Cub 095: Moving Toward the Weakest (Most Crown Clan) Area

Kaman thought it over and finally gave an objective assessment: “Crazy, but reasonable.”

“That being said—” Frey looked around, “Feeney’s not here yet, is he?”

“Isn’t it normal for Feeney to show up a day or two late for anything?”

Meilun chimed in again.

“Who knows where he’s off running to all the time.”

Someone even chuckled.

A group of Crown Clan members secretly watched their little cub’s training up close.

There was that complicated feeling of finally seeing their own little one slowly growing up.

Meanwhile, over on Little Chu Zao’s side, their team’s score had already gone up.

They were following the map, looking for suitable places to spend the night, or spots where beast creatures might be hiding.

Unlike the tense atmosphere of those around them, the whole squad—including Little Chu Zao—was quite relaxed, probably because they’d already gone through plenty of real combat before.

But along the way, they hadn’t found any beast creatures worth serious training.

It was said there weren’t many beast squad leaders.

Mainly, they were afraid other students wouldn’t be able to cope.

And the surrounding teams had somewhat different opinions.

As for the cub here.

One after another, kids just followed Little Chu Zao; some even went along blindly, letting him hold the map upside down and not caring.

Especially Chao Huangmu, who was dying to tell the world that whatever Little Chu Zao said was right.

“But the rules say we can steal beast creatures, right?”

Peng Liang looked at the rules again.

Though the planet was big enough, and plenty of backup teams were present, with the live broadcast running, Holy Cas placed great importance on this training—even so, their team had run into quite a few students already.

Almost all of them had run into their first beast upon arrival, still locked in combat.

They were a bit embarrassed to step in.

“Should be allowed,” Yun Songquan said when he got a moment.

He glanced at Chao Huangmu, who was following right behind Little Chu Zao.

This brute was stepping on the little guy’s shadow; the cub flapped his wings, noticed, and insisted on stepping back on it. Chao Huangmu was happy to play along—the mood was light and cheerful.

“Your Highness, should we go for the points?”

Peng Liang asked, beckoning at Chao Huangmu.

“Ah Huang, get ready to snatch points.”

Strange, really.

Usually, Chao Huangmu was all about winning, always just edging them out; but with Little Chu Zao here, his focus was totally on him, and the urge to win seemed to have faded.

Yet as a little Crown Clan, hearing words like winning and scoring, Chu Zao’s wings immediately perked up. He looked over, his big eyes wide.

“Snatch points? How?”

Zao Zao wanted to win.

Although the tiny cub kept most things in the mini spatial pocket his parents gave him, he still wore a backpack. His wings poked out past the bag, the feathers fluffy and a bit messy.

Chao Huangmu, seeing the reaction, finally looked away from showing off his lucky stone of the day. He responded: “Just snatch them. Listen for any action.”

He grinned, lowering his head to meet Little Chu Zao’s gaze.

“First, negotiate with them. If they say no, just snatch ‘em.”

“After all, it’s all part of training.”

Chao Huangmu’s smile overflowed with eagerness to show off; behind him, even his imaginary “tail” seemed to be wagging wildly before Little Chu Zao.

“I can help train them, too.”

“That could work—Ah Huang, you stall them, we’ll cover for His Highness to grab points,” Peng Liang nodded approvingly.

Their strategy was to first use the tireless brute—Chao Huangmu—who always managed to outdo you by just a bit.

Yun Songquan: “Just be careful, don’t go too hard and get penalized. All we need is to control them. Besides firearms for beasts, they also issued us capture guns and specialty ammo—must be for situations like this. When the time comes, we sneak up from behind—”

When it came to mischief, none of them ran out of tricks.

Little Chu Zao was still the “honest” one—he blinked his big eyes, looked at the three, and poked his own little head.

Speaking of controlling and restraining—Little Chu Zao paused, then felt this was something he was quite good at.

And just then, not far off, two beast creatures happened to be together.

Holding one in check was a very familiar classmate.

A member of the special class.

Running into them this early in such a huge place—quite the coincidence.

But it all happened so fast that before Chu Zao’s squad could even put their plan into action, they’d already been spotted.

At age ten or so, this was the time for boundless energy and excitement—everything was fresh and thrilling.

That classmate saw Little Chu Zao from afar.

He dashed over like a shot—

“Hahaha, Your Highness! This must be fate!!”

He was the one in special class most known for speed; his psychic power was slightly different, able to boost his speed to the max—he’d even outpaced Chao Huangmu a few times before.

Before he even got close, Little Chu Zao raised a hand to greet him, soft and gentle.

Then the guy said, “But even if Your Highness is here, I won’t surrender! When it comes to speed, I lose to no one!”

Their squad hurried to take out one beast, then moved on to the other.

This guy kept running around within Little Chu Zao’s line of sight, coming near, going back to his own team, looping around them, all while making sure he and Chao Huangmu had room to dodge and escape.

Chao Huangmu readied himself—

Peng Liang and Yun Songquan did, too.

But Little Chu Zao got shaken up a few times. Looking at this cocky guy, he suddenly summoned his tiny bow and arrow, gripping it tight. Only a golden little arrow, not much string drawn—while the other was still off guard, Chu Zao raised it. The boy ran right into it.

Chao Huangmu paused, Peng Liang and Yun Songquan’s eyes went wide.

The arrow of emotionally skewsified psychic power instantly blended in.

The runner, startled into confusion and bolting back, froze for a second—just in time to see his teammate’s face.

He gave an unexpected bear hug.

“Oh, let’s sleep together tonight? Squeeze in one bed and tell each other stories, head to head, okay?”

His teammate, suddenly latched on to: ??????

What the?

Showboating’s gone mad—

Whoa, hold up!! Don’t kiss me!! Cheeks are off limits, this is a minors channel! This can’t be aired!!

“Relax, we’re just friends!”

He really was fast.

So fast no one could shake him off.

Chao Huangmu also moved fast. While the rest were tied up, he smoothly finished off the beast and secured the points.

Moments later, the kid who’d just been strutting around broke away in terror, leaping several meters.

“What was that? What just happened?”

His ‘disheveled’ teammate, dead-fish-eyed, stared back: “I was about to ask you.”

The other two teammates, shocked, huddled aside to “watch,” afraid of accidental hits.

In the end, they all turned to stare at Little Chu Zao, clutching his own Cupid’s Bow.

The cub paused. The tiny one spoke with him: “Zao Zao was going to warn you—if you kept that up I’d hit you, but you ran into it yourself.”

Which was true.

The little guy hadn’t even gotten a chance to react, the other hugged him first.

His speed really was something.

And the little one acknowledged it.

The little one usually never used his Cupid’s Bow without reason, so not many knew about his “love and peace” trick—including most of his classmates.

All they knew—same as any Holy Cas citizen online—was the dazzling black-flame arrows.

At this moment, the guy who just boasted about speed retreated in awe, daunted.

Love and peace???

What even is that??

You never said you had this move before the competition!!

“But it’s allowed, right?” Peng Liang judged.

“Yes. Special psychic powers are permitted,” replied Yun Songquan.

“So Your Highness will stay behind and fire arrows to control them; we go up and grab points,” Chao Huangmu said as he flicked blood from his hand.

Victims who still hadn’t left: …

Isn’t this a bit much?

The cub blinked: “Is this okay?”

Little Chu Zao gripped his tiny bow.

“Is it really okay? Is Zao Zao being too mean?”

“How could it not?!”

“Of course it is!”

“It’s in the rules! Anything can happen on the battlefield!”

Like how you might get randomly shot by a little “Cupid” wielding arrows of love and peace.

Little Chu Zao rubbed his face, hesitating just a bit.

You’re all rotten, huddling together—don’t teach the adorable little highness the wrong things!!! —the victims wanted to shout.

“Alright.”

But soon, the little one looked up, and seriously clenched his fist.

“Zao Zao will control his strength. We’re going for first place!”

Victims: … Oh no, run!

So from then on, the cub especially talented in manipulation and control went completely unleashed.

Wherever he went, forget stealing points, those who knew the details fled like crazy.

The cub, torn between guilt and delight, watched his score skyrocket, then hunted for the next target.

Compared to beast creatures—the little one seemed even scarier.

Holy Cas folks were stupefied.

‘So—what was that?’

‘That’s love and peace! His Highness is spreading love and peace everywhere—he’s really a peace ambassador!’

‘Seriously? A peace ambassador, hahaha—’

‘Never thought love and peace could feel like this? How can he be so strong and cute? I’m going insane, hail Love Gate!’

‘The instructors are stunned too. I bet the Ninth Army staff know all about His Highness’s power. Each one runs for dear life when they spot him, hahaha—’

‘Same for the instructors—any that run into His Highness instantly turn and bolt—’

‘Instructors: Are you the devil? Hahaha.’

‘Clearly the little devil of love and peace!’

‘Love Gate!!’

The secretly-following parents also went silent.

They’d all more or less overlooked Little Chu Zao’s “love and peace” power before, and all paid for it with “social death.”

“Amos, you sure Zao Zao won’t get addicted to this?”

Meilun shivered.

He was clearly recalling the love-hate of Kaman for him; thinking about it still left him not okay.

Amos also fell silent, watching the rapidly-moving cub, little wings flapping furiously in excitement—this was hard to say.

What this little one would grow up to be like was really impossible to tell.

*

With the “enemy force” Little Chu Zao involved, an already chaotic battlefield got even more chaotic.

At night, few rested. They were either teaming up to score on beast creatures, or desperately fleeing regions where Little Chu Zao was present.

It was already the second day.

Looking at the pollution outside—

“So—” Feeney was at peace, turning to ask, “Where are we?”

Where had he ended up this time?

Buddy, it’s been a whole day!

He said he was coming to watch the cub’s training, to check the kid’s growth, but the training was almost over and he still hadn’t arrived!!

“Here’s the thing, Your Highness—”

The adjutant was sweating cold bullets.

But they were used to everything by now, all workflow ultra-smooth.

“It’s because we were moving separately from His Majesty’s group, and had other patrol targets along the way. At our third target, we seemed to have hit a spatial micro-burst, throwing us a bit off course, plus interference with our nav system, increasing the margin of error.”

Bad news: they’d encountered a spatial micro-burst, which threw their guidance off in subtle but crucial ways, causing huge error.

Good news: it was just a margin of error; north, south, east, and west were still right.

The adjutant double-checked the main direction was correct and quickly re-corrected the coordinates—they only realized their destination was wrong after arriving at a non-target location.

“Your Highness, the chance of hitting a spatial micro-burst is one in ten thousand.”

He smiled.

Wasn’t this luck in a way?

He’d already resigned himself.

Every department was doing its best, but always, always, something went wrong somewhere. It wasn’t really their fault, was it? Surely they couldn’t be blamed?

Of course not!!!

The adjutant looked at Feeney’s baby face—so dark with shifting moods—that he almost laughed out loud, teetering between speechless and breakdown.

“Oh.”

Feeney gave a little laugh.

He looked at the adjutant.

He couldn’t understand.

“Is it you who’s crazy or me? Why do we always run into this kinda thing whenever we leave the house?”

Feeney just couldn’t figure it out.

Why, why did something always happen every single time?

Was it impossible for him to ever reach his destination safely?

Feeney gnawed his nails; this trip had been smooth till now, but apparently, this was waiting for him here.

He looked at his adjutant’s glance.

Feeney: …

“Don’t look at me. You think you’re any better, huh?!”

Ha, I really am a genius.

If nothing else went wrong—

Feeney mused.

“Report—”

Here it comes.

Right then, as Feeney figured something had to happen, a fleet crew member came rushing to report.

“During a complete rescan and search just now, we stumbled upon a fleet with no markings. We’ve already issued a contact order, but received no reply. Your Highness, the fleet is at a distance from us—should we pursue to check?”

Mainly, that area was polluted; usually, no normal fleet would approach there.

But extremist groups like the Hymn Organization used their technology to operate or travel at the fringes, and were strictly monitored.

Feeney raised his eyebrow.

“Follow, find out, how many ships? Scatter and quickly tag them—assign a shadow for each on our ships, don’t let them out of sight.”

With Feeney’s years of experience, something like this was always fishy. Don’t bother about anything else—track first, talk later.

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Meanwhile—

For once, two major heads of the Hymn Organization had converged in a fleet skirting the polluted zone.

“This time, the God’s Gifted Stones grant us even greater strength. We must break the barriers that have long blocked divine power from entering our world, and let a new world order descend, giving us a brand new, fair world.”

“You’re right. Only God’s descent can fix everything—those fools have no idea.”

“Let’s move on. Test subject Xi should already have reached the zone. We need to track his progress; if necessary, his sacrifice is a price to be paid.”

“It’s just a test subject.”

Their two fleets advanced side by side; all the followers piloted identical small ships.

To some extent, they were careful and well hidden.

They weren’t even on the same physical ship, only communicating through virtual channels.

But trouble struck so suddenly.

An alarm blared.

“What is it??”

“Are we locked on?”

“Yes, we intercepted a message from a distant fleet, but couldn’t ID which nation or planet it’s from, so ignored them, assuming by logic and intel, they couldn’t possibly lock on to us. But—sir—just now, we found it’s probably a Holy Cas convoy!”

“What???”

“How could it be Holy Cas? They’re supposed to be on the other marked area!”

“But only Holy Cas can pull off this kind of tech. And they’re speeding straight for us, sir—what do we do?”

Feeney showing up here, in such an unexpected spot, really shocked the self-assured Hymn Organization.

The two heads, carrying the troves of God’s Gifted Stones entrusted by Chastity, thought this operation would surely shake the interstellar balance.

Even had the Crown Clan shown up, they had no fear.

But no one said the Crown Clan would actually show up!!

Even if they acted fearless, upon hearing “Holy Cas” their instincts shivered.

“No time to think!”

One quickly replied.

“If they’re closing fast, eighty to ninety percent it’s Holy Cas Army. They’re all madmen, irreligious, and if they’re this reckless, the Crown Clan must be involved. For the sake of our Holy Rite, we must split and move—complete the mission.”

“You’re right, scatter! Draw their focus away!”

Another issued the order.

“Cover the flagship. If anything happens—colleagues, we attack Holy Cas’s weakest point—finish off that little Crown Clan!”

That coordinate appeared on the ship’s screen.

“That little Crownling’s protection is thin—he hasn’t matured. This is the last chance—use God’s Gifted Stones, achieve greatness, and we will—gain supreme honor!”

In the rear of Holy Cas’s Ninth Army—aboard starships, a cluster of parents quietly watched their little cub scamper around with a bow across the battlefield.

By the end, Little Chu Zao’s team score had hit terrifying heights.

Because of the cub’s participation, the battlefield became a wild card, giving originally methodical classmates extra practice—at least speeding up their reactions: you might not avoid His Highness, but as long as you dodged sudden ambushes from teammates, that was enough!

The Crown Clan started blaming each other.

“It must be Feeney’s teaching—that guy’s always been a problem.”

“No no no, I still think it’s Second Brother’s genes.”

“Nothing to do with me!”

Right then, the cub, watching the clock, spotted the last squad of beast creatures.

And as luck would have it—right to the end, they happened to run into Teng Kelin’s squad.

The little one had been grabbing points red-eyed the whole way, wherever he went, beasts were gone and classmates fled.

Teng Kelin’s group hadn’t caught the latest updates.

They saw Little Chu Zao from afar.

Teng Kelin’s brows dropped, gritting his teeth.

“Everyone pull yourselves together—”

Let His Highness know, they weren’t weaklings!

At least, make His Highness remember them!

The cub’s three-person team reached them during a lull—having targeted this beast squad. The cub politely raised his little bow, voice sweet:

“Ni hao, we’re about to steal your points, thanks.”

Looking at his “arrowed” companion, Teng Kelin: ? You think just saying so means we’ll give them up? No way!

Chao Huangmu and the others, thinking about what was coming, couldn’t help but laugh: wonderful, truly wonderful.

Suffering “social death” themselves was scary, but when it was someone else’s—oh, how heartwarming—Love Gate!!!