Chapter 5

1

I lay on the roof of the car, then suddenly jumped back into the car. Lan saw me through the rearview mirror, and her spirit instantly became abnormal again. The hands on the steering wheel started to panic, and the speed maniac in me was back.

"Qin Yang, what are you doing back? You..." Shi Xueqi finally saw me clearly, as well as Lan in front of her, and her expression unexpectedly calmed down.

I placed my hand on Lan's wrist and said, "Do you still think my gaze is evil?"

Lan was stared at by a pair of indigo eyes in the rearview mirror. Those eyes made her unable to look away and at the same time relaxed her body and mind.

"Look ahead." I pointed forward, asking Lan to focus on driving, otherwise we might crash.

"Master, your hair turned white so quickly."

"You can call me White Qin Yang or Xiaobai. To distinguish, the one with black hair is Black Qin Yang."

"Are you schizophrenic?" Shi Xueqi shouted loudly, shaking the bag she was holding.

"Hey! Put down your weapon, that's a biological weapon." I pointed at the bag in her hand, telling her to put it down. I gave her only two choices: either put it down or throw it away.

"Schizophrenia with OCD is one thing, but you also dye your hair. So, when I saw you in class with black or white hair, that's how it was."

Shi Xueqi threw it out of the window into a roadside trash can with great accuracy.

"I have a twin soul by birth. Normally, Black dominates this body, but unfortunately, Black caused Lan to have some creepy aftereffects, so I can only take control of this body."

"A twin soul can survive? Are you joking?"

"I did survive. What do you think you can do about it? The fact that I'm alive just means that I'm not an ordinary person."

Shi Xueqi earnestly searched me as I didn't know what she was doing. I just let her look.

"Besides the appearance and clothes, there is a completely different temperament, different way of speaking. That guy with black hair always makes people misunderstand that he's teasing me, but I hate it."

"Hehe, Captain, my partner can hear what you just said."

"Oh? Then he's listening inside... Don't harass me again!" Shi Xueqi leaned against my chest and spoke loudly to Black inside me.

"Looks like this time it's my turn to be the protagonist."

"You want to tell a story?"

"No, I just think this time, meeting your father might be a bit troublesome. It might not be just one thing."

"Qin... Xiaobai, don't worry too much. My father hasn't used aggressive magic in many years. He may not remember how to fight, so when you meet my father, please ask all your questions quickly."

"Alright, as long as your father answers quickly, I can ask quickly."

"Master, the 'Cloud Stairs' ahead might be congested."

The "Cloud Stairs" was a major traffic artery in Jincheng. Since the entire city was built in mid-air, with communities of different sizes surrounding the mountains and suspended in mid-air with the mountain waist as the fulcrum, the roads connecting each community were called "Cloud Stairs." The reason the city wasn't built on land was to preserve the original environment and maintain it, which was the main source of income for Jincheng.

"Lan Jie, take the entrance to the forest over there. It's a detour, but the road isn't easy to drive on, so few people take it. It's perfect since you're driving an off-road vehicle."

After Lan drove the off-road vehicle into the forest road, the scenery was indeed beautiful.

"Lan, there's actually a question I really want to ask."

"Master, please ask." Since Lan saw my dual-colored eyes, her demeanor had become much more normal. Her driving skills were steady, and she didn't show the same fear as when we first met.

"Is this off-road vehicle also produced by the military factory?"

"Yes, it's the off-road vehicle from the Eighth Research Institute."

"Which means it has the same underwater crystal and particle device as the experimental machine."

"The experimental machine has a formal name now, Lord. It's called the 'Sky Fury Battle Armor,' meaning a war machine armor that soars through the sky with fury."

"Who came up with the name? It sounds much better than the name of the Shangwang Squad."

"It was your mother, Lord."

"I knew it! She's just on a different level when it comes to naming." I clapped my hands in approval and looked outside the car. The scenery in the outskirts of Jincheng was beautiful, even in a heavily urbanized place like the Imperial Capital. The forests here were several times larger than mosquitoes, not to mention the trees. I could tell that even the youngest trees on the roadside were at least five hundred years old. I genuinely loved this environmentally friendly city, but unfortunately, the other side of me was a born destroyer.

"The release of the 'Sky Fury Battle Armor' was supposed to be announced to the public on the 'Day of Judgment,' but the assassination interrupted the assembly that day," Shi Xueqi was familiar with the process of the Day of Judgment, as she had attended the assembly that day.

"Platoon Leader, I want to know how your parents met. Your mother was able to make your father, a foreigner, willingly stay in the Empire and live safely for eighteen years."

"As children, we don't know all the details of our parents' affairs."

"Alright~"

For the next half hour, we walked on the green path in the forest. The uneven road surface slowed down the vehicle's speed. In fact, someone had tried to make cars fly a long time ago, but in the end, humans wondered if flying cars were still cars. So cars remained on the ground, ships floated on the sea, and flying was left to airplanes. Only aircraft carriers could fly.

The off-road vehicle finally parked at an entrance to "Cloud Ladder." Since Shi Xueqi's town was in the outskirts, it wasn't built in the community connected by the Cloud Ladder but instead surrounded a wooden town on a plain.

"We've arrived, Lord. Vehicles are prohibited in this town," Lan opened the car door, covered in mud from head to toe.

"It's getting dark. It's better to enter the town since there are so many beasts in the wild," I said.

As we stepped into this town sculpted purely out of wood, I wondered how many trees had to be cut down. Could it be that this plain was created by deforestation? Where was the environmentally friendly city they had promised?

"Snow is back from school. Why did you come back so early?"

"Little Snow is back, and she's become even prettier," the townspeople greeted Shi Xueqi as we walked through the town. It was truly a close-knit community.

"Snow, why did you come back today? Your father is still performing!"

"I have something to do today, so I came back early. Is my father at the performance hall?"

"Yes, he is. Today, he's performing 'Sword Through the Back!'"

"'Sword... Sword Through the Back!'" Suddenly, Shi Xueqi froze for a moment, then hastily walked towards the performance hall in front.

"'Sword Through the Back?' Is it a magic performance?" I approached the old man and asked in the direction Shi Xueqi was heading.

"Teacher Shi is a master performer here. Whether it's during holidays or for tourism, people always come to watch his performances. Even though it's the age of magic now, his performances still bring joy to us old folks and children."

"Why is it so easy for bad people to whitewash themselves?"

"Bad people?"

"Oh, no, you must have misheard."

"You seem familiar, young man. You're dressed the same as Snow," the old man noticed my school badge.

"We're classmates." I purposely raised my college emblem.

2

Applause thundered inside the performance hall. By the time we entered, the performance had already ended, and the atmosphere in the entire hall was filled with happiness. The man under the spotlight on stage was him. I never remembered his face, but I remembered his magic.

After the man's perfect exit under the spotlight, Shi Xueqi stormed into the backstage and saw her father who had just finished his performance.

"Dad!"

"Daughter?" Shi Xueqi's father was very surprised. According to tradition, it was impossible for his daughter to appear in the town at this time.

"Are you okay? You got hurt last time when you performed the blade through the back!"

"Oh, I can't be so easily harmed."

"Where's mom?"

"She's backstage. But it's not Friday today. Why did you come back?"

Shi Xueqi didn't say anything, just gave me a glance. And her father followed her gaze and noticed me.

I locked eyes with Shi Xueqi's father, and now, it was the moment to meet face to face without masks.

"Daughter, summon Judgment Wheel to protect yourself!" Shi Xueqi's father looked terrified. Regardless of whether other performers cared, he showed a tense and alert manner.

"Teacher Shi, what are you doing?" The other performers were very confused by his actions.

"Teacher Shi, are you okay? It's been 18 years since we last met!"

"You..." Shi Xueqi's father's magical power had surged to the critical point. Having suffered a loss before, this time he would give it his all, without any slack. At the same time, the Judgment Wheel was sealed, and his ability as a Magic tools guru was only one-fifth of what it used to be.

Meeting him in this scenario was expected.