Uh...?

Ling Yi had only wished this obvious big shot would handle the thug so she wouldn’t have to. She didn’t expect that kind of ruthlessness—one palm, straight through, like a spear of wind.

Wait. The Doctor’s done something like that before.

Her thoughts tangled like threads in a storm.

So the Doctor’s actually that ruthless too? She’s just so good to me I never saw the blade under the velvet?

Eh?

“Eh?”

The guys in floral jackets echoed her surprise, a chorus of startled crows.

—

The instant their gazes crossed, the man standing opposite the blonde girl vanished without a ripple.

In his place hung a black little cube, quiet as a pebble in a still pond, floating in midair.

The dining room went dead-silent, as if air had turned to ice.

No one knew what happened—everyone felt it. A cold terror, like a razor-thin knife pressed to the throat.

Then, from the cube’s edges—

Dark red blood.

It slowly seeped out, like wine leaking from a cracked seal.

...!

What was that thing? Who was she?

The iron tang climbed into Ling Yi’s nose, snake-smooth and familiar, and she looked up despite herself.

...Blood.

That man was dead.

In a way that snapped reason like a twig.

“Right now, I want to eat,” the blonde girl announced. “Father taught me—fight when you fight, eat when you eat.”

And who’s your father supposed to be?!

Not just the remaining three floral jackets—ordinary diners looked once at the cube and bolted, panic moving like a tide as they shoved and scrambled for the door, desperate not to breathe the same air as the blonde.

Ling Yi knew fighting here would be dumb. Her legs itched to run. But she’d only had a few sips of that mutton soup...

She heard the blonde sigh, like wind off a cold lake.

“Why aren’t you running?”

“Uh? Me?”

Ling Yi jumped, then realized everyone else was gone. She scratched her head. “I wanted to, but I haven’t finished my soup...”

The blonde didn’t answer.

In a fragile, awkward silence, the only two left in the room drank their soup like monks at dawn.

Ling Yi drank fast. Ten minutes and she was done. She set the porcelain bowl down with a long breath and stood to go.

“You’re pretty good.”

The voice rose behind her like a line tugging a kite.

“Cloudlong City’s gonna be chaos for a few days. If you don’t wanna die, hide early.”

...

“...Thanks.”

The glass door of the mutton shop closed behind her with a soft thud, like a lid on a box.

She walked into the noon-bright street, a little dazed. The pressure that blonde gave off was neck-and-neck with Mira’s. She wasn’t drowning like she had months ago. But Mira was a hammer—you saw it coming. The blonde’s power was a shadow behind a paper screen.

That black cube...

She’d seen no tell, no motion. The process felt skipped, like a page torn from a book. Nothing to grasp.

Infinite Power machinery? A superpower? Some kind of magic—or the Alchemy the Doctor talked about?

Ling Yi thought of Chao Liangqun. Thought of the Cruising Destroyer. Climbing from fighter to cadre meant facing things that bent sense like heat bends air...

She’d walked this far before she finally understood why Yekase didn’t want her on the hero’s path.

Battle isn’t a game. Enemy abilities don’t care about balance. There’s no walkthrough to read, no reload to try again. Death comes in a blink.

She was never ready—she’d only assumed she could be.

Ling Yi quietly tightened her grip on the Sky Striker key.

“Hey—Ling Yi, that you?”

Yekase’s voice dropped from above like a birdcall.

Ling Yi looked up and saw her sitting cross-legged on the Polaris Staff. From this angle, white close-fitting fabric flashed like a strip of cloud.

“Doctor? What are you doing here...”

“I toured the steel mill. Chatted with the supervisor.”

Yekase paused. Normally, that’s where she’d stop. But she remembered her promise not to be cryptic, sifted her words, and gave the gist:

“I offered to help protect the steel mill during the rally in exchange for Spiral Force research data. I want it in the future unified Infinite Power system. But the supervisor said they don’t know how it works. They just tap an ancient engine that produces Spiral Force, use what comes out, know the what but not the why. So they can’t give me the method.”

“Is Spiral Force that special?”

“Every flavor of Infinite Power is special.”

Yekase dropped the staff until their faces were level and held out a hand. Ling Yi understood, took it, and hopped onto the Polaris Staff, settling behind her.

“As compensation, they’ll let me access and study that mysterious ancient engine. But you saw MAYA. Some people generate Spiral Force as naturally as Mind Energy. How’s that even possible... I can’t figure it out.”

Ling Yi wrapped her arms around Yekase’s waist and smiled.

“So the Doctor has things she can’t figure out too.”

“Of course. That’s science. The more you understand, the more you discover you don’t.”

She grumbled, then noticed the off-key note in Ling Yi’s mood.

“What happened?”

“Nothing...”

The word left her mouth and she realized it was the Doctor’s favorite dodge. She let out a small, speechless laugh.

“...A fighter made trouble at lunch. Someone like a Sinister Organization cadre erased him. I wondered—if she faced me across a table, would I win?”

“Did you get an answer?”

Yekase didn’t answer. She only asked.

“Without you and A-Ping backing me, surviving would be hard.”

“Good.”

“What’s good about that?”

“You read the field right. You kept your emotions leashed. That’s good.”

She couldn’t turn her head, eyes on the road ahead, so she reached back to ruffle Ling Yi’s hair. Her arm fell short and booped Ling Yi’s nose instead.

Ling Yi set her chin on Yekase’s head. “Doctor... someone’s gonna be a hero. Why me? Was it a coincidence you chose me?”

“Did you get an answer?”

Yekase didn’t answer. She only asked.

“Mm,” Ling Yi hummed, a small sound like a moth’s wing.

“Someone has to be a hero. It might as well be me.”

“If you can think like that, it’s not a coincidence.”

“What do you mean?”

“No big meaning.”

“Mmm—”

No matter how long Ling Yi hissed like a pressure cooker, Yekase only laughed and refused to explain. They drifted back toward the hotel, ignoring the fish-wide eyes of the passersby.

...Jiang Bailu was standing in the lobby.

Like a wrathful Vajra, arms folded, feet planted wide on the carpet.

“Doctor, you’re back.”

“Y-yeah...?”

Yekase had no reason to fear, yet her neck tucked down like a turtle.

“You vanished before the security meeting, forcing me to attend in your place. Any thoughts?”

“Uh... thanks?”

“No need.”

Jiang Bailu’s smile bloomed bright as a blade.

“Extend the wear time one more month.”

“Huh—?”

One month more? Did we even set a term? Another classic use of the “final say” clause—planned A, but because you messed up, it’s B?

“Sister Bailu, that’s not it!” Ling Yi stepped up. “The Doctor told me she wasn’t out wandering. She went to bargain with the steel mill! The deal was... uh... Doctor, you say it.”

—Forgot!

“Uh, the event’s run by the Eternal Green Pages, yeah? We play bodyguard for them and trade it for data.”

In public, Yekase kept it high-level, no more.

“Oh. A bodyguard...”

Jiang Bailu repeated it, then heard the off note. “Looking like that, who’d hire you as a bodyguard? They’re a steel mill, not a copper works!”

Yekase bristled. “Hey, what’s wrong with how I look? I’m famous in Huaxia’s Alchemy circle, okay!”

“Fine. Let’s say your reputation buys trust. How exactly do you plan to bodyguard?”

It was a trap.

If Yekase proposed anything that involved personally fighting, Jiang Bailu would pin her down and let her sample the newly evolved reactor control rods—three months in the making.

“I’ll use my brains.”

“Your brains...”

Safe.

Jiang Bailu knew Yekase only said that airy nonsense when she had no clue. She was gambling.

Gambling that the factions lurking in Cloudlong City would check each other and settle into a precarious balance, just stable enough to last until the race ended—

—That was the conclusion Jiang Bailu would draw from what she knew of Yekase’s habits.

But she didn’t know Yekase had smuggled in a secret weapon.

She didn’t know Yekase knew exactly what conclusion she’d draw.

“I promise I won’t run around during the event. Come to my room and tell me the security meeting details, okay?” Yekase said it with steady sincerity.

“Good that you know...”

Jiang Bailu was surprised by the sudden obedience, but she couldn’t fault it.

Ling Yi watched their exchange.

Her thought process was simple, a pure vibe-check that ignored logic: If the Doctor’s this well-behaved, she’s definitely up to something.

She couldn’t see where the trick was—that’s because she wasn’t good at scheming. Sister Bailu must’ve seen it already and was just saving the Doctor’s face. So Ling Yi decided to play along and not expose it.

The three of them, each nursing different thoughts, went back to the room.