Chapter 54: I Have an Idea…
Adjutant Karl received a message from the Major General in the middle of the night and scrambled out of bed.
He hurried to the young master’s small castle, stood at the door, and checked his uniform—straightening his collar and smoothing out the wrinkles—before knocking.
“Enter.”
Karl’s military boots clicked against the floor as he slowly stepped inside.
“Major General, you were looking for me?”
His gaze first fell on the young master, who was wrapped in a little blanket with only his fuzzy head showing, before shifting to the Major General, who was leaning out the window looking at something below.
“Go and get a mechanical insect that can explore at a depth of about 1,500 meters.”
“Understood, Major General!”
Clicking his heels, he gave a standard military salute.
Karl didn’t even ask why. Since Shen Zeyu had given the order, he immediately went to execute it with total reverence.
Shen Zeyu stood by the window. From Shen Lin’s perspective, he could only see his brother’s profile; the other half of his face was hidden in the shadows.
Ever since he mentioned the Star Beast skull underground, his brother’s grim expression hadn’t changed.
Shen Lin immediately understood that the Star Beast skull was much more troublesome than he thought; even his eldest brother found it a daunting existence.
Neither brother spoke again. The room fell silent until the door was knocked on once more.
Adjutant Karl was fast; he had brought a mechanical insect capable of diving underground.
He opened the controller’s light-screen and entered the command. The mechanical insect’s compound eyes lit up with a red glow as its wings buzzed, creating a faint breeze that ruffled the pink fluff atop the cub’s head.
Shen Lin didn’t have time to worry about his rebellious hair; he was looking curiously at the mechanical insect in Karl’s hand.
The mechanical insect was about the size of a cat, with a dull yellow exterior and eight cold pincers extending from its abdomen. Its mesh-like compound eyes rotated.
The light-screen flickered twice, and an image appeared.
Under the command, the mechanical insect spread its wings and flew out the window.
It hovered in the air for a moment, recording the entire scene outside into its compound eyes.
Blue lines of data scrolled rapidly across the screen, analyzing where the ground was weakest.
Shen Zeyu stood with his arms crossed, watching his adjutant operate the insect.
However, in the next second, a fuzzy head appeared between him and the adjutant.
Shen Lin had originally been snuggled in bed, but since there was an outsider in the room, he couldn’t sleep. He climbed down, pitter-pattered over, and wanted to see the adjutant dive into the earth.
When the Ghost Vine had taken him down, it had been affected by the Star Beast’s energy and snapped him back, so he had only seen a general outline.
Shen Lin wanted to see the full view of the Star Beast skull—to see just how large it was that it had made him mistake it for a white wall.
The adjutant had long noticed the young master’s approach. Seeing him standing on his tiptoes to peek at the screen, he cast a questioning look toward his Major General.
Major General Shen gave a slight nod.
The adjutant shifted his body to the right, bending his knee at a 60-degree angle. This position allowed the young master, who had climbed onto the small sofa to stand, to see clearly.
Shen Lin knew that with his height, he definitely wouldn’t be able to see the whole screen, so he dragged a small sofa over. With the extra height, he finally saw the contents of the light-screen.
The image transmitted back was in ultra-high definition.
He watched as the insect used its pincers to dig out a circular space. With a strong beam of light, they could clearly see deep into the earth.
Though small, the mechanical insect worked quickly, digging a hole that was perfectly round and deep.
If it were a bit larger, Shen Lin felt he could probably switch to his beast form and go down himself.
The buzzing sound of the digging continued. In just twenty minutes, it reached its destination.
Inside the massive cavity, a giant “white wall” stood. It touched the foundation above and was embedded into the earth below, looking like a naturally formed white “waterfall.”
Even though it wasn’t the first time Shen Lin had seen it, he was still struck with awe.
The other two men were also shocked the moment they saw the white wall.
Shock was followed by horror.
The skull of a Star Beast was actually beneath the Shen family home, buried right under the foundation. When the house was being built, had the architects really not noticed anything wrong?
The expressions of Shen Zeyu and Adjutant Karl were grim.
“Major General, what should we do?”
Shen Zeyu didn’t speak. His expression was incredibly dark, and he was even visibly trembling with rage.
Any beastman who knew about Star Beasts knew that they released a unique energy field that affected a beastman’s emotions.
Beastmen relied on their bloodlines to gain power.
As the Interstellar era progressed and dimensions shifted, people had to awaken their Primal Species beast forms to master supreme power and reclaim their place at the top of the food chain.
They relied on their bloodlines, worshipped their bloodlines, and held them in the highest regard.
Yet everything has a counter. When the Milky Way shifted dimensions, it attracted high-intelligence beings from another star system.
Star Beasts!
Monsters that loved to eat the energy of planetary cores.
They were massive and indestructible; they couldn’t be killed or driven away easily. If left unchecked, they would drain a planet’s energy until it collapsed into a new wormhole.
To resist them, technology advanced rapidly, entering the high-dimensional era of holographic worlds.
The Star Gates!
They were the barrier against the Star Beast invasion.
The power of the Star Beasts had caused the Star People immense suffering.
Now that they had finally researched the Star Gates to hold them back, the beastmen could finally catch their breath.
Shen Zeyu’s current post at the border planet had a Star Gate.
He guarded the Star Gate out there, constantly worried that the beasts would break through the barrier, yet he returned home only to find a “pleasant surprise” waiting in his own basement.
The skull of a Star Beast—a complete one, at that.
It made the eldest brother furious.
When people are angry to the extreme, they truly do laugh.
Looking at the skull on the screen, Shen Zeyu let out a cold laugh.
Karl felt the waves of cold air coming from behind him; his skin crawled, and he didn’t dare move the mechanical insect an inch.
The Major General rarely laughed. If he did, it meant he was furious; it was best not to provoke him.
Once, an S-grade wanted criminal relied on his unique bloodline to kill several people and even left mocking words on the bodies.
When the Major General saw the words, he said nothing, but he laughed once.
The next day, the Major General returned covered in blood, dragging a bloody, mangled person behind him.
That was the criminal who had taunted him. Every inch of his skin had been sliced, yet he was still breathing.
The criminal’s blood left a long trail along the road.
Don’t let the Major General’s gentle treatment of the young master fool you; he might act like a “nagging mother” sometimes, but the real Major General was a cold, decisive killing machine.
Karl was already beginning to mourn for the person behind this.
Burying a Star Beast skull under the Shen family home—they must be tired of living.
The next day.
A disguised Marshal Shen secretly brought several people back.
When he saw the excavated Star Beast skull, Shen Papa’s face turned ghastly, and his fists creaked as he clenched them.
The eldest brother and the second sister, who had returned early, stood nearby in silence.
However, their expressions were equally dark.
Shen Zeyu crossed his arms, his fingers tapping against his sleeve as a storm brewed in his eyes.
“Ever since I moved in, I’ve often felt my bloodline was hard to control. I thought it was my Berserkization worsening, but it turns out there was a culprit below. Heh, it seems Papa’s existence truly is an obstacle for many people.”
Shen Zexi stared at her father, who was on the verge of exploding, and lowered her gaze. “This is for the best. It’ll cut off any lingering sentiment he has, saving him from being soft-hearted in the future.”
Two years.
It had been exactly two years.
Kerisi had taken the post of High Executive three years ago.
That same year, Shen Papa was promoted to Marshal, becoming the commander-in-chief of all military forces. And that same year, Kerisi had assigned District 13 to the Marshal and even built the Shen estate for him…
Once, High Executive Kerisi and Commander-in-Chief Shen were the “Twin Pillars” of the Federation.
The two had worked together, rising from the grassroots to stand out among the various clans and win the ultimate victory.
Unfortunately, Marshal Shen never forgot his roots and spent his life fighting for lower-tier beastmen, while the High Executive had long ago conspired with their former rivals to backstab him.
Shen Papa had brushed against death and returned, appearing as if nothing were wrong.
But whenever the High Executive was mentioned, his emotions would fluctuate wildly; he clearly hadn’t moved on from his friend’s betrayal.
As his children, the eldest brother and the others didn’t want to reopen their father’s wounds.
But they hadn’t expected the Ghost Vine to accidentally discover the Star Beast skull. It didn’t just reopen the wound; it scraped a layer of flesh right off the bone.
It severed the last bit of sentiment Marshal Shen had.
Shen Papa had never felt a day colder than today—it was a bone-chilling cold.
When he was wandering the edge of life and death, suffering in agony, he would always think of the past.
He wondered if that person had a reason, if he was forced, or if he had another plan…
Marshal Shen had found all sorts of excuses for that man, believing he wasn’t a heartless person, but the excavated skull gave him a fatal blow.
The size of the skull was perfectly placed right under where the Shen family lived.
Everyone knew that Star Beast energy would stimulate bloodline riots and affect a beastman’s reason.
This was a conspiracy.
A conspiracy against the entire Shen family!
The mastermind was likely… no, it was High Executive Kerisi.
If not for the youngest, he and his children might have died from worsening Berserkization.
The Shen family would have died out silently, and no one would have ever discovered the Star Beast skull buried underground.
The plan was a perfect loop.
Shen Papa let out a sigh and closed his eyes.
Shen Zeyu and Shen Zexi looked at each other.
“To kill and to break the heart—I have to say, the High Executive is quite ruthless,” Shen Zeyu remarked.
“As a ruler, if he weren’t ruthless, he wouldn’t be able to keep that seat,” Shen Zexi offered a different opinion.
“You politicians have dirty hearts.”
Shen Zeyu went silent for a moment before dropping that line.
Shen Zexi shrugged, offering no comment.
She stared at the Star Beast skull being excavated, her thoughts drifting.
When she first entered the council building, Madam Imelia had once told her: as a politician, you can be heartless, cold-blooded, or even a villain, but you must never be soft-hearted.
A soft-hearted politician is easily swayed by emotions and cannot make correct judgments; one wrong move and you’ll end up without a grave.
She actually admired Kerisi’s ruthless methods.
But only if the sacrifices weren’t her own family.
“I have an idea.”
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