“I know you’re powerful, but don’t even think of taking him away on my watch!” With the determination to sacrifice his life, the Shadow Death assassin rushed straight at Bai Xiaofei.

  Bai Xiaofei raised his hand, and a tremendous pressure weighed upon the assassin. However, the latter made no move to resist and let the attack tear his body apart. Then, a strange fluctuation spread and sealed the space around Bai Xiaofei.

  “You can’t escape from the Prison of Death, Bai Xiaofei. Watch us leave. And I hope you can still be so domineering the next time we meet!” coldly said the assassin with the teleportation ability, no longer fearful upon seeing Bai Xiaofei fixed in one spot.

  “Why wait for ‘next time’ when I can do it now?”


  Bai Xiaofei’s voice suddenly rang out behind the assassin, who looked back with a horrified expression. Before he could finish the teleportation, blood seeped out from the corner of his mouth after an earth spike pierced right through his heart.

  “Ho… how…” the assassin asked the last question of his life with an expression of disbelief and despair.

  Generously, Bai Xiaofei pointed at ‘himself’ who was still fixed. The assassin turned to look, only to see a piece of stone.

  So it’s just an illusion… Thought the assassin as life left his body.

  Not even sparing him a glance, Bai Xiaofei walked toward the remaining two assassins and said, “Give him to me, and I’ll give you two a quick death.”


  However, his answer was their attacks!

  Shaking his head with pity, Bai Xiaofei appeared in front of them in a flicker. A fiery red flame flared and turned the assassins to ashes, leaving only the mastermind behind the human puppets.

  “I’m really curious, which godsmith are you? Should I do it or do you do it yourself?” Bai Xiaofei asked slowly.

  The man covered in a black robe laughed. “What an outstanding youngster! Who would have thought Shadow Death is helpless against such a boy? Did I overestimate them or underestimate you?”


  Hearing this, Bai Xiaofei laughed. “Should be both, but it’s over now, isn’t it?” As he talked, he released his spirit and thoroughly scanned the surroundings.

  “No need to be so careful. There’s nothing around here. I have to admire your caution, though. You actually guessed that they would have the ability to limit you,” praised the man as he saw through Bai Xiaofei’s little action.

  “You can never be too careful, no? The reason why you are in this situation is because you weren’t careful enough,” said Bai Xiaofei lightly. However, the man’s next sentence made his heart turn cold.

  “Who told you I wasn’t?” With a sneer, the man took off his hood, revealing a kind of pale face that Bai Xiaofei couldn’t be more familiar with -

  A human puppet?!

  “It’s only forging experimental products. Controlling a human puppet to do it for me was enough. However, be proud of yourself. Only you know that I’ve been using a human puppet to forge human puppets,” the man nonchalantly revealed.

  Calming down, Bai Xiaofei gradually accepted the reality that all of his efforts had gone down the drain. He deactivated Spiritualization and looked at the man. “In that case, let’s have a chat.”


  There is no need to get upset after you lose an opportunity. Try hard and maybe you will find the next one right away.

  “What makes you so sure that I want to talk to you? We are enemies.” The man chuckled with a slightly humanized expression on his lifeless face.

  Seeing this, Bai Xiaofei’s heart sank. For a human puppet to be capable of making such an expression, the forging technology had reached an alarming level.

  “Since you had Shadow Death release those defective experimental products all over the place, it means that you want this matter to be noticed. If I guess correctly, you have an unavoidable reason to forge human puppets and were left with no choice but to borrow the power of Shadow Death.”


  “However, you overreached and couldn’t get rid of them. Therefore, you deliberately slowed down your progress and found a way to attract people with authority to handle Shadow Death for you.”


  “So, you and I may not be enemies, but the cooperation between you and Shadow Death is a shaky one. Now that you want to terminate this cooperation, I am your best helper. That’s why you will talk to me.”


  Bai Xiaofei made a confident speech. While listening, the smile on the man’s face deepened.

  “Young man, you should know that smart people often don’t live long,” he said the most irritating words in the kindest tone.

  Bai Xiaofei wasn’t fazed. He retorted, “But often, stupid people don’t even know how they die, do they?”


  A short silence filled the space.

  Then, the man said what Bai Xiaofei wanted to hear most, “Go ahead, what do you want to ask?”


  “Why do you want to forge human puppets?”


  “No comment.”


  “What is the content of cooperation between you and Shadow Death?”


  “No comment.”


  “To what extent does Shadow Death require the human puppets to reach?”


  “No comment.”


  Three questions in a row without an answer, Bai Xiaofei creased his brows.

  “Then what kind of questions can I ask?” he asked after pondering a little. The man was obviously willing to communicate, but there were certain things that he was not allowed to say, probably due to special reasons.

  When two parties who did not trust each other enter a cooperation, they would often set up special contracts to fortify their relationship. Therefore, what Bai Xiaofei could ask did not depend on what he wanted to know, but on what the man in front of him could reveal.

  “The imperial capital hasn’t been very peaceful recently,” said the man.

  This seemed irrelevant, but Bai Xiaofei understood what he implied - Shadow Death wanted to use human puppets to interfere with the race to the throne!

  “The imperial capital is strong and protected by powerful troops. It is impossible not to be peaceful.” Bai Xiaofei catered to the man and changed to another way of speaking.

  The man laughed, finding it comfortable to deal with smart people. He continued, “Everyone knows how strong the army protecting the capital is, so this is not a problem.”


  Implication: the human puppet army is almost completed and its power can even match the military strength of the imperial city!

  Once again understanding the man’s words, Bai Xiaofei’s heart lurched.

  “When two forces are at war, the quantity of soldiers may not be the key to victory. The quality is more important, isn’t it?” He was asking how strong the human puppets had gotten.

  “Do you think grain sellers lack rice to eat?” answered the man with a rhetorical question.

  Hearing this, Bai Xiaofei’s heart sank to rock bottom.

  The quality of a human puppet depended on the strength of the person when they were still alive. Since Shadow Death ran a killing business, they certainly had more than just a few expert bodies in their hands, many of which might even be famous figures. Therefore, the quality of their human puppet army might be more terrifying than one could imagine.

  “Since the grain is well stocked and there is now a famine, why doesn’t the merchant take this opportunity to make a profit?” asked Bai Xiaofei. According to the man, Shadow Death should have started attacking now that they were fully prepared.

  “That’s because the grain collector slacks off as he doesn’t want the merchant to get this kind of dishonest profit. Unfortunately, the collector has limited ability and there are things he can’t stop.”


  Implication: that’s because I’m deliberately slowing down the progress, otherwise, Shadow Death would have sent the human puppets to slaughter the city…


  Bai Xiaofei fell silent. If that was the case, then there was not much time left for him and Yun Tianhe…


  He looked up at the man and asked, “I want the collector to cooperate with me instead of working for the merchant. Can this be achieved?”


  However, the answer was negative.

  “You can only work on the food. The collector just wants to get away safely and doesn’t want to be exposed. He has already eaten his full share and no longer wants to continue his collector job.”


  As the man finished his reply, a violent fluctuation spread.

  “Since I have said all that can be said, this body needs to be disposed of. Otherwise, I’d have no way to explain to Shadow Death. I hope you can quickly find a solution to the problem.”


  With that, the human puppet exploded into ashes. When the ashes cleared, Bai Xiaofei let out a long sigh.

  How much a person’s words could be trusted could only be judged by the listener. Only Bai Xiaofei knew how much of the man’s words he believed.

  “I’m done over there.” Golden Feather emerged from the puppet space as Bai Xiaofei sat by a cliff and quietly looked at the imperial city in the distance.

  “Aunt Gold, why would brothers have to fight each other to the death? Even at the expense of violating human taboos…” asked Bai Xiaofei with a hint of sorrow.

  Golden Feather sat down next to him.

  “Born in an imperial family, who can be willing to live under another? You can only blame this place for being too wonderful, and only by standing at the top can they appreciate it better,” Golden Feather said lightly. She had witnessed too many similar events.

  “Aunt Gold, have you ever seen a satisfactory method for this situation?” asked Bai Xiaofei again.

  Golden Feather sighed. “There is no satisfactory method after brothers turn against each other. Even if they don’t kill each other, they will eventually become strangers.”


  She was right. When brothers turned against each other, it was even more difficult to be at peace again than when lovers did.

  Bai Xiaofei stood up and gazed at the city with a stubborn expression.

  “But this time, I want him to have the best of both worlds!”