After enduring Huo Li's sarcastic remarks for an entire afternoon, the black-haired youth finally snapped after hearing his latest statement! Without saying a word, the youth turned around and delivered a punch straight to Huo Li's jaw. Still smiling behind the mask, the punch caught Huo Li completely off guard. His body was knocked sideways, and he fell straight down with a series of teeth-gratingly unpleasant thuds. His wings flapped chaotically as he snapped several branches before disappearing into the dense tree canopy below.

Xiao Yi hovered mid-air, staring down at the forest in a daze momentarily. "Oh no, I forgot I'm an alien!"

The teenager waited for five minutes, but Huo Li still didn't reappear. Feeling a bit guilty, he glanced at the Guardians scattered throughout the forest and finally relaxed after seeing that they were all still working. (That punch might've been a bit much, but since the Guardians didn't collapse en masse, he's probably not dead. Serves him right for mocking me!)

With that, the black-haired youth flew away with peace of mind, leaving Huo Li, whose fate remained uncertain in the bushes.

Twenty minutes later, Huo Li finally managed to awkwardly morph his body into black threads. After repairing his fractured nasal bone, cheekbone, and upper jaw, as well as recovering from a severe concussion, he barely got back on his feet. He took a tube of strong adhesive from his system space and pieced together the silver mask that was shattered by Xiao Yi's punch. After securing the mask back onto his face, he flapped his wings and headed in the direction the youth had flown off.

The youth was busy with his tree-collecting work when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Huo Li's large, shaky black shadow flying toward him in the distance. He didn't bother to react and instead flew toward the next big tree tied with a red ribbon.

"Xiao Yi! Hear me out…" Huo Li's voice called out from far behind him. "I was trying to tell you earlier that there aren't any visible enemies around us now, so your Guardians don't have to pretend to be foolish anymore. I just controlled your Guardian to take revenge in a very cool way!"

Finally turning around, the youth raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What kind of revenge?"

.

In an uninhabited area four thousand kilometers away, the entire Gobi Desert shimmered silently under the moonlight like a sea of silver.

Two windows lit up the inside of an abandoned white building at an old ecological research base. Inside, a tall, skinny guy was frantically yelling at a middle-aged man who was missing an ear. "Douglas, what were you thinking? Didn't that 'person' say to be super careful? That 2d14 could be an alien! Do you even know what an alien is? And yet you went ahead and touched those three sacks with your bare hands!"

Douglas, visibly unconvinced, muttered under his breath, "Why does that 'person' always suspect the newbie? His Guardians are so weak. Last time, I smashed its brain to mush with a single ice spike! How could he possibly be an alien? And besides, these ones are all knocked out and frozen in ice. Could they really parasitize us through the ice?"

Hearing this, the tall, thin man's anger flared further. Pointing a finger at Douglas's nose, he yelled, "You've got some nerve! Do you know what a mess you caused last time? We were nearly exposed, and even that 'one' and a few other big shots had to step in to clean up after you! How could I have been so blind to introduce you to the group? Thanks to you, I can't even hold my head up in the organization anymore!"

Douglas was still a bit afraid of the tall man. After all, he had spent over a thousand years in the Salvation Alliance just to scrape together a measly one hundred million points. He couldn't even afford expensive medicines like age inhibitors or limb regeneration potions. Now that his physical age had reached 55, the required dosage of inhibitors was increasing exponentially. If things kept up like this, he wouldn't even make it another 500 years before aging to death.

Meanwhile, the other party was not even 800 years old but had already accumulated over five billion points, far surpassing his score. If the organization's plan succeeded, this individual would undoubtedly become one of the key figures surrounding 'that one,' someone he could not afford to offend. Suppressing his resentment, Douglas squinted his small eyes and forced a submissive smile.

"Nick! Look, I was only trying to help the organization. I heard that we needed to be cautious about 2d14, so I thought I'd test him out. Who'd have thought his Guardian was so useless? I killed one with just one shot…"

Under Nick's murderous glare, Douglas swallowed his words and obediently moved toward the bags. Following orders, he quickly donned some protective gear, grabbed the three heavy bags, and dragged them into the next room.

"Alright, alright. Nick, take a break here. I'll move them to the lab and get them set up. I swear I won't mess around!" Douglas assured as he dragged the heavy bags out of sight and disappeared around the corridor.

Douglas constantly cursed Nick and the main system under his breath as he retrieved three transparent experimental capsules from his system space. He lifted the frozen Guardian from the bag and placed it inside. After tapping the control panel a couple of times, the capsule sealed shut, encasing the icy sculpture within. He then moved the second bag toward another capsule...

Next door, Nick had taken out another smart brain and was preparing to communicate with the organization. He intended to report that the plan had reached its initial success and that the frozen Guardians would be dissected and examined in the coming days to determine if they contained any alien genes.

However, Nick felt inexplicably uneasy. Halfway through drafting his message, he frowned, set the smart brain aside, and decided to check on that idiot Douglas's progress. Better safe than sorry—what if an alien really had managed to infest them? As Nick headed for the door, a sudden sound interrupted him—a light tapping on the windowpane, like small stones hitting the glass.

Startled, Nick turned his head. His gold-based ability immediately activated, forming a short dagger that hovered at his side. Step by step, he cautiously approached the window.

For dozens of miles around, the desolate Gobi Desert stretched out, bathed in moonlight. What was at the window? Nick could vaguely see a dark silhouette hovering outside, motionless, with its back turned so its face couldn't be seen.

When Nick was just half a meter away from the window, he suddenly conjured five glinting daggers with his gold-based ability and hurled them at the shadow! But they struck nothing but air. The shadow had already vanished. Nick stepped closer, pressing his face against the glass to peer outside, but all he saw was the moonlit desert.

Cold sweat broke out across his body. What was going on? As Nick leaned in closer to the window, a pale face suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass, staring directly at him. It was as though an invisible hand had clamped down on his throat, and his scream was stifled by overwhelming terror. For a second or two, Nick stood frozen, his gaze locked on the face as it slowly twisted into a chilling smile.

In the adjacent room, Douglas had just finished placing the second frozen Guardian into an experimental capsule when he faintly heard a short, sharp scream from the other room. He shivered and perked up his ears to listen more closely, but the room fell deadly silent. The sound had been so brief it felt like a hallucination.

"Nick, is that you?" Douglas called out loudly. But his companion might as well have gone deaf—there was no response at all.

"Damn it!" Douglas cursed. "What the hell is Nick doing now?"

Glancing at the frozen black-haired Guardian in the ice block, Douglas felt a chill run down his spine. He hastily tapped the control panel a couple of times, waiting for the reinforced glass cover of the experimental capsule to fully close before letting out a sigh of relief. Then, he hurried to the next room.

"Nick, say something, damn it!" Douglas shouted as he entered the room, only to freeze and then tremble as he looked at the scene before him. Moments ago, Nick had been alive and kicking, but now he was slumped against the side of the experimental table. His eyes were wide open, filled with terror and disbelief. Sticking out of his neck was a dagger Douglas recognized all too well—it was one of Nick's signature gold ability weapons.

The other end of the dagger was gripped by Nick's right hand as if he had stabbed himself in the neck. Blood dripped steadily from his wound, soaking his clothes and the wooden table, pooling into a crimson stream on the pristine white floor.

Barely suppressing his trembling, Douglas followed the direction of Nick's terrified, lifeless gaze to the window. A dark shadow hovered silently outside the glass, watching Douglas intently—how long it had been there, he didn't know.

A chill swept over Douglas, his hair standing on end. He took a stiff step back, only to bump into something. Before he could react, an icy hand rested on his shoulder...

.

Four thousand kilometers away, Huo Li excitedly recounted his clever act of revenge using Xiao Yi's Guardian. In summary, the third Guardian from the bags transformed into black threads, breaking free from the ice and slipping through a gap in the bag. It extended outside the window, taking care of Nick in the adjacent room, then circling around to Douglas and knocking him unconscious from behind.

The black-haired youth stared at Huo Li, whose face was covered by a silver mask crudely glued back together in three segments. Even through the fractured mask, the 'please praise me' expression on Huo Li's face radiated.

Black-haired youth, "Are you sure that was cool? It sounded more like a ghost story to me."

Huo Li: "..."

The youth sighed. "Forget it. I'll go check on those traitors myself. I'll create another replica of this body and transfer my consciousness into it. You control this main body linked to 2d14 and the system space and keep harvesting the trees."

Still reluctant, Huo Li explained, "Xiao Yi, you have to admit, my revenge was pretty cool. The Guardian first demonstrated your incredible speed, making it completely undetectable. Then it used a brick to return the favor to knock out Douglas…"

The youth raised an eyebrow.

Huo Li immediately backed down. "Fine."

Xiao Yi pulled out another black-haired body from his system space and muttered softly, "This one's eyes are slightly gray, so it's still slightly different from the real me." He extended black threads, linking them to the replica, and transferred his consciousness into it.

Finally, at Huo Li's insistence, Xiao Yi created another Guardian resembling Huo Li, complete with a silver mask. Together with the main Xiao Yi body, they formed a duo of decoys, both controlled by Huo Li to continue working. Meanwhile, Huo Li and the black-haired, gray-eyed youth teleported directly to the small white building in the desert.

"Look! Look!" The black-haired youth pointed at the two traitors—one lying on the ground and the other slumped against the desk. "Do you think those expressions on their faces look like awe and respect for a Guardian? Come on, they're obviously about to piss themselves!"

Huo Li, who already removed his broken mask, avoided acknowledging the fact that his revenge had turned into a ghost story. Instead, he pretended to be intrigued as he leaned over the half-written message on the terminal. He quickly typed something and sent it.

"In a few minutes, the traitors' side will send over some tech personnel to take custody of the 'three alien bodies.' When that happens, we'll get more information from their minds."

"This time, I don't need you to dig through their memories," the black-haired youth said smugly. "Anything you can do, I can handle too!"

Five minutes later, a groggy Douglas woke up. Blurry images flashed through his mind—Nick's lifeless body with its eyes wide open, the icy hand on his shoulder… all of it replayed like a nightmare.

Startled, Douglas jolted up, only to feel a strong force holding him down, preventing him from moving. Frantically looking around, he was shocked to see Nick, who had supposedly 'died,' now tied to a chair with his hands bound behind his back. His eyes appeared to plead as though trying to say something. Even more surprising, three other ability users from their organization were tied up next to Nick!

"Alright," 2d14, standing before them, said calmly. "Now that everyone's awake, let me introduce myself: I'm an alien, and this guy here…" 2d14 gestured to a very familiar figure beside him. "…is Huo Li. I've got a few questions I need you all to answer."

The black-haired youth began, "Number one: Why did you betray the Salvation Alliance and humanity?"

"Hah! Why should we tell you?" Nick sneered, apparently still defiant despite his predicament. He then turned to Huo Li and said, "Huo Li, you're a fugitive wanted across the galaxy on a top-level warrant, yet you dare show your face openly on Earth! The entire Interstellar Federation is under our control. The moment you're discovered, there'll be nowhere left for you to run!"

The black-haired youth rubbed his nose, remaining silent.

Another ability user, emboldened by Nick's outburst, grew arrogant as well. "Huo Li, isn't mind control one of your powers? You should be able to invade human thoughts, right? Why not take a look at what I'm thinking? Do you really need to interrogate us one by one?"

This burly ability user had clearly fallen for the centuries of misinformation about Huo Li's powers, completely unaware that Huo Li could actually read anyone's memories.

The black-haired youth, who had been tolerant of Nick's earlier provocation, suddenly grew furious when the bearded man mentioned Huo Li's strengths in a crooked way. With a slight lift of his hand, his right arm shot out, expanding into black threads that instantly obliterated the man's head. Effortlessly, the threads peeled open the man's skull and wrapped around his brain.

Turning to the remaining captives, now trembling and on the verge of tears, the black-haired youth said coldly, "Didn't you hear my first sentence? I'm an alien."

Even Nick couldn't stop himself from shaking, lowering his head in an attempt to avoid meeting the youth's gaze.

The youth continued, "So it's not just Huo Li who can read minds—I can do it too."

A dreadful silence spread among the group, and for several minutes, the black-haired youth said nothing as his expression grew colder and more severe. Beside him, Huo Li remained silent, fully ceding the stage to Xiao Yi.

Just as the terror of the four ability users reached its peak...

The youth chuckled awkwardly and admitted, "It turns out my speed at extracting brain data through black threads is slower than I thought. Let's not waste time—just go ahead and confess!"