Cub 073: Zao Zao could restrain any member of the Crown Clan completely

Once certain things began, once she started giving up on herself, she could not stop.

If Feiman had not directly kissed so many times back then, she might still have been an aunt who had disguised herself very well.

But it had been useless.

Once a disguise had been torn off, it could not be put back on—

And her symptoms of wanting to kiss Zao Zao seemed to have worsened now.

Could she be saved or not?

Feeney’s doll-like face lost that faint distortion and gloom under Feiman’s righteous attitude.

It was at this moment—

The storm ceased.

The massive creature standing on this wandering planet began to shrink after a few howls toward its own cub.

Amos stood before the mangled flesh that no longer retained any shape—its necklace had completely shattered, impossible to discern what it had originally been. Amos held the cub in one arm, only swept a glance over this place, did not linger, and turned with the soft white ball in his arms toward Feiman and Feeney.

His mental power had not yet fully calmed; the silver-black energy faintly carried violent emotion, coiling around him. This should have been an extremely dangerous moment—Amos alone could have brewed a disaster-level storm. As he approached step by step, Feiman and Feeney, who had been casually chatting, instinctively grew serious, unconsciously retreating a few steps under the pressure of Amos’s power.

Their big brother had never cared about others’ feelings—he had been a tyrant, a dominant force, the strongest combat power within the mythical Crown Clan without question.

Before such power, even siblings had to retreat.

But at the center of the storm, it was strangely calm.

Amos lowered his head and gently touched crowns with little Chu Zao.

He lifted his head; in the next instant, his whole demeanor softened. He held the white fluff ball with one arm, the other hand tucked into his pocket, looking at them.

“Handle the situation here. Compile a full report.”

Everything had already ended, beginning from the collapse of that laboratory on the former Boer Alliance’s side.

The hymn organization’s line, cultivated for so many years, had completely broken—and Amos had seized their tail.

Hymn, angels—Angel’s Realm.

Amos let out a light cold laugh.

He shielded his little cub in his arms; that villain-like, shadowed smile sent a chill through Feeney, whose skin instantly tightened under the memory of being beaten often.

Amos, who had just calmed his rage—was now excited?

What was he excited about?

Amos simply looked at them, bearing a calm sense of elevation.

“The place we have sought—it was not an illusion, nor unreachable.”

Amos still felt a trace of the sensation from earlier.

As long as it was not unreachable—they would always find a way to arrive.

After all was quiet, wind rose over the vast wandering planet, tugging at Amos’s slightly torn clothing, scattering some traces of the earlier turmoil.

It was already past midnight.

Little Chu Zao, who had come along half-asleep, found that pile of flesh too unsightly, so the little one had been tucked inside Amos’s clothing, now clawing at it, trying hard to poke his little head out.

Amos looked down, meeting those honey-colored watery eyes.

“I’ll take Zao Zao to rest first.”

Still at an age of growing.

*

Holy Cas Imperial Star.

All the families involved in the future-plan, now surrounded, were drenched in cold sweat.

His Majesty Amos acted with thunderous decisiveness. Ever since the little prince appeared, he had shown signs of such intentions toward them.

Those families that had been impatient to vent their dissatisfaction, wanting to stir trouble, had met miserable ends; the talents they had recruited and trained were also detained.

But the few families led by the Ling family were only placed under watch and, overall, still treated with basic courtesy.

The head of the Ling family could not sleep, anxiously waiting until the latter half of the night, when Ling Ye was finally brought back by Holy Cas’s military.

“Xiao Ye, where did you go? What did you do? Where is the Speaker?”

The family head hurried forward.

Ling Ye still looked dazed. He lowered his head to glance at his hands—they had been washed clean, but they still felt stained with blood.

“Teacher… he died—”

Though he had sensed that something was wrong, hearing it so suddenly left the Ling family head stunned as well—this Speaker had been a fanatical supporter of the former emperor, yet he had also been highly capable, a cornerstone of the plan, someone who could steady their minds and guide them forward step by step.

He had been a towering shield standing before them against His Majesty Amos. Now that it had vanished, the sudden openness before them left the Ling family head momentarily at a loss.

Cheng Xuan was dead, other families had met tragic fates, several heads of houses executed, and those families’ future would be gradually dismantled.

Then what about them?

What would become of them?

“Teacher was not rebelling—he stood opposite His Majesty Amos, accepted the olive branch from the Hymn organization—he let me hit him on purpose—”

Ling Ye lifted his gaze to his father.

“Dad, he said—we would no longer be one.”

In an instant, the head of the Ling family understood what had happened. Looking at Ling Ye, his eyes filled with sudden sorrow.

“Xiao Ye, it wasn’t your fault. You just said it yourself—he didn’t dodge. We never truly understood what the Speaker was thinking. Ever since he realized the Crown Clan was nearing its end, he had never placed hope on the clan as a whole. He was an unwavering devotee of Emperor Clansis. Since Emperor Clansis left, he merely continued his existence.”

As for himself—he had most likely longed to leave lightly, to turn the next page of the book, and follow Emperor Clansis, and nothing could have changed his mind.

The Ling family head let out a heavy breath, reaching out to embrace his child.

All their previous wavering stances now had an answer—Cheng Xuan had not dodged and had let Ling Ye take action, and the pressure laid on Ling Ye gave them a justified way to completely step away.

He could not help but curse Cheng Xuan inwardly, lowering his head as his eyes grew damp—not knowing whether it was anger or gratitude for leaving them a path.

That fox had been calculating until the end—lightly dragging everyone into his scheme without a word.

Then dusting off his hands, regardless of curses or consequences, and simply following Emperor Clansis.

Even in death he had been an excellent politician, but as a person, he had not changed—stubborn, self-centered, truly a complete—scoundrel.

*

On the night after National Day, lights remained bright across the entire Holy Cas Empire until late into the night.

Not only were the military forces dealing with the involved families, but countless awakened residents were glued to the star-net, unable to sleep, frantically refreshing updates.

From Cheng Xuan’s betrayal to his death and the exposure of the Hymn organization’s leadership, Holy Cas’s military moved too quickly, the Crown Clan acted too decisively. Everything exploded at once, leaving everyone stunned.

Inside the First Military Academy of Holy Cas.

Dormitory.

Though the lights were off, chaos had erupted when everything unfolded.

Zhao Huangmu and the others had been awakened.

Zhao Huangmu, still half-asleep, rolled off the top bunk—only to hear Peng Liang shout “holy shit” not far away.

Their dorm had the usual bed-above-desk setup; below were many weapon-energy components, certain energy stones glowing faintly in the dark.

“What happened?”

Barely awake, Zhao Huangmu showed no expression. His messy hair and youthful aura made him look up toward Peng Liang, who had climbed up.

From that moment on, none of them slept.

They kept thinking about what had happened afterward.

Eventually they just sat on the floor, forming a circle, watching the star-net.

Until updates stopped coming—Holy Cas’s pursuing warships seemed to have begun their return.

They truly had no idea what results had been achieved.

“Tonight sure has been chaotic,” Peng Liang sighed. “I wonder how the little prince is doing?”

“With His Majesty protecting him, the little prince will definitely be fine.”

Yun Songquan stared silently for a long time before dryly forcing out those words.

Zhao Huangmu rested his chin on his hand, eyes lowered toward the star-net.

Perhaps because it was so late, he had no intention of maintaining any disguise. When he didn’t smile, his face held no expression, no emotion—cold and quiet, like a breathing machine, eyes empty as though he were thinking of something far away.

It was too dark around them, so Peng Liang and Yun Songquan failed to notice his expression.

“Speaking of which—”

Peng Liang lifted his head.

“Beast, don’t you have the bloodline of a long-lived race? That soul clan that disappeared ages ago?”

Zhao Huangmu heard this and looked up, answering with an “oh.”

“I think so.”

“I heard the soul clan was a pretty brutal, irritable long-lived race, with no fixed homeland, terrifying spiritual power, capable of turning that power into dangerous monsters. Why don’t you show any signs of that? Though, the fact that you’re a beast does fit the species.”

Peng Liang rested his chin on his hand as well, eyeing Zhao Huangmu with curiosity about what might be different in a mixed-blood long-lived being.

“You were already two or three when you came to Holy Cas, right? It’s been seven or eight years.”

“I didn’t have those memories.”

Zhao Huangmu shifted position, from sitting cross-legged with his chin raised, to leaning back with his hand propped behind him.

His black hair swayed slightly. In that moment, as though he felt an emotion trying to surface, he instinctively produced a radiant smile.

“From the moment I had memories, I had been an orphan.”

Even his name had been pieced together by Holy Cas’s welfare agency, who had brought him here—

They liked the sun, thought the Crown Clan resembled the sun, and they admired and pursued them.

That had been Zhao Huangmu’s first impression of the Crown Clan, learned from Holy Cas residents—when he needed a name, the small Zhao Huangmu who didn’t know how to smile and only stared blankly simply asked several familiar staff members for their favorite characters, and carelessly combined them into himself.

No past, no memory, no feelings or emotions.

Everything had been an act for him—whether he smiled or cried, those were all reactions he had carefully studied and worked out as what he should do.

He himself, just like his name, had been pieced together.

There was a moment of silence.

“Uh—should I not have brought that up?”

Peng Liang scratched his head.

“Sorry, there had just been too much happening tonight, my brain really was not very clear.”

Yun Songquan quietly shifted the topic away by the side.

“We still have training tomorrow morning, you going to be okay?”

“Hey, who are you looking down on! I’m telling you, it’s only because we weren’t qualified for the league yet—otherwise, for those championships that lasted several days and nights, I’d definitely have a share!”

Zhao Huangmu laughed along, joking and bantering with his companions as they turned the page on all of this.

He gradually, step by step, blended himself into the Holy Cas Empire.

Thinking this, Zhao Huangmu could not help staring blankly at the star-net again, looking at little Chu Zao’s photo—

But sure enough.

At times like that, the feeling it gave him—Zhao Huangmu’s sensitivity to mental power was different from that of the Crown Clan.

So cute—

He was Zao Zao-obsessed.

Zhao Huangmu reached out and saved the picture, thinking in satisfaction.

At the same time.

The quickly hiding Hymn organization had already confirmed the news of Kindness’s death.

And in the last moments of some believers’ deaths, they had also obtained a bit of information.

The “divine” power Kindness had received had flaws.

“Did we overlook something?”

“We should be even more cautious—more thorough—of course, that wasn’t the most important thing right now—”

“Kindness’s death had warned us, colleagues, for the sake of the great sacrament, regarding that little Crown Clan member, we should use every possible means to dispose of him.”

*

Holy Cas’s warship was on its way back.

Lien and Anya were taking care of the aftermath behind them.

In a little while, the sky over Holy Cas would be getting light.

Little Chu Zao really could not keep his eyes open.

Cradled in Amos’s arms, warm and cozy, the little cub had not even had time to change back before he started to doze off like this.

By the time they reached the ship’s rest cabin—

“Zao Zao, wash up and go to bed.”

Amos woke little Chu Zao.

He gave the little one a simple wash.

During the washing, the cub’s hazy big eyes kept staring at the soft sofa over there.

It looked just like a cloud, as if he could easily sink into it.

So, with drowsiness washing over him, already sleepy and hazy, the little white ball pattered toward the sofa; halfway there, the small wings on his back started to flap, and the whole cub suddenly lifted off into the air and biu—crashed into the soft cloud-like sofa.

His small body sank in, leaving only his back legs and little dragon tail sticking out.

Then those back legs kicked a couple of times and slipped in as well. Little Chu Zao curled up, turned a circle, rested his chin on his own little dragon tail, and let out a very soft awooo.

Baba—Baba should sleep too.

He had already pounced in, but he was still thinking about Amos, so his big eyes stayed half-open, half-closed, unwilling to just fall asleep like that.

The little halo above his head had already dimmed, but he still kept looking at Amos like this.

Amos walked over to the sofa.

He rummaged in his storage pouch.

From the cub’s ghost bear to all kinds of toys the little one had collected afterward, he set them by the little guy’s side.

“Baba still had some things to take care of. Zao Zao, sleep first.”

Throughout this, Amos kept his right hand tucked in his pocket.

He watched as little Chu Zao slowly changed back, his small body clinging to the ghost bear, yawning as he reached out to touch the little pouch Amos had put there—the pouch that contained everything he had collected.

He answered softly and sleepily.

Amos stood up and went out.

And the little cub pawed around in the pile of toys for a long time. He had forced himself to stay awake just now, still wanting to wait for Amos to come back. Because of what had just happened, the little guy was not quite at ease about Amos; he wanted to check Baba’s crown again properly.

Suddenly he discovered something. His big eyes blinked, and the little cub sat up hugging a photo box that felt quite nice to the touch.

Eh? This thing—

Inside the warship’s conference room.

Amos stood together with Feiman and Feeney.

Amos was explaining what he had encountered.

Feiman looked up. “So—in other words, the Angel’s Realm definitely existed, right?”

“No, to be precise, we could find the Angel’s Realm,” Feeney leaned against the wall, his doll-like face smiling but a bit shadowed. “Starting from the Hymn organization’s side—oh, put that way it did make some sense. Angels, seven virtues—it was really strange, how had we never heard there was such a place?”

“It wasn’t just the Hymn organization. In the previous polluted zones, our teams had been exploring the path bit by bit. With our current technology, polluted zones were accessible. Maybe in a few months, maybe in a few years, we would find a route connecting to other places in the stars. For all we knew, that so-called Angel’s Realm might be hidden inside.”

Feiman spoke as well.

Her expression grew slightly overcast in that instant.

“A starfield split apart by contamination—”

She narrowed her eyes, thinking of her lingering nightmare.

Amos and Feeney looked over together.

They knew what Feiman had remembered—the First Army Group of Holy Cas.

That designation that had never again appeared in the Holy Cas military structure.

The First Army Group of Holy Cas had once been their grandfather’s personal command. A long, long time ago, before the contamination grew so severe, it had protected the migration of most of Holy Cas’s planets. In the end, together with their grandfather and the entire First Army Group, it had vanished within the contamination, crowns shattered.

Back then Feiman had still been young and tender; she had been very close to her grandfather and had originally been meant to take over his army. That operation had also been her first mission upon coming of age—later, it became the nightmare she could never dispel.

The designation of the First Army Group of Holy Cas had thus been permanently preserved within the unknown contamination.

For a moment, the surroundings fell quiet.

Thinking of those events, they all could not help feeling a bit dazed.

It had been too long; all of that had truly happened far too long ago.

“All right.”

Amos spoke.

“Let’s wait until we’re back. There were still many things to deal with. Didn’t Anya say he had intercepted a Holy Grail Clan starship? There were problems over there as well.”

All kinds of matters had piled up together and erupted at once.

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to the medical bay.”

Amos said it very calmly.

“We’ve finished saying everything that needed to be said. Second Brother, you should go sooner rather than later.”

A sudden smile spread over Feeney’s previously blank face. He shrugged.

“Careful, or Zao Zao will find out.”

Feiman nodded as well, but she instinctively glanced toward the door and paused.

Feiman and Feeney had already smelled the blood on Amos earlier.

Seeing Amos keep his right hand in his pocket, they realized in an instant what the situation was.

When Amos had forced his mental long sword straight through to pin it at the opponent’s head, his arm had been torn, costing him some accuracy and keeping him from striking exactly where he had wanted.

That bit of pain and scarring was nothing to Amos.

But there was still Zao Zao.

As a father—Amos had always tried to give little Chu Zao complete safety.

Hearing this, he glanced at Feeney.

“Don’t talk nonsense to Zao Zao.”

“Baba, what were you not allowed to tell Zao Zao?”

Obviously, it was a bit late. Feiman exchanged a helpless look with Amos—she had noticed, but she couldn’t very well say it directly.

The soft, milky little voice came from the doorway—

Amos paused, then turned toward the door.

It was not that Amos had not sensed him—he was simply too familiar with his own cub’s aura. During the burst of his mental power, he had subconsciously avoided the little one. So now, slightly relaxed and with his younger siblings around, he had not been as alert—and got caught by the little cub.

Little Chu Zao stood in the doorway, hugging the ghost bear in his arms and holding a box Amos found somewhat familiar but did not immediately place. Very quickly, though, Amos had no time to care about that, because his cub was staring at him, cheeks puffed out, eyes brimming with tears that were about to spill over.

The Crown Clan, cold and brutal just moments before: …

Instantly, they were at a total loss.

Wait, hold on—

“Second Brother, hurry to the medical bay!!!”

The group rushed to the medical room.

Amos’s hand injury looked alarming, but it healed quickly.

It was only superficial damage, so Amos himself had not cared at all.

At this moment, Amos lowered his head as he endured his little cub’s endless scolding. The little one was no longer sleepy, acting like a tiny overseer, hugging his ghost bear and toys while staring fixedly at Amos’s recovering wound.

“Zao Zao knew that when hurt, you should say it quickly and treat it quickly.”

Little Chu Zao stared at Amos in a soft, tender voice.

“Yes…” His Majesty Amos, caught red-handed by the little prince, answered with a dry voice, “Baba was wrong.”

Only then did little Chu Zao nod.

Never mind Lien—any Crown Clan member would be completely suppressed by this little one.

Feeney laughed from the side.

“See? Just a little thing, and you still weren’t careful. Got hurt, too. Third Uncle and Zao Zao should scold your dad together. He never watches out for himself.”

Feeney truly lived up to his name—adding fuel to the fire effortlessly, while also smoothing the mood.

“Isn’t that right, Zao Zao?”

The little cub stood there, looking up. He was so tiny he had to cling to the edge of the medical pod and stand on tiptoe. Hearing this, he looked at Feeney, opened his mouth as if wanting to say something to defend Baba, but after thinking for a long moment, he did not know what to say. He lowered his gaze and looked at the box in his arms.

Feeney also noticed that the little one was holding something different from usual.

“Oh? Is that a gift for Second Brother?”

“Nope.”

Little Chu Zao shook his small head.

Looking at Feeney, he lifted the box high with his little hands.

“Third Uncle, do you want to see?”

“For—for me?”

Feeney froze.

Not giving it to Amos but giving it to him?

Feiman also looked over in confusion—what? Had Amos’s ranking in Zao Zao’s heart dropped?

Feeney crouched down, wanting to see what the little guy was doing.

And at that moment, Amos belatedly remembered what that box was.

—Wasn’t that the jump-scare photo box the cub had taken from a civilian starship back during the former Boer Alliance incident?

Sure enough—

Feeney was originally trying to look inside the box, but in the next second, little Chu Zao, wanting to ensure Feeney got the best possible viewing experience, decisively shoved the picture right into Feeney’s face, his big eyes blinking earnestly.

Feeney, struck without warning: …blank-face.jpg

Ah…

Ah…?

AH!!!!!