390 - 395

Chapter 390 - Decadent Voice!

Han Jijyun also came to a realisation. It had to be said that 'Tranquil Night' was indeed a divine song — its singer, Li Yinfei, had instantly ascended from being an unknown singer to soulful diva. Her rise had truly been meteoric. Even more admirable was the fact that she had purely intended to sing a requiem to comfort the souls of the fallen, and thus had never revealed her true face to the public. She was only known by her voice for now.

"Why did she suddenly choose to come to our school?" Han Jijyun was also extremely curious about Li Yinfei.

Xie Yi replied, "A while back, wasn't the Federation citizens clamouring for Li Yinfei to show her face? Due to public pressure, Li Yinfei's management company finally chose the First Men's Military Academy as the performance venue for the debut of Li Yinfei's true appearance. That's why, the ninth day of the next month is the time when Li Yinfei will take the stage in person at the military academy. We'll be the first men to ever see her true face ...!" Xie Yi could not hold back his excitement at this point and began to howl like a wolf.

His words received Qi Long's hearty agreement. So, in no mood to continue eating, Qi Long left his half-eaten breakfast to run upstairs to log into the virtual world and started looking up any news he could on Li Yinfei.

Qi Long and the others' conversation enlightened the initially befuddled Ling Lan. She had heard 'Tranquil Night' before, and it was indeed an excellent song. Little Four had once analysed it before, and had come to the conclusion that the singer must be someone with an awakened innate talent. The talent she had awakened should be Decadent Voice — it could make it much easier for her to bring the audience into the emotional realm of any song she sang — so Li Yinfei's success was to be expected. Of course, both the melody and lyrics of the song were equally worthy of being considered classic. The combination of these multiple factors culminated in the legend of Li Yinfei.

"What a bunch of green youths," sighed Ling Lan mentally. Although 'Tranquil Night' was indeed extremely mellifluous and touching under the accentuation of Li Yinfei's Decadent Voice, as Ling Lan's spiritual power was extremely strong, she was not as affected and was not as crazy and obsessed with the song as Qi Long and the rest.

Very soon, under Qi Long, Xie Yi, and the others' eager anticipation, Li Yinfei's first live concert officially opened at the academy's stadium. Qi Long and Xie Yi made an executive decision — without notifying their boss, they bought tickets for the entire team. It should be known that Ling Lan had no interest at all in going to the concert with a bunch of men to idolise a female singer ...

Of course, after Qi Long and Xie Yi did such a stupid thing, they were also afraid that their boss would settle the score with them later. Thus, they cunningly argued that this was a team activity for Ling Lan's team, and that the both of them would sponsor the funds for it. As the boss, Ling Lan needed to take the lead and participate as well so that she did not hurt the team members' fragile little hearts.

Ling Lan thought about it and found that she had nothing much to do on that day; furthermore, she had yet to see what a live concert in this world was like. Out of curiosity, she agreed to lead the team to experience the concert in person.

It had to be said that Qi Long and Xie Yi had carried out their plan well. Heaven knows what methods they used, but they had actually managed to obtain great seats in the fifth row right in front of the stage. Meanwhile, the few rows before them were taken up by the top ranking people of the various major factions in the academy. Thunder King Qiao Ting of the Leiting Mecha Clan had also shown up and was seated in the second row.

As for the first row, it was of course filled up by the top brass of the academy along with the instructors. Li Yinfei's decision to hold her first live concert at the military academy was extremely welcomed by the administrators. After all, everyone knew that the song 'Tranquil Night' had been specially produced for the innocent cadets who had died in the invasion. Li Yinfei's choice to hold the concert here showed her respect for the First Men's Military Academy.

Ling Lan had just taken a seat when Li Lanfeng, who had been following right behind her all this while, reacted the swiftest, immediately snatching one of the seats beside Ling Lan. Luo Lang was not to be outdone. Although he was a step slower, he still managed to snatch the other seat beside Ling Lan. Thus, the two of them were like the door gods Heng and Ha 1 , securely framing Ling Lan on the left and right.

Although Qi Long and the rest also wanted to sit beside Ling Lan, being a beat slower than Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang, they could only rub their noses in resignation at this result and sulkily choose some other place to sit.

Only Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan were trailing behind the team with morose faces. The both of them were obsessed with research and had no interest in whatever so-called singer. They felt that, instead of being so idle as to come here and waste time, they might as well have stayed in their own labs and continued to work on their own topics of research.

However, Ling Lan had said that this was a clan event and no one was allowed to be absent. Hence, the two of them had no choice but to compromise and pry themselves out of their labs for this excursion. Still, even so, brimming with reluctance, they had naturally dragged their feet till they were at the very rear of the team. Only after everyone had taken a seat did they settle down in the two outermost empty seats. However, they were soon engrossed in their own research again. Even though they had left their labs and the environment here was indeed rather terrible, this would not affect their calculations of certain formulae ...

The whole audience waited eagerly for Li Yinfei to take the stage. Finally, the time came and all the lights turned dim. Everyone involuntarily began to scream and cheer in loud fervour, because they all knew that the concert was about to officially begin ...

'On one particular tranquil night' ... a clear voice softly crooned in the large stadium. With no lights, in a shroud of darkness, this voice sank even more deeply into everyone's souls. The initially passionate cheers began to decrease in volume, until the scene was finally completely silent. Led by the singing, all of the cadets were brought back to that night once more, that intense and violent battle, and the helplessness they had felt at the time once again descended upon them. The entire venue became still and silent — everyone was silently mourning their innocent schoolmates and companions who had died that night ...

"Listening to Li Yinfei sing live, it's even clearer how powerful the other's Decadent Voice is." Little Four finally could not help but emerge to say. He had never seen such a powerful manifestation of innate talent powers before; it was actually able to control the emotions of the entire audience of forty to fifty thousand people.

"It is indeed very powerful. There's really no way to defend against this Decadent Voice!" Although Ling Lan knew the other was using an innate talent, she still felt that Li Yinfei's singing was very beautiful, making her unwilling to resist. This feeling made Ling Lan frown silently. If someone used this type of ability to try and influence her decisions, would she fall for it?

"Because Decadent Voice is not an attack-type ability, she belongs to the natural series of power users. As long as the user has no evil intentions, no one would bother defending against it." Little Four was pulling up all the relevant information in his databases as he explained, "Just like your leopard. He also has a similar type of innate talent, which will cause others to unconsciously think well of him. As long as he doesn't have any evil intentions against you, everything's fine."

Little Four's words made Ling Lan turn reflexively to look at Li Lanfeng, only for her to find that Li Lanfeng's brow was tightly furrowed, as if he didn't really like Li Yinfei's singing. What was up with that? Ling Lan was extremely puzzled. Mind you, even Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan who had been mired in their research at the start had been involuntarily pulled out of their research the moment Li Yinfei had started to sing. They were now just as enraptured by the singer's Decadent Voice as the others.

Ling Lan's puzzlement was immediately picked up by Little Four. He too felt it was rather strange, so he began searching manically through his databases again. Three seconds later, he finally found a so-called research hypothesis. "Boss, according to the databases, similar innate talents might repel each other. Li Yinfei's Decadent Voice and your leopard's innate talent might be somewhat different, but their final manifestations are extremely similar. Could it be that their innate talents have this sort of mutually repelling nature?"

"Highly probable. Well, that's fine. At least if we ever meet this kind of person again, there will be someone on the team who can keep a clear mind." Ling Lan believed this was a good thing. She did not want to have her emotions affected without clear reason, to the extent that she might even change her decisions unwisely. At this point, Ling Lan suddenly recalled when her dad had first laid eyes on the leopard. The corners of her lips curved involuntarily, and there was a trace of laughter in her eyes.

No matter how powerful one's innate talent was, there would always be someone who would not be taken in by it. Li Lanfeng's innate talent made others relax their guard unconsciously around him and feel like getting closer to him, but this innate talent was utterly useless against her dad Ling Xiao, and even had a reverse effect. Compared to the others, like Li Shiyu and the rest of her team, her dad was able to treat them kindly and agreeably. However, when it came to Li Lanfeng, her dad's face had been an icy tundra, and he had completely ignored Li Lanfeng. This hurt Li Lanfeng considerably, unsure what he had done to displease General Ling Xiao ...

Could it be that her dad also had a similar awakened innate talent as the leopard? So the two of them sensed some mutual rejection? Considering the fact that her dad was a national idol, Ling Lan felt that this hypothesis was very likely to be true ...

Right then, Ling Lan could not know that Ling Xiao did not like Li Lanfeng purely because Li Lanfeng had crawled out from Ling Lan's mecha at the time they had first met. No father would not react well to a boy who had randomly appeared by his daughter's side and seemed intimate with her.

"Actually, this type of ability only carries a hint of suggestion. It won't really cause any dramatic influential effect. Otherwise, the Federation government would not just let these singers and performers with these innate talents move around freely. It's clear to see that the government considers these people safe 1 ." Little Four used the facts to inform his boss that the powers of these individuals were not as formidable as she thought they were.

"War will always bring great harm, and these innate talent users can help console the sorrow of the masses. The Federation needs them." Little Four's explanation let Ling Lan come to an understanding immediately. She knew why the government would promote these singers and performers — they could skilfully dampen the public's anti-war sentiments. It should be said that the methods of the Federation government in this time was already very sophisticated. It made full use of every person in its reach, making it so that everyone served the machinations of war.

At the end of the lovely yet mournful 'Tranquil Night', the cadets were still immersed in their emotions when, suddenly, a lamp lit up in the centre of the stage, and a graceful silhouette slowly rose from a platform in the centre. It went without saying that this was the singer everyone had been waiting for, Li Yinfei. Everyone was instantly shaken out of their stupor and began to scream and shout uncontrollably. The initially calm cadets reverted to their original age at this time, becoming wild and fanatical.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming to see my concert. I'm very happy. I had originally only wanted to give the souls of those innocent cadets who had died some peace and comfort, which is why I composed this song 'Tranquil Night'. I never expected this song to be so loved by you all. I'm grateful for the support and attention. Next, I would like to dedicate a new song of mine to all of you —— 'Never Give In!'"

Li Yinfei's voice was extremely lovely, soft and gentle with a trace of warmth running through it. Even a sad song like 'Tranquil Night' still held that share of irrepressible warmth despite its deep sorrow. Of course, right then, without the sad tone from the first song in her voice, the warmth in Li Yinfei's voice was all the more apparent.

1. 哼哈二将: Heng and Ha are two generals of the Shang dynasty in Chinese mythology. They are also guards of Buddhist temples in China (Wikipedia, 2018).

2. T/C: And useless for their means.

Chapter 391 - The Same Face ...

Accompanying Li Yinfei's voice, all the stage lights turned to focus on her body, allowing everyone to see Li Yinfei's figure clearly. However, this was soon followed by deep sighs from the entire venue. It turned out that Li Yinfei's face was currently covered by a thin veil through which only a pair of exquisitely charming slanted almond-shaped eyes could be seen. The play of lights and shifting of emotion in those eyes actually conveyed an erotic allure — even without having seen her face, everyone could tell that this Li Yinfei was most certainly a stunning enchantress.

When the song "Never Give In" began to play, Li Yinfei once again touched the hearts of the cadets. This song was extremely powerful and Li Yinfei sang it with passion, as if telling the cadets that the enemy's invasion would never break the Huaxians' iron bones 1 . Stirred up by the singing, everyone present rose to their feet. All the cadets clenched their fists emotionally, loudly joining in when the line 'never give in' appeared in the chorus segments.

By this point, no matter how thick Ling Lan was, she knew that this Li Yinfei was bound to be part of the military. Otherwise, it was unlikely that both her songs would cater so closely to this battle of the military academy. The military had truly planned this well — Li Yinfei's arrival and these two songs would inevitably fan the cadets' hatred towards the intruders to an extreme. It could be conceived that all the cadets here would become the central supporters in fighting back against these intruders in the future.

Right at that final moment, at the crescendo of the song, Li Yinfei ripped off the veil on her face, revealing her peerless face ... all of the cadets who had been loudly singing 'never give in' earlier abruptly fell silent. In that instant, they had truly been shocked silent by Li Yinfei's peerless beauty.

This was Li Yinfei — leaving aside her enthralling voice, she also possessed a peerless face capable of bewitching the masses!

Li Yinfei's true appearance stunned everyone present. In the second row, Qiao Ting, whose face was initially composed, felt his heartbeat speed up when he saw Li Yinfei's true face. He could not suppress a surge of desire in his heart, thinking, "This is a woman worthy of me. I must get her!"

Li Yinfei's peerless beauty similarly startled Ling Lan. As another girl, Ling Lan had actually been attracted for a moment by Li Yinfei's face as well. However, Ling Lan was a girl after all, and combined with all the insane torments of Instructor Number Five in the learning space, Ling Lan's heart had been trained to be extremely tough and cold. She would not be easily bewitched.

After calming down, when Ling Lan once again gazed at Li Yinfei's face which was beautiful enough to topple cities, she noticed that that face made her feel somewhat ill at ease. Even though it was exquisitely beautiful, exquisitely alluring, even worthy of being called peerless and unmatched, for some reason, Ling Lan just felt that there was something off about it. There was just some natural grace missing — what exactly was this about?

Ling Lan's brow was lightly furrowed. Just as she was mulling over the issue, Li Lanfeng by her side suddenly began trembling uncontrollably. Not only that, his two hands, which he had placed on top of his knees, also began to tremble uncontrollably ...

Ling Lan's heart clenched. She could not help but recall the air invasion when Li Lanfeng had been sitting in the auxiliary seat of her mecha and what had happened then. Could it be that some issue had cropped up again with the leopard's worrying physical condition?

Concerned, Ling Lan could not help but extend her right hand to hold Li Lanfeng's trembling hands. This move made Li Lanfeng jerk in surprise. He whipped back his head to look at Ling Lan, his red eyes actually filled with despair, pain, and even a trace of insanity. That look was as if he had been abandoned by the entire world ...

"Leopard, are you alright?" asked Ling Lan with a serious expression, having sensed something wrong with Li Lanfeng.

Ling Lan's question seemed to have rescued Li Lanfeng from being drowned in his own world — his gaze quickly cleared up. Regaining his composure, Li Lanfeng flipped his hands to grasp Ling Lan's right hand. He clasped it tightly, as if holding on to a life-saving piece of straw, unwilling to let go. The force of his grip actually made Ling Lan feel a hint of pain.

Ling Lan had always hated skin contact with others. She was just considering whether to fling off Li Lanfeng's hands when she registered that Li Lanfeng's palms were coated with sweat. She then thought about Li Lanfeng's wild and desperate gaze previously and her heart softened involuntarily.

Thinking about it, she was currently a boy, so it was perfectly normal for a male companion to hold her hand every once in a while. Furthermore, Li Lanfeng really seemed to need some comfort from a companion right now ... alright, she would just take it as her good deed for the day and contribute her right hand to provide some comfort for the other. It's not like her hand would lose any flesh because of this. So thought Ling Lan with full Ah-Q spirit 1 .

In this way, Ling Lan forced herself to ignore Li Lanfeng's grasping hands. She continued to stare expressionlessly at the stage, studiously researching the problem she had just discovered ... erm, well, that was the problem with that Li Yinfei. So unnaturally beautiful, was there really nothing wrong with her?

Perhaps Ling Lan's focus was fully on Li Lanfeng, so she did not notice something else happening at the outermost edge of their row of seats. Li Shiyu, who had initially been fully enraptured by Li Yinfei's voice, currently had an unbelievably horrified expression on his face. This horror was definitely not because of the other's peerless beauty, but looked more as if he had seen a devil ...

With a clatter, Li Shiyu could not help but leap up from his seat, startling Chang Xinyuan who had been just as dazzled by Li Yinfei's appearance as the rest. When Chang Xinyuan saw Li Shiyu's horrified expression, he instantly knew something was wrong. Quickly casting Li Yinfei's appearance to the back of his mind, Chang Xinyuan asked Li Shiyu in concern, "Shiyu, what's going on?"

Li Shiyu's right hand rose sharply to cover his mouth, as if afraid that he would scream despite himself. With much effort, he finally calmed himself down, put down his hand, and said in a hurry, "Xinyuan, I've suddenly remembered something important I have to do. I need to leave immediately. Later, please help me request a leave of absence from the leader."

Li Shiyu's grim expression let Chang Xinyuan know that the other must have some serious matter to attend to, so he quickly nodded and assured the other that he would pass on the message. After that, Li Shiyu no longer had any patience to remain at the concert venue. He hurriedly ran out of the large stadium.

As soon as he left the stadium and came outside, the refreshing breeze that swept by instantly helped to clear Li Shiyu's shaken mind. As the attention of everyone in the military academy was on Li Yinfei's concert right then — if they were not at the venue watching it live, they were in their dorm rooms connected to the virtual world to watch the live broadcast — there was not a single person outside the stadium.

With lengthened strides, Li Shiyu very swiftly made his way to an area populated by trees, an absolutely quiet place. He could not wait to enter a string of numbers into his communicator. He had never taken the initiative to contact that number over these past four years, but the number had been stored deeply in his heart all this time, never forgotten.

"Yu-er, I never expected that there would ever come a time when you would contact me on your own volition. Have you thought things through and are now willing to accept grandpa's arrangements to become the first inheritor of the Li family?" On the virtual screen of Li Shiyu's communicator, a dignified old man suddenly appeared. His initially stern face actually carried a trace of a smile — it looked like Li Shiyu's taking the initiative to call had pleased him greatly.

However, Li Shiyu had no mind to appreciate the old man's feelings. Seeing the other, he shouted angrily, "Grandfather, what exactly is going on with that Li Yinfei?"

"Li Yinfei?" The old man's pleased expression abruptly turned cold. "You've seen her?" As if suddenly thinking of something, realization emerged on the old man's face. "That's right, she's currently holding a concert at the First Men's Military Academy. It's normal for you to have seen her."

"Who is she exactly?" Li Shiyu bit out, pushing the question out word by word from the between his teeth.

The old man said dismissively, "A branch descendant of the Li family. According to hierarchy, she can be considered your younger cousin."

"What I'm asking is how that face came about." The old man's diffidence broke Li Shiyu's control over his emotions and Li Shiyu could not help but growl.

This question made the old man's face turn stern and forbidding. "Is this the attitude you should have when speaking with your grandfather?"

Li Shiyu closed his eyes and fiercely swiped a hand over his face. Then, taking in a deep breath, he pushed down his growing anger before opening his eyes once more. By then, his eyes no longer held any of his previous rage, having become much calmer than before. "I apologize, grandfather, that was my transgression. But please, can you tell me, what's going on with that face of Li Yinfei's?"

Li Shiyu's behaviour gentled the old man's attitude considerably, and he answered lightly, "That face ... is anything wrong with it?" as if he did not understand Li Shiyu's meaning.

"Grandfather!" Li Shiyu cried out loudly once more, "You clearly know ... clearly ..." Somewhere where the old man could not see, Li Shiyu's low hanging left hand had already balled up into a fist. Perhaps from using too much strength, the veins were actually bulging on the back of his hand. It was clear to see how angry Li Shiyu was at this moment, but because the other party was his grandfather, he had no choice but to tolerate it.

"Clearly know what?" asked the old man in return. Just when Li Shiyu's tolerance was about to run out and he was going to explode in anger, the old man added, "Are you trying to ask why Li Yinfei looks exactly like your eldest cousin brother Li Mulan?"

This question made Li Shiyu calm down instantly. "I want to know why you're doing this."

"Why are you asking me this?" The old man's expression turned indifferent once more.

"Without your approval, Li Yinfei could never have appeared in the public eye, much less become a singer. In order to secure the status and dignity of the family head, the Li family would never allow someone with an appearance similar to the family head to show their face to the world." Li Shiyu understood the Li family too well — Li Yinfei looked so much like his eldest cousin brother and so should never exist. Even if she was allowed to exist, she should still have been forced to change her face — this was a sign of respect towards the family head from the main branch as well as the inheritor.

"Li Mulan is currently still not the family head," replied the old man after several seconds of silence.

"But eldest cousin brother is the first in line to inherit," growled Li Shiyu once more. Just because of his body, his cousin could not become strong, and so they felt they could just step all over his cousin's dignity like this? For the first time, Li Shiyu began to hate the Li family as a whole. Towards that Li Yinfei who possessed his eldest cousin brother's face, the intention to kill stirred in his heart ...

"Don't do anything stupid. The matter of Li Yinfei was approved during a meeting of the family elders. Even I had no way of preventing it," barked the old man, seeming to sense the killing intent in Li Shiyu's heart.

"No way?" Li Shiyu laughed scornfully. If grandfather truly wanted to stop this from happening, how could he have no way? Li Shiyu was all too familiar with the methods his grandfather could employ.

1. They may incur some surface damage, but their foundations would not be damaged.

2. In line with the Ah-Q mentality explained in previous chapters.

Chapter 392 - No Longer Li Mulan!

Li Shiyu's extremely obvious mockery caused the old man's expression to stiffen, but he very quickly recovered his composure. The two of them faced each other in silence for several beats, and in the end, the old man sighed, a trace of fatigue appearing on his face. Softly, he said, "Even though I'm a grandfather to the both of you, I am also the family head of the Li family. I need to take responsibility for the entire Li family."

The meaning of the old man was apparent — even though he was the biological grandfather of Li Shiyu and the others, he could not disregard the interests of the Li family as a whole and do as he liked. As such, he had no choice but to make some concessions.

The old man's demeanour caused Li Shiyu's heart to clench. As if sensing his grandfather's helplessness in the face of the pressure exerted by the elders of the Li family, Li Shiyu's expression turned cold and foreboding. "The council of elders, is it?"

"Don't blame them. They are also doing this for the future of the entire Li family clan. The condition of your eldest cousin brother's body is truly too horrible, and besides ..." Here, a trace of regret could be seen on the old man's stern face.

Unfortunately, no matter how much the old man wanted to explain, Li Shiyu had already convicted the elders in his heart. He instantly interrupted to say, "Grandfather, there's no need to say any more. I understand everything. One day, I will definitely ..." Li Shiyu stopped there, cutting off the call with his grandfather. For the first time, a trace of bloody killing intent appeared in his eyes.

Li Shiyu had never wanted to take anything to the extreme and leave no room for manoeuvring — there had always remained some bit of light in his heart, some kindness and compassion. This was his strength but also his weakness. This was why he had been able to reject the proposition of becoming the first inheritor out of the sense of kinship in his heart for the sake of his eldest cousin brother. And this was also the main reason why Ling Lan had been able to entrap him into joining her clan.

But this time, the matter of Li Yinfei had directly shattered the pure innocence he held deep in his heart. He finally understood that without power or authority, once one lost all use and value, the family would mercilessly cast one out ... for the first time 1 , he hated deeply. He hated those elders who had heartlessly abandoned his eldest cousin brother and made the decision to humiliate and degrade his cousin. Also for the first time, he thought of taking revenge ... he absolutely would not forgive those elders.

The old man looked at the disconnected call signal on the device in his hand and could not help but shake his head, sigh softly, and say, "Oh Shiyu, you're still much too young."

After hanging up, Li Shiyu could not hold back the roaring flames of rage within him. He quickly rushed back to his own laboratory and shut himself inside, staying secluded within it for over a month.

Li Shiyu knew very well that this action of the council of elders meant that his eldest cousin brother had thoroughly lost all favour within the Li family. Right now, he must be having a very difficult time in the Li family, unable to do anything. If their grandfather could not resist the pressure from the council of elders in the end, giving up was only a matter of time. He needed to speed things up. Even if he could not develop a formula that could completely resolve his eldest cousin brother's constitution problem, he still needed to at least find some medicinal agent that could alleviate his cousin's condition so that he could help his cousin tide through this crisis as much as he could ...

Leaving aside Li Shiyu's burning anxiety, on Li Lanfeng's end, his heart which had initially turned ice-cold with despair had finally recovered due to the warmth coming from Ling Lan's palm. His initially trembling body gradually calmed down as well and his eyes became clear, his entire being appearing unbelievably calm.

Ling Lan had initially wanted to ask if Li Lanfeng wanted to go out to take some fresh air, but she was stopped by the cold, piercing gaze Li Lanfeng was directing at Li Yinfei.

Li Yinfei was still singing — the better Li Yinfei sang, the more worked up the stadium was, and the colder Li Lanfeng's gaze became.

It had to be said that in order to build Li Yinfei's image as a soulful songstress, her management company had indeed invested a lot of money. All five songs she sang this night were classics in their own right though the melodies encompassed various styles, mesmerising all the cadets as they listened. Of course, Li Yinfei's peerless beauty had to be given a large half of the credit. Due to the advent of gene agents and other reasons, everyone in this era, regardless of gender, was all pretty good-looking. However, it was still rare to find one such peerless beauty like Li Yinfei in the span of a hundred years.

This concert announced Li Yinfei's success. After being broadcast via the virtual world, her singing voice and her appearance made her become the idol of the hundreds and thousands of soldiers of the Huaxia Federation, turning her into one of the most famous soulful singers. Also because her songs were almost all revolving around themes of war and the military, she had a large number of fans among the troops, becoming another national military idol following Ling Xiao.

During the concert, Ling Lan was constantly worried about Li Lanfeng's physical condition, afraid that he would not be able to hold out till the end of the concert. However, as time went on, Li Lanfeng's condition seemed to improve, and by the end, he looked no different than he had at the start. Even so, the perceptive Ling Lan had still sensed that Li Lanfeng now had an additional air of determination about him.

As soon as the concert ended, Li Lanfeng quickly bade goodbye to Ling Lan, as if he had some urgent matter to attend to. The moment Li Lanfeng left, Chang Xinyuan came over to tell Ling Lan about Li Shiyu leaving partway through the concert. This piqued the curiosity of the other team members, and someone voiced the speculation whether Li Yinfei had anything to do with Li Shiyu and Li Lanfeng. After all, they all shared the surname Li, right?

Of course, this question was very quickly flicked aside by everyone. Even if Li Yinfei had some relation to Li Shiyu and Li Lanfeng, so what? Xie Yi and Qi Long may like Li Yinfei's songs, but that was all. They had no thoughts of anything beyond that. Fine, Qi Long and Xie Yi were still young, and having been pressured by Boss Ling Lan all this while, becoming strong had been the only thing on their minds. They still had not reached the point where they started thinking about love.

That said, the outgoing Xie Yi still could not repress his curiosity and sought out Li Yingjie to ask about the matter. However, Li Yingjie's response was pure confusion; he had no clue at all who this Li Yinfei was. Still, Xie Yi's question did stir up some doubt in his mind — Li Yinfei's name was indeed really like someone from their Li family.

Xie Yi was filled with contempt for Li Yingjie's reply. He laughed at Li Yingjie for not even being able to tell for sure whether someone belonged to his family, greatly infuriating Li Yingjie. Subsequently, Li Yingjie, who never really paid much attention to the chaotic family affairs of the Li family before this, finally made the decision to take any chances he had later on to get a proper list of all the descendants of the Li family branch members so that this bastard Xie Yi would not look down on him again ...

Li Yingjie could never have known that this query by Xie Yi would spark his motivation like this and actually set him on the path to discovering a great secret in the future ...

********

As soon as Li Lanfeng returned to his living quarters, he entered his room and closed the door behind him. After ensuring that everything was secure, he dialled his grandfather. On the virtual screen of his communicator, the figure of an old man appeared. It was the same old man who had spoken with Li Shiyu earlier.

When the old man saw Li Lanfeng, the indifference he had sported while speaking with Li Shiyu melted away to be replaced by a slightly bitter smile. He sighed and said, "Shiyu has already contacted me. I was just thinking when you would call me as well. Who knew you had such patience, only calling me after so long ..."

Li Lanfeng's expression was frigid as he cut in to say, "Grandpa, Li Yinfei, if I'm not mistaken, should be your doing, right?" Compared to Li Shiyu, Li Lanfeng understood his grandfather better.

The old man's smile disappeared instantly, and his face turned unbelievably stern and serious. "As expected of the inheritor I have invested so much into to cultivate, figuring things out immediately."

"This is because I know too much about your methods, grandpa. I can even deduce that your explanation to Shiyu must be that it was the decision of the council of elders. The poor Li family council of elders, once again becoming your scapegoat." Li Lanfeng's taunting was even more obvious than Li Shiyu's. The expression on the old man's face turned unbelievably awkward; compared with Li Shiyu's gullibility, this grandson of his was as wily as a ghost — nothing could be hidden from him.

Li Lanfeng ignored the embarrassment of the old man and continued to ask, "I just want to know, grandpa, why did you do this?" Li Lanfeng's current tone of voice was so cold that there was almost no warmth at all to be found in it.

"I need to have more than one plan ready." The old man's eyes turned sharp and penetrating. "I will not allow my grandson to fall to the Phoenix Thrall Fate. If things truly come to that point, Li Yinfei will be your replacement."

The old man gave Li Lanfeng a direct answer. For this matter, he had plotted over the course of several years. After much trouble, he finally found Li Yinfei who resembled his grandson as much as 50 to 60% among the Li branch family descendants. The most important thing was that both of Li Yinfei's parents were dead, so he could control everything about her. Over these past few years, he used the latest alteration technology the Li family had at its disposal, and after many experiments, he finally succeeded in making Li Yinfei resemble his grandson up to 90%. Adding on some application of make-up, at one glance, aside from temperament, Li Yinfei was almost indistinguishable from his grandson ...

The old man's answer caused Li Lanfeng's heart to seize in pain. At the heart of it, he was still too weak. That was why his grandfather did not believe he could truly defy fate and change his destiny, thus coming up with this humiliating plan for him to escape from his Phoenix Thrall Fate.

"I understand ..." Li Lanfeng closed his eyes with a heavy heart, hiding the pain he felt inside. Even his closest relative did not believe in his efforts — how would he be able to prove himself? Moreover, this decision of his grandfather's meant that he would never be able to show his real face in public anymore in the future.

He thought of the rabbit — he had once thought hopefully that, after a few more months, on his 20th birthday, he would be able to stand before the other with full honesty and tell him the whole truth ... but now, all of that was no longer possible. He could only continue to live on under the identity of Li Lanfeng, and this may be how it would be for the rest of his life.

The old man seemed to sense Li Lanfeng's grief. He sighed deeply and said, "Sinful things must be given up."

Li Lanfeng laughed tragically. So his grandfather had felt that his looks were a sinful existence? How ridiculous. If the Phoenix Thrall Fate was all because of his face, then wouldn't ruining it be enough? Why bother going through the extra trouble of manufacturing this Li Yinfei? At the heart of it, his grandfather was just trying to fool himself.

Li Lanfeng's laughter finally subsided. His eyes sprang open, sadness flashing briefly in the depths of his gaze as he peered intently at the old man for a moment before saying, "Grandpa, this is the final time I'll be contacting you. From now on, I am no longer Li Mulan but Li Lanfeng ... and I can only be Li Lanfeng!"

Hearing this, the old man's body jerked and his eyes swiftly turned red. His mouth twitched soundlessly, but in the end, he merely nodded resolutely and said, "Li Lanfeng, look out for yourself!"

The old man pressed the button to end the call and then stared blankly at the now dark virtual screen. Only after a good long while did he stir to say faintly, "I can only do this much. After this, it's all up to you, Mulan!" Having said that, his entire frame collapsed. His back bent uncontrollably into a curve, and he was no longer as confident and unshakeable as he had appeared to his two grandsons on the screen.

1. T/C: Sheesh, Li Shiyu seems to be having a lot of firsts in these few chapters. =.=

Chapter 393 - The Lingtian Mecha Clan!

Time flew, and a year's time was over just like that.

This entire year, the First Men's Military Academy had seemed extremely peaceful and uneventful. That air invasion of the academy a year ago had put a damper on the initially tense and competitive atmosphere of the academy. Those 8000 cadets who had died in the battle had come from multiple factions, which almost encompassed all the factions in the military academy. Certain factions were hit particularly hard and were devastated by the loss of members.

Under this sort of slump, all the factions were in no mood to fight over anything. They all took the time to rest and recuperate, biding their time. The New Cadet Regiment was probably the faction which lost the fewest members in the air invasion incident. With the exception of a minor few who had died in battle with the enemy, Ling Lan's decisive arrangements had allowed most of the members to survive the crisis.

It could not be denied that those New Cadet Regiment members who had survived the battlefield found their mecha control skills improving on a vertical line within this one year. Quite a few intermediate mecha warriors successfully advanced to advanced mecha warrior level, but since they had not officially gone through a mecha practical training session, the academy instructors did not know about it yet. It could be imagined that when the members of the New Cadet Regiment finally entered their mecha practical training courses, they would certainly shock the entire military academy.

Successfully entering the second year meant that the New Cadet Regiment had said goodbye to the chapter of their lives as newbies — they would now officially enter the formal courses of their chosen specialization. This also meant that they now had the right to establish mecha clans that the academy would recognise.

Wu Jiong, Li Yingjie, as well as the other team leaders of the New Cadet Regiment all felt that it was better to establish a mecha clan earlier rather than later. By taking advantage of this time when the old factions had not fully recovered, the New Cadet Regiment would be able to set down secure roots within the military academy.

Ling Lan agreed with them, and so not long after the start of the second year, she submitted the application for the establishment of the Lingtian Mecha Clan to the military academy. This application shocked all of the factions in the academy, and many were even of the opinion that this reckless behaviour of the New Cadet Regiment was bound to be thwarted. This was because the establishment of a mecha clan required the applicant group to pass an assessment by the academy mainframe.

Just think — even if the freshmen had started training their mecha control in Mecha World as early as they could in their first year, one year's time was only enough at most for these freshmen to achieve intermediate mecha warrior status. Moreover, this was only something extremely talented students could achieve. Meanwhile, the virtual battle clans created by the mainframe as the opponent in its assessment would at worst consist of advanced mecha warriors but were more likely to be all special-class operators. Although the result of the assessment was not determined by winning or losing, how many seconds could a team made up of intermediate mecha warriors last under the attack of the mainframe's special-class mecha operator battle clan?

However, the final outcome left everyone flabbergasted — the Lingtian Mecha Clan passed the academy mainframe's assessment in one go. Everyone wanted to know the content of the assessment, but the Lingtian Mecha Clan cruelly set their assessment as a top secret document. Even the academy's principal himself could not access the battle logs of this assessment; only high-level administrators of the military at the rank of general and above would have the authorization to view them ... but would the generals even care to pay any attention to a minor mecha clan formation assessment within a military academy?

And so, this assessment became a secret, sealed away for many years. Until that time in the future when Ling Lan had already become a king in her own right — only then did she draw the interest of the high-level people in the Federation military, who then looked up the assessment records. Only then did they come to understand that King Ling had already been crazily overpowered even back during her time at the military academy ...

After the Lingtian Mecha Clan was officially established, the various smaller teams within the mecha clan began submitting their applications one after the other in close succession to the academy mainframe to form their own battle clans. The establishment of a battle clan also required a mainframe assessment, and the missions given to the various potential battle clans were not necessarily the same. Ling Lan had originally already established the Lingtian Battle Clan within Mecha World; after she submitted her application, she actually did not need to take an assessment for the academy mainframe immediately approved it.

This made Ling Lan suspect that Mecha World, which allowed the public to enter and practise their control, was in fact overseen by the military. And that mainframe of Mecha World was very likely the mainframe of the military itself. In reality, the fact that the military academy's mainframe was a split segment of the military mainframe itself was an open secret in the military academy.

Of course, there was one other reason for this speculation of Ling Lan's. The rank of her approved battle clan in the real world was exactly the same as the one in Mecha World, instantly leaping up to 5-star.

This coincidence compelled Ling Lan to be suspicious — how else would this 5-star ranking have come about? Could it be that the military academy's mainframe just happened to suffer a seizure and specially decided to gift her such a grand present? It was impossible just thinking about it.

After the battle clan was established, the original Lingtian Battle Clan members immediately joined again. However, there was one unexpected guest. When Li Lanfeng joined this time, he dragged his good friend Zhao Jun along.

In all honesty, Zhao Jun had not actually wanted to formally join the Lingtian Battle Clan. He had only wanted to sign a one-year temporary contract, but who was Li Lanfeng? His heart set on helping his rabbit increase the strength of his battle clan, Li Lanfeng naturally would not let this super-valuable combat warrior Zhao Jun go.

Thus, under Li Lanfeng's purposeful verbal provocation, Zhao Jun was unable to resist and issued a direct challenge to the clan leader Ling Lan, setting a wager for their fight along with it. If Ling Lan could defeat him, he would join the Lingtian clan and pledge his loyalty as a member of Lingtian without any reservations.

Zhao Jun was a confident person — among the cadets, only about 50 or so had managed to advance to become special-class operators, and Zhao Jun's battle strength had always been in the top three of these 50 or so special-class operators. Additionally, even adding in the one and only cadet who had advanced to become an ace operator, the Thunder King Qiao Ting, Zhao Jun's ranking in terms of battle strength had never dropped out of the top five. This was also why even though he was not someone from Wuji, the Wuji Mecha Clan still had no choice but to lay down their pride and seek him out for a partnership.

As Zhao Jun was from a third-rate planet, he had very weak backing, and though he himself had no mind to take power and wield authority, he was still an ambitious person who did not want to randomly join some unproven, lame battle clan. He wanted to be a member of some legendary battle clan — therefore, for him to submit, the clan leader needed to have strength on par with the Thunder King Qiao Ting at least. Of course, because of Li Lanfeng, Zhao Jun also hated Qiao Ting with a passion, which was one reason why Zhao Jun had not joined the Leiting Mecha Clan.

With regards to Zhao Jun's challenge, Ling Lan naturally was not afraid. Over this past year, unlike Qi Long and the rest, Ling Lan had not had to attend physical fitness classes during the day; her entire focus had been on training her mecha controls in Mecha World. Her efforts over the year had raised her status in Mecha World from intermediate mecha warrior to ace mecha master, finally reflecting her true strength in the real world.

Thus, as soon as Ling Lan logged into Mecha World and operated an ace mecha onto the arena stage set up for the both of them, Zhao Jun knew that he had lost. Reality proved that Ling Lan's ace operator status was not just for show — her control skills were so powerful that it was scary. Zhao Jun only managed to last 20 moves under Ling Lan before he was KO-ed by a sword right through his cockpit.

This kind of power thoroughly convinced Zhao Jun. After he logged off the virtual world, he shook Li Lanfeng in excitement, asking him how in the world he had found such an aberrant clan leader. Just think — Thunder King Qiao Ting had only broken through to ace operator status in his fourth year, but Ling Lan was currently only a second year, so he had beaten Qiao Ting by two years. Do not underestimate these two years ... the younger the age, even the difference of one month was enough to display the difference between the talent and potential of two people. Zhao Jun knew very well that Ling Lan's future was certain to be even better than Qiao Ting's. If Qiao Ting could be said to be the second Ling Xiao, then Ling Lan was very likely to achieve becoming the first Ling Lan.

Li Lanfeng looked at Zhao Jun who was now somewhat hysterical from excitement and found himself rather speechless. Frankly, he had been able to tell with a glance that Ling Lan had already taken it easy and shown some mercy during the fight with Zhao Jun in order to leave him some face. Otherwise, based on Ling Lan's methods, Zhao Jun would never have been able to last more than 10 moves against her. Li Lanfeng had no idea how he could tell Zhao Jun this — if he stated it bluntly, would Zhao Jun crumble from the shock and fall into a slump?

Besides, his rabbit had already become an ace operator in the first year. If he told Zhao Jun this, would his good friend be stunned silly from the overwhelming shock?

After musing about it for a long while, Li Lanfeng decided that in order to preserve the sanity of his good friend and save him from losing himself due to shock, he would mercifully keep the truth concealed for now. Li Lanfeng felt that he was truly such a kind person ...

In this manner, Zhao Jun was whole-heartedly convinced into joining the Lingtian Battle Clan, and so within the early days of its establishment, the Lingtian Battle Clan already had 10 members. Of course, there were still many waitlisted members yet to be added to the ranks. When the first year ended, Han Jijyun and Luo Lang went back home once, and they returned with several strong requests from various people.

It turned out that Luo Chao, Han Xuya, and the original members of team 072 all sent word that they would officially join the Lingtian Battle Clan once they entered an army division. In particular, Han Xuya threatened Ling Lan with extreme violence that he was not allowed to say no!

Of course, Ling Lan's plans to go to the 23rd Division had been conveyed by Luo Lang and the others to the members of team 072. Aside from a few with excellent grades who decided to apply for enlistment to the 23rd Division along with Ling Lan and the rest at the First Academy in their fifth year, the others could only wait till they properly graduated before applying.

Ling Lan naturally would not refuse these scattered companions of hers who wanted to reunite with them. Rather than taking in some unfamiliar outsiders, Ling Lan was more willing to trust these companions who had grown up together with her. Right then, Ling Lan was also secretly rejoicing that they had managed to complete that SSS-rank mission back then, promoting the clan's level up to 5-star right away so they could take in so many more people. Otherwise, she would have had to start worrying over these next few years how she could raise the level of her battle clan as soon as possible to accommodate these companions.

Having settled the matter of these outside companions, Ling Lan began to fret over the current internal members. Ling Lan had no need to concern herself over Qi Long and the other four of her original team — many years of cultivation and training had already ensured that their combat power and rapport with one another were outstanding.

However, the newly joined Chang Xinyuan was a huge problem. Even though he was extremely hardworking and tenacious, his mecha control talent was truly not that great. Over this past year, although Qi Long and the rest were still advanced mecha warriors, they had already touched the doorway to becoming special-class operators. They were now just waiting for a lucky chance, like when Li Lanfeng had encountered during the air invasion, to break through into the ranks of the special-class operators.

For an intermediate mecha warrior to advance to become an advanced mecha warrior, there was no need for any special insight. As long as they obtained enough experience and trained their control hand speed up to a certain standard, they would successfully advance. Basically, there wasn't any particular threshold in advancing from intermediate mecha to advanced mecha.

Chapter 394 - Leiting's Letter of Challenge!

But such a simple thing became extremely difficult when it came to Chang Xinyuan. His hand speed was stuck at the highest intermediate value — just a one-second improvement would be enough to judge him ready to advance. However, it was precisely this one second that left Chang Xinyuan helpless and floundering.

When Ling Lan found out that Chang Xinyuan was unable to break through to gain that one second on his hand speed no matter how hard he practised, she knew that Chang Xinyuan had encountered a bottleneck in his talent. This was not something that training could overcome — he needed a chance for a breakthrough, and Ling Lan herself did not know where this chance would come from. When Chang Xinyuan learned of this situation, he was greatly impacted, and fell into a depressed mood for a time. Luckily, the other members of the clan often sought him out to ask him to do things, using the business of modification to help Chang Xinyuan forget this mental blow. Only this helped save the team's prodigy mechanic.

Chang Xinyuan's problem was only waiting on an opportunity, and even though the chances of this opportunity occurring seemed infinitesimal, it was at least still possible.

In the clan, Li Shiyu's mecha control talent was clearly pretty good, but his whole focus was on the research of medicine. If Ling Lan had not given a strict command that all members of the clan had to train their mecha control for no less than two hours every day, Li Shiyu most probably would not even go practise his mecha control.

Although Ling Lan felt it was a bit of a pity that Li Shiyu was wasting his mecha control talent like this, she understood that everyone had their own goals and pursuits, so it was not her place to interfere with Li Shiyu's personal choice. Fortunately, due to the mandatory two hours of practice every day, Li Shiyu's mecha control did not lag behind the others by too much. Even though he was still an advanced mecha warrior, he had still risen from the primary stage to the middle stage. As long as Li Shiyu did not give up and stop practising, he should enter the late stage of advanced mecha warrior level in a few months, so Ling Lan was quite reassured by this.

Having been through an air invasion, Ling Lan knew very well that on the battlefield, all those below special-class operator level were just cannon fodder. To ensure the survival of as many team members as possible, she needed to make them all advance to special-class operator level before graduation to be safe.

Zhao Jun's mecha control ability was the strongest in the clan aside from Ling Lan. Moreover, like Qi Long, he was an obsessed fanatic of mecha control, and having participated very often in mecha battles while he was with the Wuji Mecha Clan, his battle experience was also a bracket higher than Qi Long and the rest. Thus, Ling Lan felt he was very reliable — she believed that even if the other members in the clan made a mistake and dropped the ball 1 during a critical moment, Zhao Jun would never do so.

Sometimes, trust did not need a long time to develop. Zhao Jun's personality made Ling Lan accept him very quickly — it could not be denied that the fact that Zhao Jun was Li Lanfeng's friend was a major factor. In short, Zhao Jun had been deemed a trustworthy person by Ling Lan, but of course, to truly be integrated into the Lingtian Battle Clan, Zhao Jun would still need to work hard.

What Ling Lan was really worried about was still the leopard Li Lanfeng. Li Lanfeng's physical constitution issue was actually hidden very deeply — other than Ling Lan, none of the other members in the clan knew about it. Even his good friend Zhao Jun only had some inkling of it and not a very clear one at that.

Since Ling Lan had already decided to establish a battle clan, she naturally would not permit any weakness to appear in her battle clan. She found an opportunity to meet up with Li Lanfeng to discuss the issue once. Perhaps Li Lanfeng had a sort of irrational blind trust in Ling Lan, for when Ling Lan asked him about his physical condition, Li Lanfeng did not hide anything, directly revealing the true situation to her.

The truth was as Ling Lan had imagined. It was indeed because his spiritual power was too strong for his body to handle that Li Lanfeng had this sequela 1 , just like Ling Lan in her previous life. The lucky thing was that this world had gene agents as well as all types of physical skills to improve one's physique, ensuring that Li Lanfeng did not have to die young as Ling Lan had in her past life. Still, even so, his body had never truly been well, forever hovering in a state of extreme weakness.

Reasonably speaking, Li Lanfeng's body did not permit him to walk the path of a mecha operator — when Ling Lan had asked Li Lanfeng why he had chosen this apparently suicidal path, Li Lanfeng had been silent for a good long while, as if having something difficult to divulge. In the end, he had only said bitterly that he wanted to become someone strong who could truly control his own destiny.

When Li Lanfeng had said these words, his eyes clearly held a trace of uncertainty, but there was even more determination in them. Perhaps, he had decided to walk this path with no guarantees only because he did not want to succumb to fate ... even if he had to pay with his life, he wanted to fight just once at least.

Seeing this kind of Li Lanfeng, Ling Lan could not help but think of her own situation. Although she had been forced from the beginning to disguise herself as a man, all her subsequent actions, all of her efforts, were they not all for the sake of controlling her own destiny?

Ling Lan empathized. She thought about Li Lanfeng's identity — he was even worse off than her as he was only a branch family descendant of the Li family. Although she was unclear what kind of family clan the Li family was, having read all types of novels in her previous world, Ling Lan could imagine what it was like. For a branch family descendant to obtain true speaking rights and be a free person, they needed to gain strength beyond the family clan's control. Otherwise, they would only become tools of the family clan and may even become a sacrificial victim for the family when necessary.

Having reached an understanding in her heart, Ling Lan decided not to ask Li Lanfeng anything more. After all, that was Li Lanfeng's private affairs — Ling Lan did not want to pry at the other's wounds. However, Ling Lan was filled with admiration for Li Lanfeng's stubborn determination and courage to become strong enough to decide his own fate even if he died. Sure enough, someone she acknowledged would never be a coward!

Since Li Lanfeng had the courage, Ling Lan herself would spare no effort to help her good friend. She meticulously developed a set of fitness training programs for Li Lanfeng, and she also unstintingly taught her Qi exercises to Li Lanfeng. However, it was not as effective as Ling Lan had imagined. Compared to when Ling Lan had started practising it in her mother's womb, there did not seem to be much effect when the already 20 years old Li Lanfeng practised it.

Still, Li Lanfeng was extremely lucky. With the modified gene agent Li Shiyu provided, Little Four improved it to raise the purity of the agent to 100%, allowing Li Lanfeng's frail body to fully absorb it. Li Lanfeng's body gradually began to improve, and his tenacity in practising the Qi exercises slowly began to show effect. The gradual improvement of his body left Li Lanfeng overjoyed. There was finally hope that this illness plaguing him for these 20 years would be cured.

After a year of effort, though Li Lanfeng's physical constitution still could not compare to the tough and sturdy build of an average mecha operator, he was at least no longer that sickly weakling he was before who could only handle intense mecha operation for 10 minutes. The duration Li Lanfeng could sustain in high-intensity mecha combat increased from the initial 10 minutes to 20, and if he was in a better state, that time would be extended. And this new time was already enough to sustain him through a small-scale mecha fight.

This also meant that from now on, Li Lanfeng would no longer be the battle clan's weak point in the many mecha fights to come. Ling Lan was very satisfied with this result.

Although the Lingtian Battle Clan had miscellaneous problems here and there, overall, the battle clan was still developing in a healthy direction. Meanwhile, the Lingtian Mecha Clan was also gradually stepping onto the right track under the combined efforts of the various team leaders under its banner. Right at this juncture, a letter of challenge suddenly descended upon the Lingtian Mecha Clan, breaking the peaceful status quo of the entire military academy.

********

In Ling Lan's villa, all the regiment commanders and team leaders of the Lingtian Mecha Clan were gathered. They were all here for the same thing — to decide how they would deal with the letter of challenge from the Leiting Mecha Clan.

Yes, this letter of challenge was from the strongest faction in the academy —— the Leiting Mecha Clan!

The letter of challenge being passed around was made of paper. Of course, the true letter of challenge had already been submitted digitally to the academy mainframe by the Leiting Mecha Clan. As the regiment commander of the Lingtian Mecha Clan, Ling Lan had received a notification from the mainframe at the earliest notice. However, the Thunder King had been extremely provocative. He had specially produced a physical paper letter of challenge and had personally sent someone to deliver it to the second year dormitories and hand it over to the public regiment commander Wu Jiong.

Wu Jiong was well aware that the purpose of this action was so that the other party could announce to the entire academy that Leiting had chosen to enact their revenge now for their defeat in that arena battle a year ago.

Wu Jiong understood what the other's intention was, but he still had no choice but to bite the bullet. The Lingtian Mecha Clan had just been established — if they avoided the challenge now, the Lingtian Mecha Clan would inevitably become the laughing stock of the entire school, let alone being able to rise and develop any further after this.

After all the team leaders had taken a look at the letter of challenge, the letter once again returned to Wu Jiong's hands.

When Wu Jiong saw that large signature at the end of the letter of challenge once again, he could not hold back the rage in his heart any longer. He hissed angrily, "I had thought that the four major factions had suffered heavy losses during that air invasion incident last year and needed to rest and regroup, and so would not have any time to spare on us. Which is why I had wanted to take advantage of this lull to quickly establish our mecha clan early and use this time to grow our faction. Who knew that this Qiao Ting would see through our plan and issue this letter of challenge while we still have not secured our standing ... he is obviously planning to crush us with one strike and completely scatter our mecha clan. How despicable!" That said, unable to rein in his anger, his right hand slammed down on the armrest of his chair, the force of which instantly caused numerous cracks to appear in the armrest.

Standing not too far behind Ling Lan, Lin Zhong-qing's face could not help but twitch, heart aching as he calculated in his mind — Hells, 3000 credits gone just like that ...

Wu Jiong's words also ignited Li Yingjie's rage. He was a haughty person to begin with and was not as reserved as Wu Jiong; he instantly raged openly, "That bastard Qiao Ting! Knowing that we do not have an ace operator, he actually has the face to challenge us personally. For the sake of victory, he really doesn't care about losing face anymore 1 ."

Seated across from Li Yingjie, when Qi Long heard Li Yingjie's yelling, a smile appeared on his face. It seemed as if he fully approved of Li Yingjie's words, but only he knew that he was smiling because Qiao Ting was about to be a victim of his own cleverness. Thinking victory was at hand, yet not knowing that the opponent he was about to face, Qi Long's boss, was already an ace operator as well. If it could be said that the other had some chance of winning a year ago, now, Qi Long really did not think Qiao Ting had any chances of winning left.

Li Yingjie's words resonated with everyone present. The other team leaders also began to grumble and roar, scolding Qiao Ting for his shamelessness.

Only Gao Jinyun sitting in the periphery of the circle did not join in, instead sitting quietly as he contemplated something with a solemn expression ... right at that moment, Ling Lan's initially closed eyes sprang open to sweep a cool gaze around the circle. Her pressing gaze instantly stopped all the angry mutters and bellowing in the room.

Cold sweat beaded the foreheads of everyone present — Boss Lan's force of presence was becoming stronger by the day. Now, just one glance was enough to make them sense danger, and on top of that, it was as if the surrounding temperature had become frozen.

1. 掉链子: Interestingly enough, in Chinese, the phrase is 'drop the chain'.

2. sequela = a condition which is the consequence of a previous disease or injury.

3. This is all about keeping up a facade of politeness. There are certain unspoken codes of chivalry where you don't want to seem like you're bullying a weaker party. Here, as an ace operator, for Qiao Ting to state that he will be fighting against the cadets of Lingtian who are not yet at that level, that unspoken code is broken and reflects badly on him to a certain extent.

Chapter 395 - Gao Jinyun's Suggestion!

"Gao Jinyun, what do you think?" Into the cold silence, Ling Lan finally opened her mouth, but unexpectedly called out Gao Jinyun.

This caused Wu Jiong sitting by her side to raise his brows in surprise. Li Yingjie was at first rather puzzled, but he quickly turned to stare curiously at Gao Jinyun, wanting to know what about this person had gained Boss Lan's approbation.

Ling Lan's direct callout stunned Gao Jinyun, but he was instantly taken by wild joy. In contrast to the other team leaders who did not know Boss Lan's full strength, having been saved by Ling Lan once before, he naturally knew how powerful Boss Lan was now. Everyone felt that the Lingtian Mecha Clan was sure to lose, but he did not agree. Leiting, who did not understand Boss Lan's full strength, was sure to once again lose to the Lingtian Mecha Clan ...

And now, for Ling Lan to personally ask his opinion, did this mean he had successfully entered Boss Lan's esteem? The very thought energized Gao Jinyun, but still, he knew deep down that if he could not say anything constructive or insightful now, he was likely to waste this opportunity.

Therefore, Gao Jinyun forcefully repressed the excitement churning within him and considered the situation carefully for a moment before saying measuredly, "Regiment Commander Ling, since you've asked for my opinion, then let me say a little about this. If I say anything wrong, I beg the pardon of the regiment commanders and team leaders here."

Gao Jinyun's demeanour was very humble, greatly improving his impression in the eyes of the team leaders present, eliminating the possible friction which might have arisen from envy. Wu Jiong's eyes flashed at his words — he had not expected that there would be such a capable team leader in the mecha clan who was not from their academy; he had neglected this possibility.

After Gao Jinyun finished setting the scene, he finally explained his view. "Indeed, the Leiting Mecha Clan is very strong, and moreover, their regiment commander, Thunder King Qiao Ting, is the only publicly known ace operator in the military academy among the cadets ..." At this point, Gao Jinyun glanced reflexively at Boss Lan, but he very quickly reeled his gaze back and continued to say, "But I don't think our Lingtian Mecha Clan has no chance of winning at all."

Ling Lan's lips quirked. This Gao Jinyun was an interesting character, because he did not announce to the others that she was an ace operator. Instead, he used his words so adeptly — anyone who knew what's what would understand the hidden meaning behind Gao Jinyun's words.

Sure enough, when Ling Lan's team members heard what Gao Jinyun said, they smiled lightly in unplanned unison; it looked like they had all caught the connotation of Gao Jinyun's words.

Even though the others could not grasp the true meaning of Gao Jinyun's words, their spirits rallied when they heard that their mecha clan was not completely sure to lose. Li Yingjie was particularly impatient, instantly speaking up to ask, "What do you mean?"

"Over this period of time, I have seriously studied the mecha battles between mecha clans. Although there are no restrictions whatsoever with regards to the team leader, there are limitations on the number of team members and their levels. Especially for challenge battles where senior cadets are up against cadets junior to them, the restrictions are even greater."

Gao Jinyun's reminder sparked Wu Jiong's memory and he instantly understood what the other was getting at. He nodded emphatically and said, "Gao Jinyun is right. I actually forgot that challenge fights had these regulations." Wu Jiong rapped his own head in frustration, smiling wryly as he said, "In order to eliminate vicious predatory competition among the mecha clans, especially when it comes to seniors against juniors, the mainframe has set up some protective rules in favour of the disadvantaged party. As soon as it discovers that the skill level between the two parties involved in a challenge diverges by too much, making the match-up extremely unequal, the mainframe will instantly determine that this is malicious predatory competition and declare the challenge invalid. Of course, this mainframe protective measure for the lower grade cadets can only be applied three times 1 . However, every time a challenge is denied, a new challenge can only be issued three months later. If the strength of the battle clan the Leiting Mecha Clan sends out against us exceeds our level by too much, the mainframe's protective regulations will be triggered. With that, we'll still have about a year's time to grow. This is a route we can properly utilise ..."

As the team leaders seated here had never encountered a battle between mecha clans before, they did not know all these things. They all quickly spoke up to urge Regiment Commander Wu Jiong to explain how they could get the mainframe to determine this challenge as malicious competition.

Wu Jiong then laid out the rules in detail. It turned out that when upper year cadets challenged lower year cadets, other than the team leader's level being unrestricted, the overall strength of the other members participating in the fight could not exceed the challenged lower grade clan's overall strength by too much. If not, the challenge would be deemed as unfair and be voided. Of course, how much the overall strength needed to exceed to be considered malicious competition was not something Wu Jiong, who had never been in a mecha challenge fight himself, knew for certain either, because it was not stated clearly in the rules. In the end, it would all still depend on the final submitted name lists from both sides.

While everyone was discussing how best to utilise the mainframe's protective rules, Gao Jinyun coughed sharply to draw everyone's attention before saying loudly, "I want to add that there are three tiers for mecha fights. A 12-man fight, a 24-man fight, and a 50-man group battle. Boss Lan, it seems like the tier of the battle is up to the challenger to decide, right?"

Ling Lan nodded in response to Gao Jinyun's question, indicating that he had it right.

Gao Jinyun's brow furrowed as he sighed and said, "This way, we're rather disadvantaged. The initiative is in the hands of the opponent. If we could have chosen the tier, our chances of winning would be higher."

"Oh? Setting aside how the opponent will choose, tell me your thoughts." Ling Lan raised a brow. She had always thought that Li Lanfeng and Han Jijyun from her own team were already very rare military strategist combat types — unexpectedly, this team leader who was not from the Central Scout Academy seemed to be no weaker than the two of them in terms of strategizing. This piqued Ling Lan's interest; she now wanted to see how far Gao Jinyun could go.

Ling Lan was not only focused on cultivating her own battle clan, she was also cultivating some allied teams at the same time. Whether in military administration or on the battlefield, having the support of some dependable allies would invariably make her path smoother and more stable. Thus, she viewed Wu Jiong's team with high regard and also employed both carrot and stick with Li Yingjie. Since they were all from the Central Scout Academy, Ling Lan did not wish for Li Yingjie to slow everyone down.

However, if Gao Jinyun also showed promise, Ling Lan would not hesitate to cultivate him as well and be generous with her trust. In contrast to Wu Jiong and the others who may have some nepotism mentality, Ling Lan did not distinguish between main or side branches when it came to people. As long as someone had the skills and had a passable personality, Ling Lan definitely would not discriminate against them due to their birth or background.

The moment Ling Lan said this, everyone was gobsmacked, and Gao Jinyun himself was staring with both shock and joy at Ling Lan. Although Ling Lan's gaze was as placid as ever, the encouragement within her eyes was clear. This moved Gao Jinyun considerably, and his body actually began to tremble uncontrollably.

Several of the other team leaders were even staring at Gao Jinyun with envious eyes. These words from Boss Lan pretty much confirmed that Gao Jinyun had truly entered Boss Lan's scope of attention. As long as Gao Jinyun did not do anything wrong after this, his team would definitely receive focused cultivation from Boss Lan. It could be predicted that Gao Jinyun's team would become one of the strongest teams aside from those battle clans of the regiment commanders in the faction.

Gao Jinyun clenched his fists tightly, telling himself to calm down. The more exciting the situation was, the more he could not afford to make any mistakes. He took a deep breath and let his emotions settle a little before saying, "Regiment Commander, this is what I think. If we get to choose, we must choose the 12-man challenge fight. Even though our overall strength cannot compare to Leiting's, when it comes to elite fighters, we're actually not much weaker than Leiting."

Initially, they had thought that Gao Jinyun would say something mind-blowing, but he had unexpectedly said this. Even if everyone had confidence in themselves, they still felt that there was quite a bit of a gap between their strength and that of the elite battle clans of the Leiting Mecha Clan. One of the team leaders even retorted, "Team leader Gao, as far as I know, Leiting has 15 special-class operators at the very least. Even though we have the confidence to say that we can achieve that same level two to three years later, right now, we're still mostly advanced mecha warriors. There's no way we can compare to Leiting's special-class operators in terms of strength."

Questioned, Gao Jinyun's expression held no trace of panic. Instead, with a face full of determination, he said, "I know, but I also know that the opponent cannot send all of their special-class operators onto the field, or else this challenge fight will not be approved by the mainframe."

Ling Lan's lips curved up slightly once more at these words. As she expected, Gao Jinyun had also noticed this point — he was a seed deserving of cultivation.

Gao Jinyun's resolute words made the eyes of everyone present light up. That's right, if the opponent sent out all their special-class operators, adding on the leading ace operator, this challenge fight would just be completely thrown out. To protect the freshmen, the mainframe would definitely reject this challenge fight. Everyone now understood what Gao Jinyun was saying when he mentioned the elite fighters. If the opponent lowered their requirements and chose advanced mecha warriors to represent them, Lingtian would still be able to put up a fight.

"The most important thing now is how we can hide our strength from the opponent. If Leiting finds out how strong we are and arranges their troops in formations specifically suited to counter us ..." At this point, Gao Jinyun's face turned grim. "The situation will not be optimistic for us. Only if Leiting is uncertain to the depths of our true strength will we have a chance to win."

Gao Jinyun's words made a calm settle down on the entire venue. Some team leaders seemed to have thought of something, a trace of frustration appearing on their faces. It looked like their strength levels must have been scouted out by Leiting quite recently.

Li Yingjie's expression was also extremely unsightly. He recalled a scene in Mecha World where he had been provoked by some people. Back then, he had not been able to hold back his temper and had fought with the opponent several times in the arena. Although he had defeated the opponent multiple times and had obtained quite a lot of victory spoils, thinking back on the incident now, it was truly too fishy. It looked like he must have fallen for Leiting's trap.

Ling Lan swept a swift gaze around the hall, taking stock of everyone's countenance, thus gaining a rough idea of which people had been scouted out. Then, she said, "Looks like, some of you already sense that something is wrong. Still, even if Leiting has discovered your true strength, the impact on this mecha battle will not be too significant, so you all don't have to be too upset."

Even though Ling Lan's tone was cold, her words proved that she was not angry. This let those self-recriminating team leaders, including Li Yingjie, put aside some of their worries. Having been sounded out by the enemy, they were indeed very angry, but they were even more afraid of Boss Lan's anger.

1. T/C: I don't really get why this would be so. It's such an exploitable loophole if there is a limitation to how many times the rule can be applied. Hmm.