Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sky darkened little by little.

In the study, Mansendis sensed the shift in the light. He glanced at the time on his light-brain.

It was already six in the evening.

At this same time yesterday, the cub had already come back.

But today, the palace seemed especially quiet.

Downstairs, there was none of the cub’s chirping voice as he talked to Mond, and on the stairs, there was none of the slightly cheerful thud-thud-thud of those little boots stepping upward.

Mansendis waited patiently for a while longer, yet the cub who ran upstairs every day to call him to dinner still did not appear.

The entire palace was silent.

Even so silent it was somewhat frightening.

This kind of silence had once been what Mansendis was most accustomed to. It was also the ordinary state he experienced every day.

But ever since Wen Yuzhi came to the Saint Clan, Mansendis had grown less and less able to endure this kind of quiet.

Clearly, Wen Yuzhi was not even a very noisy child.

On the contrary, most of the time, the cub seemed very obedient and very quiet.

When he stayed by Mansendis’s side, he would quietly play with toys or read a book. Sometimes, when he got bored, he would drag the white wolf over and use that thick layer of fur on its body to braid little plaits.

At times like that, the white wolf always looked as if life had lost all meaning.

After all, its appearance was so imposing and domineering, but once a few braids tied with bows appeared on it, the domineering aura on its body was instantly greatly reduced.

Even so, every time Wen Yuzhi called it over to play, the white wolf would be very hopeless. Its steps looked hesitant, but in reality, it would run over happily to serve as the cub’s large “toy.”

And Mansendis, in the gaps between handling government affairs, would turn his head from time to time to look at the cub.

At such times, if Wen Yuzhi noticed the silver-haired sovereign’s gaze, he would patter over in his little leather shoes, lie across Daddy’s knees to pound his legs and knead his shoulders, or pour Daddy a cup of tea.

The cub was simply like a considerate, warm little padded jacket.

Those Heimo also often liked choosing this time to report matters to Mansendis, because they knew that if little highness was there, the King’s mood would be somewhat better.

Besides, who would not want to see little highness sweetly greeting them every day?

It could be said that as long as Wen Yuzhi was there, the vast palace did not feel cold at all. The atmosphere inside the palace would always make people feel relaxed.

And Wen Yuzhi had only run out to play for two days. Without the cub’s figure and voice during the day, Mansendis already felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.

The cub’s departure seemed to have carried away all the warmth and liveliness here.

Instead, Mansendis had become unaccustomed to this kind of silence.

He released his mental energy and searched through the palace, but did not find Wen Yuzhi’s figure anywhere.

...Had he gotten so carried away playing that he forgot the time and had not returned yet?

Mansendis lightly tapped the armrest beside him. His eyes were lowered, and his expression was still calm, but if Wen Yuzhi were here, he would be able to tell at a glance that the silver-haired sovereign was not in a good mood right now.

This was usually the prelude to Mansendis getting angry.

He was angry that his child had run out to play, had let his heart go wild, and could even forget what Daddy had said. Seeing the sky darken, he still did not know to come home.

With a click, the door was pushed open.

Mansendis lifted his head, only to discover that the one who entered was Mond.

The old chief affairs officer had clearly been alarmed by the mental energy the silver-haired sovereign had released and had come specially to check the situation.

“King, do you have any orders?”

“Has Zhizhi still not returned?” Mansendis asked in a low voice.

Before Mond could speak, the door opened again. Alvin, his face cold, walked in.

His steps were somewhat urgent, and his brows were tightly locked.

Seeing the adjutant before him, who rarely showed such a solemn expression, Mansendis vaguely guessed something.

But on the surface, the silver-haired sovereign’s expression still made it impossible to read his emotions. “What happened?”

“King, something happened at Central Square.” Alvin pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose. His tone was somewhat heavy, and he could not even attend to the palace etiquette he should perform upon seeing the sovereign.

“Just now, an unknown energy barrier trapped everyone inside. More than a dozen nearby streets are also within the affected range, and among them is the place little highness was going today...”

“Thud—!”

The silver-haired sovereign’s fingers, which had been tapping the armrest, stopped.

Mansendis raised his eyes. His extremely cold gaze landed straight on Alvin.

“Has there been any movement from the Alliance?”

Alvin replied, “The Alliance has already sent an army over, but the signal inside also seems to have been cut off. The outside world still cannot contact anyone inside.”

Hearing this, Mond, standing to the side, also frowned.

He lowered his head and tapped twice on his light-brain. Then the old chief affairs officer stepped to the side and reported in a low voice about the condition of those Saint Clan royal guards.

Without exception, all the royal guards who had followed little highness out today could no longer be contacted.

And the last location signal on little highness’s body disappeared—

Very clearly, when something happened at the square, little highness had happened to be there as well. At this moment, he was also temporarily unable to come out because of that so-called energy barrier.

However, the good news was that there were still six Saint Clan members by his side.

And before leaving, Wen Yuzhi had dressed himself like a dazzling jewelry rack, bringing with him all the self-defense devices Mond had prepared for him.

There was no need to worry about little highness’s safety for the time being.

Thinking this, Mond looked toward Mansendis. He was waiting for their monarch to issue an order.

Alvin also bent down and said, “Selet asked this subordinate to convey greetings to you. The officers are already prepared, the soldiers below can go to war at any time, and the garrison officers on Dark Tower Star have also replied. They can immediately mobilize more fleets to come provide support.”

No matter what the person behind the scenes wanted to do before the conference began, daring to involve their little highness was equivalent to declaring war on the entire Saint Clan.

On the way to the study, Alvin had already begun arranging all of this. The military department had started preparing the moment it received the news. After learning that little highness and the royal guards were trapped together in the square, the soldiers in the military department were all furious.

Now they were only waiting for Mansendis to issue the final order.

The silver-haired sovereign stood up from behind the desk. The crimson mantle hung down along his right shoulder, trailing across the floor.

Mansendis’s expression was very cold, and his voice carried a bone-piercing chill.

“Have Dark Tower Star send additional fleets for support. Where are the Alliance people right now?”

“At the office near the conference hall.”

.............

Tonight was destined to be an unusual night.

The Alliance side was still arranging matters for tomorrow’s conference. Adjustments to seating and the order of speeches all required special attention.

Just when they thought everything was fine and that the conference arrangements were foolproof, they received news that something had happened at Central Square, where the conference would be held, and the nearby streets. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The energy barrier that had suddenly appeared had sealed more than a dozen streets centered around the square inside it.

Even worse, when that energy barrier appeared, it happened to be evening, precisely when the area around the square was at its liveliest. Countless residents and tourists were trapped inside.

Raymond An only roughly calculated the approximate number of people trapped, and the result was enough to make his heart tremble.

So many people were trapped inside. If something really happened, given how much attention the entire interstellar world was currently paying to Blue Luster Star, even if only a few people were injured, the Alliance, which was fully responsible for security, would have no way to escape blame.

And the first person held accountable would definitely be him, the person in charge.

“Bad news. Someone has already posted the news about the square incident on StarNet.”

Raymond An’s brow jumped. He roared, “Send out a message immediately! Say the Alliance is handling it, and that our army is already on-site preparing a rescue!”

But right after he said this, his assistant received another message from the front line. “There’s something strange about that energy barrier. Our personnel can’t get in at all.”

“What about instruments? If that doesn’t work, use shells and blast me an opening!”

Raymond An’s voice was already hoarse. He could only pray that nothing would happen inside. Otherwise, with every minute that dragged on now, the guilt he would have to bear might become heavier by one more degree.

However, just as Raymond An was already feeling utterly overwhelmed, the representatives of various races who had received the news came one after another to demand an explanation from the Alliance.

According to them, quite a few of their people were trapped inside as well.

The Alliance definitely had to give them an attitude.

Misfortune never came alone. Before Raymond An could even catch his breath, the assistant brought another piece of bad news.

“Chairman, the merfolk queen is here. She specifically said she wants to see you... The reason is that the princess of their merfolk race is also trapped inside the barrier.”

By the time Mansendis arrived with the Saint Clan, the Alliance office on Blue Luster Star had already been surrounded so tightly by representatives of various races who wanted to ask about the situation that not even water could get through.

But after seeing the Saint Clan arrive, the originally noisy scene seemed as if someone had pressed pause. The surroundings instantly fell silent.

The crowd gathered at the entrance also moved aside one after another, opening a path.

Only after Mansendis and the others passed by, and after those Saint Clan figures had completely disappeared from view, did the representatives of various races at the scene dare to speak and discuss.

“Why are the Saint Clan here too?”

“Don’t they never participate in this kind of thing?”

“Could there be Saint Clan trapped inside too?”

“That’s impossible, isn’t it... Didn’t they say the Saint Clan haven’t gone out at all since arriving?”

“Why don’t we follow and take a look too?”

A representative made this suggestion, and it immediately won the approval of most people present.

Many of them were from small and medium-sized races. They had no voice before the Alliance. Even if something happened to their people, the Alliance had not thought to send anyone to communicate with them.

Rather than continue surrounding the entrance like this, waiting for news that no one knew when would come, it was better to follow behind the Saint Clan and see exactly what had happened at the square.

And so, those representatives standing at the entrance all chose to follow behind the Saint Clan’s group.

The Saint Clan side also noticed, but they did not pay any attention. They allowed those races to follow.

This only made things hard for the Alliance security guards outside. Stopping them was wrong, and not stopping them was also wrong.

In the end, they could only watch helplessly as this large group of people marched inside in grand procession.

At this time, the merfolk queen had already seen Raymond An.

The first thing she said was, “I have only one younger sister. She is my most important family member and also the pearl of my merfolk race. If anything happens to her, I will throw all of you into the sea to feed the sharks. I mean every word.”

Queen Haisena’s attitude was very forceful. She gave the Alliance almost no face at all. Before Raymond An could try to put on an official air and smooth things over, she directly informed the other side—

Either her sister remained safe and sound, or these Alliance people could roll into the sea and feed the sharks.

And she did not want to hear any useless nonsense.

Raymond An had heard of this merfolk queen’s deeds. The other party was a female war god who had earned recognition through military achievements and ascended to the throne.

At this moment, she was also sitting there in fitted armor. Behind her, the merfolk female officials she had brought were also clad in armor. Each of them had strong muscles and sharp eyes.

These merfolk female officials were warriors of their race, powerful beings of the sea who had fought year-round in the ocean. The merfolk race was primarily led by female merfolk.

Being stared at tightly by them with cold gazes, Raymond An’s face had already begun to pale.

Before he could think of how to pacify this ancestor before him, a dense rush of footsteps came from outside.

The assistant hurried over with a panicked expression. “Chairman, the Saint Clan are here!”

“Who is here?!”

Raymond An almost thought he had heard wrong.

But the assistant said with a mournful face, “The sovereign of the Saint Clan. Their King came personally!”

Haisena, who was sitting on the sofa to the side, also heard the assistant’s words. She was somewhat surprised, seemingly not expecting that the Saint Clan, who had always refused to participate in interstellar affairs, would come here. And the one who came was that mysterious Saint Clan tyrant.

Only Raymond An felt his eyelid suddenly begin twitching violently.

For some reason, an extremely bad premonition rose inexplicably in his heart.

..........

While the outside world was still working hard to think of ways to rescue them, inside the energy barrier, the people trapped there had already begun struggling to survive.

Two hours had passed since those stray beasts appeared. After surviving the initial period of chaos, some people chose to unite and fight back, while another group chose to hide and wait for rescue from the outside world.

But regardless of which one they chose, the situation around the square had shifted from a one-sided massacre into a game of hide-and-seek.

This was also a helpless measure.

Although those black holes had not lasted for very long and had quickly closed, before that, there had still been quite a few stray beasts that crawled out from within.

Their bodies were huge, their speed and strength were astonishing, and more importantly, these stray beasts all possessed the special abilities of different races. If ordinary people faced them, they would only become food.

Therefore, the survivors could only hide where they could and conceal themselves where they could. As for those brave enough to kill these stray beasts, they also avoided direct confrontation as much as possible, instead setting traps to ambush them.

However, there were also those who took the initiative to go looking for stray beasts.

Among them were Wen Yuzhi and Xi Heyan’s group.

If judging only by combat power, their group was probably among the strongest of all the survivors.

Xi Heyan was human, but he had been able to become the top student at the empire’s highest-level military academy. At the same time, he could also accept bounties alone and go to those uninhabited, dangerous planets to complete missions, which was enough to show that his individual combat ability was not weak.

And Wen Yuzhi, who looked the most delicate, had protective devices on his body that meant even if the entire Blue Luster Star exploded, he would still be fine. He also had mental energy that could envelop an entire street.

There was even less need to mention those six Saint Clan royal guards.

They were selected layer by layer by the military department and had ultimately stood out from among three hundred candidates.

To put it in game terms, Wen Yuzhi’s group was a top-tier support accompanied by seven top-tier combatants.

Even if they faced the stray beasts directly, they were not afraid in the slightest.

Because of that, after discovering that they could not get out, Wen Yuzhi immediately decided that before rescue from outside arrived, they would first kill the stray beasts inside.

If they hid too, then those survivors who had no combat ability would truly be finished.

Moreover, after these stray beasts swallowed large amounts of flesh and blood, they seemed to continue evolving.

For other people’s safety, and also for their own safety, it was better for these stray beasts to die.

Only a dead stray beast was a good stray beast.

And right now, Wen Yuzhi and the others were tracking a lone stray beast.

They followed it all the way into a clothing store by the street.