The Zhou Household's Meeting Hall

"Sis, have you gotten into trouble lately? Why are the committee members starting to advise us to send Father to his retirement home?"

"I didn't cause any trouble!"

"That's impossible. Western Capital City is barely holding on right now only because Father is holding it up. Even if he were to discard it after it's served its purpose, it wouldn't be this soon."

"I really didn't cause any trouble!"

The Western Capital City Sequence Committee inspected Luo Hui's laboratory. All the inspections were reasonable and compliant. Some materials that could be used for reference or were questionable were taken away and handed over to professional researchers for identification.

The Sequence Committee's push for Zhou Xin to enter the Old Age Mansion is reasonable and compliant; the only unusual thing is that it was proposed at this particular juncture.

Even though Zhou Rihui wasn't particularly sensitive to many things, he sensed the possibility of being targeted.

The current issue is the struggle over the order of succession, and after that, it will be time to deal with Zhou Xin, until Zhou Xin is officially brought into the Old Age Mansion.

Zhou Rihui believed that the Scarlet Alliance State was doomed, and that his generation of second-generation leaders would likely be able to maintain the country until the second generation.

The alliance system has brought many advantages, making autocracy less obvious and instead dividing the system into large groups where none can do without the others.

However, lacking the characteristic of absolute power, everyone in this system needs to submit to the majority.

Even Zhou Xin, the number one committee member, was no exception.

After sending numerous elderly Sequence Holder into the Elderly Mansion, Zhou Xin eventually had to send himself there as well.

But the delivery time was too fast.

In those short two years, Zhou Xin spent more than a year inspecting and suppressing various regions of the Scarlet Alliance State, then came the Qin Meng trip, and now the Sequence Conflict.

This time was too short for Zhou Xin Zhou Xin; too short to complete what he needed to do.

"Then I didn't cause any trouble," Zhou Rihui said. "I'm injured, so I wouldn't go looking for trouble and get targeted!"

"I'm just a researcher, I don't have much ability to cause trouble," Zhou Yueyan said with a headache.

"Someone must be targeting the Zhou Household!"

After a moment of silence, Zhou Xin finally spoke, his face somber.

"You're not yet capable of supporting the Lineage, so this is a good time to act," Zhou Xin said. "If we wait until Rihui enters the Sixth Sequence, it will be much harder to make a move!"

"Could it be that Chang Kong Yinghao and Chang Kong Yinglian are trying to mess with our Zhou Household?" Zhou Rihui asked suspiciously.

"Perhaps it's Sixth Sequence, or several Fifth Sequence, or even Fourth Sequence users specializing in firearms—they could all be capable of targeting you," Zhou Xin said. "We are a military Lineage, not good at these roundabout guesses, and we can't possibly figure out who's targeting the Zhou Household!"

"Then how should we deal with this? Are we just going to walk into the old mansion and let others slowly devour it?" Zhou Rihui said anxiously, "I risked my life in an international dispute last year, how can they be so unethical?"

"Everyone in Western Capital City has risked their lives; even Zuo Quan Zuo Jin couldn't escape it!"

Zhou Xin shook his head, indicating that fighting desperately was nothing.

No one would fight for something if there were no benefit to it.

But it is precisely because of these advantages that when you fight for something, you have to accept your fate when you suffer setbacks.

A resounding victory means the winner takes all, but if you're injured or die, you can't blame anyone else, and there's no reason why I should enjoy special privileges just because I shed blood for the country.

Many things should be handled separately. Even if Zuo Jin and others shine brightly in this battle for the order, their brilliance can only last for a few days.

The international dispute ended nearly a year ago, and no one will dwell on the past.

If the Zhou Household hadn't been adept at competing, they wouldn't have been able to push the rankings to this level.

Zhou Xin was very grateful for the alliance system and for this era. Under this system, military officers like him at least did not have to worry about working for nothing or about the emperor being misled by treacherous officials and losing his head for no reason.

His era should indeed come to an end.

If asked whether he was willing to accept it, Zhou Xin was indeed somewhat unwilling.

He was nearly ten years younger than high-ranking officials like Chang Kongluo, and he entered the police force a little earlier.

But the mindset of everyone Zhou Xin sent in was probably no different at the time; everyone thought they could hold on a little longer.

"I still have to go in," Zhou Xin said dejectedly.

"Are we just going to accept this?" Zhou Rihui asked incredulously.

"We didn't cause any trouble, so is Luo Hui retaliating against us?" Zhou Yueyan said, "But our two families have never interfered with each other. We only raided his lab a few days ago, but that was orchestrated by the Chang Kong family. What does that have to do with us?"

Zhou Yueyan pondered the matter, feeling that she hadn't caused any trouble recently.

She did want to cause some trouble, such as giving Pasteur, a top expert from the British Alliance State who led a delegation to Western Capital City, an emetic.

This is the newly promoted Seventh Sequence of the British Alliance State, second only to Grenas, who rose to power using the No. 1 Sinkhole.

Zhou Yueyan felt that Pasteur would definitely be able to determine the limits of the emetic's effectiveness, but she hadn't yet started doing anything that could cause trouble.

If Zhou Yueyan had to think about it, she could only recall that Luo Hui had indeed had a reason to retaliate against her a few days earlier.

"Luo Hui can't get revenge on the Changkong family, so he's coming to harm our Zhou Household?" Zhou Rihui asked doubtfully. "Isn't there a reason for him to do this?"

"He's probably afraid I'll figure out all his research," Zhou Yueyan mused. "You know, the Heavenly God entrusted the project to our Zhou Household, and many details were also handed over to our joint team for analysis. He could easily resort to desperate measures!"

"If he's targeting us, that's actually a good thing," Zhou Xin sighed. "It at least proves that he might really be researching the Celestial General plan."

"He brought out a lot of materials from his lab, some of which are things that even our lab hasn't studied in depth. Maybe he's afraid we'll steal his research," Zhou Rihui said.

"That possibility also exists," Zhou Xin nodded.

"If I had known that whoever wanted to take charge should have done it, I wouldn't have wanted to take on this task," Zhou Yueyan said unhappily.

"Chang Kong Yinghao and Chang Kong Yinglian set a trap for us six months ago!"

In the Zhou Household's council hall, Zhou Xin and others discussed the matter for a long time, but ultimately failed to come up with a solution.

Even with some speculation, the crowd only grumbled and found it difficult to address the situation they were about to face.

The brief meeting ended with everyone deep in thought, and the lights in the conference room dimmed.

"Three hopeless idiots! They're already the most powerful Lineage in Western Capital City, yet they're so slow to act. If I were in charge, I would have taken over that so-called 'Old Age Mansion,' electrocuted all those imprisoned there, then eliminated the opposition from the other Lineage, and then held a vote on who was in favor and who was against. Everything would have been resolved normally!"

In the conference room, the human head specimen that Zhou Yueyan had casually placed aside opened its eyes and let out a soft, disdainful sound.

Looking at this new environment, Luo Zhong couldn't help but have a gloomy expression.

His gaze swept over the measuring device inside the bottle, and he knew he was in deep trouble.

He had always wanted to escape Luo Hui's laboratory, but he couldn't leave him because of the harsh living conditions.

If Luo Hui cannot retrieve him to replenish the nutrients his brain needs, then his life is already on a countdown.