Inside the room, the gaze the man and woman directed at Zhu Jiaming held deep reverence alongside their joyful surprise.
Only the little girl, tearful in her mother's arms, looked from one person to the other, her expression blank and bewildered.
Holding the child, the woman stepped aside against the wall.
Standing across from them, the man bowed slightly with his head lowered, made an antique gesture, and offered a greeting in respectful, agitated tones: "Young Master."
Young Master? From the sound of it, that really was how things were?! Standing at the doorway, He Tangtang squinted and leaned back, eyeing the Little Prince's habitually wretched back.
*At first glance, he actually seems a little different now!* He Tangtang marveled silently.
"Yeah." Zhu Jiaming acknowledged the title with a nod, then paused, a wry smile curling the corner of his mouth as he spoke. "For the last time. And remember this, A Sheng: from this day forward, there is no more Young Master, no more master clan. You must live for yourself, live for your wife and child."
Across from him, the man's eyes widened in shock. He looked up, his expression uncomprehending and alarmed.
Zhu Jiaming did not give him the chance to voice his questions. Continuing in a gentle voice, he said, "Over all these decades, exhausting your mind and energy, never knowing peace day or night, it has been hard on your family... hard on both of you."
Having said that, with a trace of guilt in his eyes, he looked in turn at the man, the woman, and the child.
"It wasn't hard. Aside from guarding this place, we didn't manage to gather much information. On the contrary, over these past twenty-odd years, with the Young Master being out there, you were the one who had it truly hard..." the man said.
"I said, there is no Young Master anymore."
Zhu Jiaming cut him off in a low voice. Then, with a flick of his wrist—making no effort to hide it from He Tangtang—he tossed the man a Tenth-Generation apparatus and five source energy blocks.
"Wear the apparatus underneath your clothes. Be careful not to let anyone see it. Unless absolutely necessary, it's best not to use it at all," he instructed.
"Understood. Thank..." Cradling the apparatus in both hands, the man looked at Zhu Jiaming, forcing himself to swallow the words *Young Master*.
Turning around, Zhu Jiaming looked at the little girl in the woman's arms and reached out. "Let Uncle give you a hug... Her name is Nini, right? Ever since I heard she was born, up until now, I haven't held her once."
"Young... It has been hard outside, thank..." In the end, the woman could not finish her sentence. Instead, she whispered a few words into her daughter's ear and held her out with both hands.
The Little Prince received the girl in his arms, held her—truly just for a brief moment—rubbed her little head, and fastened a longevity lock around her neck, one that seemed to have been prepared long ago, murmuring, "May you live to a hundred years."
Then he handed the child back to the woman. As he turned away, he continued, "Time is tight, so I won't say anything superfluous. Go. Take your wife and daughter away from here. Wherever you end up, however you make a living, fight like hell to live a good life."
Having finished speaking, the Little Prince stepped aside to clear the way.
The man froze for several seconds. "...Yes, sir."
From the tearful look in the man's eyes, He Tangtang could tell he desperately wanted to ask about something—like where Zhu Jiaming was heading, or perhaps questions regarding the bones.
Yet in the end, he chose his customary obedience.
Putting on the apparatus and gathering his things, the man gave a deep bow... then lowered his head and led his wife and daughter out of the old shop.
Turning around to close the door,
He Tangtang waited.
The Little Prince glanced at him, silently picked up a large slotted ladle from the side, walked over to that pot of aged broth, and plunged the ladle into it.
"...Holy shit!"
"Damn it all, Zhu Jiaming, you really used Qingzi's bones to make soup and drink it? And simmered them for decades at that... Are those things still good?"
He Tangtang exclaimed in exaggerated, worried tones.
"Heh, what, I like drinking dragon bone soup, is that a crime? I wanted to toss his whole body in and boil him!"
As Zhu Jiaming spoke, he looked down, picked out a bone from the heap resting in the ladle, wiped it on a cloth, saw its luster unchanged, stowed it away, and went on.
All five Bones of Eternal Life were soon retrieved. Zhu Jiaming extinguished the fire beneath the pot that had burned continuously for several decades.
The two went out the door.
The two soldiers waiting out on the street jogged over.
The group of four walked down the street with lowered heads, immersed in silence.
Scattered citizens undergoing evacuation hurried past not far from them. Further off, over a dozen combat squads from the Sole Witness Legion occupied open grounds and critical choke points, guarding the evacuating civilians.
"Hey, have you noticed that the fighting here in Yuzhou seems to be going pretty well? The civilian evacuation is relatively calm and orderly, too," the Little Prince remarked, glancing around.
"Yeah," one of the nearby soldiers replied. "While you were inside just now, we asked around nearby... The Legion Commander is here."
"No wonder," the Little Prince muttered, nodding.
"Word is he arrived in the early morning hours. A Red Shoulder descended right around then, and the Legion Commander happened to arrive on the scene and stepped in. In full view of the public, he cut down that Red Shoulder in just two strikes," the other soldier said, his eyes glowing with excitement.
"Two strikes, are you sure?" He Tangtang asked, suddenly turning a bit tense.
"Ah, it should be accurate," the soldier replied.
"That's good, then." He Tangtang let out a breath of relief. "As long as it took two strikes, that's fine."
The old man had fought, slaying a Red Shoulder in two strikes... Two strikes was far better than one.
***
In Linzhou, because it was only caught in the ripple effects from Shenghai, not that many Great Spikes had touched down yet, so the city's overall situation was still relatively good, and the civilian evacuation efforts were comparatively calm and orderly.
Along the long, straight streets, crowds laden with luggage stretched into long lines, moving into the distance amid the clamor with tears in their eyes.
Flanking them on both sides stood rows of towering buildings.
A reporter with a cameraman moved in the opposite direction along the evacuation column, filming the scene as they went. For Azure, these images were footage that had to be presented to the public now; since Azure's own reporters couldn't make it in time, a reporter from the Linzhou Television Station had volunteered to shoulder the task.
*Rumble—* Suddenly, a rolling roar echoed from above the high-rises overhead, sweeping in from the far end of the street.
The reporter looked up into the distance, and the camera tilted up to follow.
In an instant, everyone along the entire street instinctively looked up. A collective gasp rippled through the crowd!
In the air—*whoosh!*
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...*
A small human craft, of a type once introduced on television, shot past first like a shadow. Then, less than two seconds behind it, about a dozen Great Spike craft swept past in hot pursuit, riding right on its tail.
At speeds defying common sense, the human craft plummeted and pulled up repeatedly in the sky, executing all kinds of weirdly angled, illogical turns...
The Great Spike craft likewise plunged, pulled up, and turned. Naturally, this threw their formation into slight disarray, allowing the human craft to open up a bit of distance.
Yet that tiny lead was quickly erased.
The situation was worse than expected. Han Qingyu, who wasn't wearing a flight suit at the moment, suddenly felt a wave of nausea. It was hard to imagine that he, a super combat power who frequently flew around on his own, could actually feel like vomiting today just from riding in a craft.
Forced to activate his apparatus, Han Qingyu adjusted the angle of his periscope viewer, took a look, and remarked, "It seems the gap in absolute speed really isn't small..."
Under these circumstances, even maintaining their intended heading was difficult, let alone decelerating and bringing the ship to a stop. Han Qingyu wanted to discuss a plan with Yang Qingbai.
"Shut up," Yang Qingbai snapped, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead. Pouring all his concentration into the ship's control stick, he executed yet another bizarre turn to evade a collision before softening his tone slightly: "Don't talk."
"All right." Though anxious, Han Qingyu obediently nodded and kept his mouth shut.
He wasn't an expert at this; he had to listen to Yang Qingbai.
And so, after looping around in another circle, the human craft swept past the long street lined with tall buildings once more, reappearing in the crowd's view...
Behind it, a swarm of Great Spike craft still tailed close, looking like a train running through the sky.
Only, that train seemed to have grown slightly longer than before.
"What did you want to say earlier?"
This time, Yang Qingbai initiated the conversation. "Did you see those two craft glowing with blue light on their underside? Those types seem faster. I can't shake them in the short term, and the situation with Plague Chicken and the others is urgent. Do you have any suggestions?"
"Yeah, I do."
Han Qingyu lifted his head from the periscope viewer, took a deep breath, and leaned back against his seat. "See those tall buildings along the street? Pull into a straight line and eject me out so I can slice up those two... I'll try to land on the rooftop of that tallest building ahead. Then loop back around, drop the chains, and haul me back up."
"...All right." Yang Qingbai hesitated for a second, then nodded.
Chapter 617