The dwarf did not answer right away. Instead, he put on a pair of glasses that had frames but no lenses.

He tapped the edge of the frame.

The next moment, two dim blue glows appeared before his eyes. Streams of numbers flashed past, and a river of data made from countless pieces of information kept leaping through the blue light.

“This chip...”

As if he had seen something, the dwarf cried out in surprise. He hurriedly took off the glasses and asked Xi Heyan with visible excitement, “Forgive my rudeness, but may I know who developed this?”

Ordinarily, when something was brought to his shop for repair, he would never ask about where it came from.

That was one of the black market’s rules. Never get curious about what you should not be curious about.

But this chip was so unusual that, even at the cost of breaking his own principles, the dwarf still could not help wanting to know who had developed it.

“If you can tell me, I’ll repair this chip for you free of charge, not a single credit. Or, if you prefer, you can take anything from my shop as payment for that information.”

The dwarf felt he had shown more than enough sincerity.

Everything displayed in his shop was one of his treasured creations. There were clients on the black market willing to pay astronomical prices for them, and he still would not sell. Trading one of those for a piece of information, no matter how one looked at it, Xi Heyan would be the one getting the better deal.

But Xi Heyan shook his head. “Sorry. I can’t tell you.”

As he spoke, he reached to take the chip back.

But the dwarf was still unwilling to give up and tried to persuade him again. “Do you understand the value of this chip? It’s extremely special, and extremely miraculous!”

If Xi Heyan had brought in an ordinary light-brain chip, the dwarf would not have been so excited.

But this light-brain chip was different. Its communication transmission range was even broader than any light-brain chip currently on the market.

The transmission range of a light-brain was, by nature, limited.

Ordinary light-brain carrier signals could generally only transmit across the distance between two relatively nearby planets. But with technology having advanced to its present level, interstellar civilization had long since developed chip technology capable of enabling communication between star sectors.

At present, the carrier signals of light-brains on the market could cover nearly all star sectors. It was thanks to this that one could see members of many different races appearing together on StarNet and communicating with one another.

Of course, the Saint Clan were excluded from that list. Everyone knew the Saint Clan had their own internal star network. They disdained and could not be bothered to communicate with the outside world.

On StarNet, they did not even have the most basic official account, making their refusal to interact with other races perfectly clear.

Their attitude was exceedingly cold and exceedingly arrogant.

As for the other races, who had not even had the chance to isolate the Saint Clan before being isolated by the Saint Clan in return: “.........”

#So furious, but nobody can beat that pack of lunatics#

.(Cursed glare)

Fortunately, aside from the special exception that was the Saint Clan, the other races were all quite satisfied that modern light-brain communication range could now cover every star sector.

And the chip Xi Heyan had brought in had a signal transmission range even greater than the most advanced light-brain chips currently available. That meant it could do more than just enable communication between star sectors. It could even transmit beyond the nine star sectors currently known to interstellar civilization.

Beyond the nine star sectors...

At such an immeasurable distance, their current level of technology still could not even begin to reach. Was there an even broader world out there, or perhaps other civilizations still waiting to be discovered?

That was what truly interested the dwarf.

Who could have imagined that hidden inside such an ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) old chip was technology capable of spanning space and time?

Naturally, the dwarf could not wait to find out who had developed it.

That person had to be a genius just like him!

Unfortunately, no matter how much the dwarf tried to persuade him, Xi Heyan only kept an expressionless face and asked in a cold voice, “I only want to know one thing. Can you repair it or not?”

If the dwarf said no, Xi Heyan would take the chip and leave without the slightest hesitation.

The dwarf clearly saw that as well. For one brief moment, all sorts of thoughts of murder and theft flashed through his mind.

The man in front of him was clearly impervious to both soft and hard tactics. Continuing to tempt him with benefits would be useless. But if the dwarf simply kept the chip for himself by force, he would be destroying his own reputation.

He was, after all, a figure with a name on the black market. If he started stealing customers’ property, who would ever come to him for business again?

After a long moment of struggle, the dwarf finally gritted his teeth and said, “I can fix it!”

“But this chip model is too old. If I’m going to repair it without damaging the data inside, I’ll need at least one week.”

This time, the dwarf was not lying to Xi Heyan.

Personally, he wanted to keep it for himself. But repairing this chip really would not be easy.

Its model was old, and for many of the parts he would first have to search around before finding suitable replacements.

Xi Heyan frowned.

A week was neither especially long nor especially short. But he had already waited through these past six months.

And most importantly, after going to so many people, this was the only one who had finally given him a definite answer.

Xi Heyan could tell that the other man was not lying.

So no matter how anxious he was inside, he could only force down that restlessness.

Thinking of this, Xi Heyan lowered his eyes. His lashes cast shadows that hid the darkness in his gaze, only making his expression seem all the colder.

“I hope you can fix it. It’s very important to me.”

It was both a reminder and a threat.

Xi Heyan’s tone did not sound particularly heavy, and a counter still stood between them, but the dwarf nevertheless felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart.

He was quite certain that the other man had already seen through that little bit of greed in his mind.

That sentence sounded more like a warning.

A warning not to entertain those thoughts.

-

By the time Xi Heyan came out of the repair shop, Plum Blossom K was already waiting outside.

Wearing a rabbit mask, Plum Blossom K had been recognized by quite a few people as one of the black rabbits, and so they had all crowded over to buy and sell information.

In just the short time Xi Heyan had been inside, Plum Blossom K had already closed several deals.

By the time Xi Heyan emerged, Plum Blossom K was tossing a gold coin with a very good mood and humming a tune.

“The sound of money is so beautiful... Listen. Isn’t it delightful?”

Xi Heyan could not hear anything delightful about it. Plainly, he was unable to understand Plum Blossom K’s pathological obsession with money.

And Plum Blossom K could not understand why Xi Heyan cared so much about a single light-brain chip.

For the past half year, no matter where they went, the first thing Xi Heyan did was look for a local repair specialist and try to restore this chip that had been damaged in the explosion.

Only Xi Heyan himself knew just how important this chip was to him. Not only had it been something left behind by his mother, it also contained every chat record between him and Wen Yuzhi. Their only means of contact had been through this very chip.

If the light-brain itself was damaged, then so be it. Xi Heyan could disregard everything else.

But not this chip.

Plum Blossom K knew how much Xi Heyan valued this light-brain chip. And seeing that Xi Heyan’s expression after coming out of the shop was not as cold as usual, Plum Blossom K could more or less guess that there was finally hope for the repair.

As it happened, Plum Blossom K also had good news to share.

“I just bought a piece of information. The person we’re looking into is very likely connected to the Judgment Hall behind the black market.”

Xi Heyan paused. “The Judgment Hall? Are you sure?”

Anyone who spent enough time on the black market had, more or less, heard that name before.

It was the organization behind the black market.

No one knew where it had come from, but on every planet and in every star sector, one could see its shadow behind the black market.

It was like an invisible web connecting every gray zone in the interstellar world.

There was a saying that had long circulated through the black market: You think you’re well hidden. No one knows your identity, no one knows your name. But lift your head, and in the darkness there is always a pair of eyes watching you.

And those eyes referred to the Judgment Hall.

It was the shadow behind the black market, its eyes. Its most famous symbol was the image on the black market mission platform: a sword-bearing angel with bloodied wings and tears of blood running from its eyes.

“The cloak, appearing out of nowhere, and disappearing just as suddenly. Someone has seen all three of those traits,” Plum Blossom K said.

“An Adjudicator?”

No one knew what kind of internal structure the Judgment Hall actually had, but some of its members were referred to on the black market as Adjudicators.

They were always cloaked, or else masked, and never showed their real faces.

But if anyone tried to wantonly destroy the black market’s rules and throw everything into chaos, those Adjudicators would appear.

Still, many people treated them as little more than legend.

Because Adjudicators rarely appeared.

And the one who had sold this information to Plum Blossom K had once been fortunate enough to see them from a distance.

They had indeed worn cloaks and masks, and their comings and goings had been strange and elusive, very mysterious.

Among them, the leading Adjudicator seemed to possess some sort of teleportation ability.

The information seller had seen that person vanish from the spot without warning, and when the figure appeared again, the person was already standing somewhere else.

But precisely because it had happened so quickly and so suddenly, the seller had half believed it had only been an illusion.

Coming to Plum Blossom K with the information had only been a matter of trying it on a whim.

The speaker might have had no particular intention, but the listener did.

To Plum Blossom K, this information was useful. It might well be a real lead.

What Plum Blossom K and Xi Heyan were looking for was the cloaked person who had taken Wen Yuzhi away that day.

Back on Blackrock Star, that person had suddenly appeared inside the laboratory. Xi Heyan had been held back by the stray beasts, and in the space of one distracted moment, Wen Yuzhi had been taken away.

Xi Heyan and Plum Blossom K had not even had time to give chase before the countdown ended and the laboratory exploded.

When Xi Heyan and Plum Blossom K woke up again, seven days had already passed.

Because their injuries had been so severe, the two of them had spent nearly seven days inside treatment pods before all the wounds on their bodies had finally healed.

And after waking up, Xi Heyan could not help worrying about Wen Yuzhi.

But his light-brain had been damaged in the explosion, and the chip inside had been ruined, leaving him unable to contact Wen Yuzhi.

It was only then that Xi Heyan realized he and Wen Yuzhi had only ever had that one method of contact. Aside from that, they had no other channel through which they could reach each other.

Other than a name and a few simple details about Wen Yuzhi’s family, Xi Heyan could not be said to know all that much.

Trying to ask the black rabbits to find someone with only that scant information was no different from looking for a needle in the sea.

So for the past half year, Xi Heyan and Plum Blossom K had been investigating what Polaris had done, while at the same time searching for both this cloaked person and Wen Yuzhi’s whereabouts.

Now that they had finally gotten a lead, true or false, Xi Heyan would not let it go.

...........

Meanwhile, back on Dark Tower Star, Wen Yuzhi was already up early.

Today, there was something very important to him.

Not long ago, the military had reported in that all the candidate soldiers had completed training, and little highness could now choose his own personal guards at any time.

After asking Wen Yuzhi for his opinion, Mansendis had simply decided that father and son would go to the military today and select the guards together.

Wen Yuzhi had remembered the matter yesterday and told Mond to come wake him early.

And sure enough, Mond had already arrived first thing in the morning.

“Good morning, little highness.”

“Good morning, Mond... mm... where’s Daddy?”

Wen Yuzhi had only just woken up and was still a little sleepy. Sitting on the bed, he rubbed his eyes, still hugging a white wolf doll made in Awu’s likeness.

Mond was holding a brand-new formal outfit. Clearly, it had been specially rushed out for today’s event.

“His Majesty is changing.”

Wen Yuzhi had thought he was already up early enough, but the moment he heard Daddy was changing clothes, he snapped awake from the last traces of sleepiness and nearly ran all the way to the bathroom to get washed up.

By the time he came back out, there were still droplets of water on his face, and his hair was slightly messy.

Seeing this, Mond immediately took out a clean handkerchief to wipe Wen Yuzhi’s face, then carefully combed that tousled silver hair back into order.

To be honest, Mond’s hands were more skilled than Mansendis’s.

The little braids Mansendis tied for Wen Yuzhi were always loose and lopsided, while Mond did them beautifully.

Mond gathered all the fine hair at the back of Wen Yuzhi’s head together and tied it with a ribbon.

According to rumor, this hairstyle had once been very popular among certain nobles and royals. Slightly wavy strands were tied at the back with a ribbon, while the rest fell to either side of the shoulders, giving off an air of romance and artistry.

Whether it was romantic or artistic, Mond did not know.

Mond only knew that little highness looked beautiful wearing it.

Or rather, in Mond’s eyes, little highness looked adorable no matter what.

The little topknot before had been adorable.

And now, with his hair tied back, he was adorable too.

Looking at the noble and beautiful youth in the mirror, Mond also felt an indescribable kind of pride well up inside.

“Little highness has grown up.”

From a child who had once still carried traces of babyish innocence, to the spirited youth standing there now.

Wen Yuzhi rose to his feet. He was dressed in a white formal outfit, with vine patterns embroidered in gold thread along the sleeves and collar as decoration.

He looked every inch an elegant and precious little prince.

The moment Mansendis walked in, that was the sight that greeted him.

Today, Mansendis was also wearing a white formal outfit, one very similar in style to Wen Yuzhi’s.

Anyone who was not blind could tell at a glance that the two of them were wearing matching father-and-son outfits.

And the moment Wen Yuzhi and Mansendis appeared at the military in those clothes, father and son instantly caused a sensation.