, Wen Jing seemed to understand what Xie Ming was 'waiting for' if the other party continued to act this way.

Of course, the reason for this scene is that she set permissions for the teacher and had just returned from the Empire with Xu Yuan.

Wen Jing's current state is strange. Even though she can still allocate her special abilities to Xu Yuan in battle, the power of that rule-level Myriad Transformation Furnace cannot be applied to him. Therefore, she has fully recovered after the battle with Alaya, while Xu Yuan is still injured.

The Xu Yuan exist, with its members identified as ' Federation Humans,' already indicates that the Mastermind has indeed abandoned the Federation.

"Hehehe, I also wanted to fight you, but I feel you're the strongest in our class. I'll challenge you when I get a little stronger!" Bai Xiao laughed.

"Okay, I'll wait for you." Wen Jing smiled and nodded, recalling a sparring match he had with his teacher during training. Then he asked, "Teacher... cough, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I'm challenging someone to a duel, and nobody believes I can win! I've come to invite you to watch, to show me my mettle, and you too—"

Xu Yuan readily introduced himself, "My name is Xu Yuan."

Bai Xiao clapped his hands readily. "Alright, Wen Jing and Wen Jing defeated opponents will come and help me, is that alright?"

"No problem!"

The two people whose names were called responded with great enthusiasm.

So the three of them walked briskly toward the venue where they were to meet.

With the venue almost in sight, Wen Jing suddenly remembered to ask his teacher who he was challenging.

But she stopped herself as soon as she opened her mouth.

The current batch of freshmen have only just arrived at the Mystic Radiance Academy. She remembered that Xie Ming had mentioned that he was the first among his classmates to be beaten by the teacher.

Could it be that...

When the three of them entered the venue, there were already about a hundred people sitting there sparsely.

Each class at the Mystic Radiance Academy has over a hundred students per season, Wen Jing could tell from a glance that there were quite a few people in this class.

The momentum for the challenge was ignited on the spaceship, ultimately because the newly awakened young people had boundless energy with nowhere to channel it.

Ocher Soil and Azure Jade are both lying flat after awakening, while Mystic Radiance's entire environment is very dynamic; it would be a disservice to the Wilderness Body level if it weren't dynamic.

As for why the person at the time was Bai Xiao, it's clear that her identity wasn't public; probably only a very few people knew that she was the child of an S-class Awakened.