Chairman Li slammed his hand down on the table: "Who gave Huang Hai the authority to act unilaterally? Those who can command vast swarms of rats will hardly be afraid of a few espers. And what about Zhao Qian? Who approved the charge of treason against him?"

Prime Minister Qiao responded to Chairman Li, "I looked into it; the order came from General Tan Zhong. Huang Hai is one of Tan Zhong's old subordinates. He has indeed been rather reckless these past few years, but comrades hesitated to speak up because they deferred to General Tan Zhong's power."

Chairman Li spoke earnestly to Prime Minister Qiao, "Old Qiao, the Republic cannot continue like this. The Tan family’s influence is too great. The Yi family could have kept them in check, but two years ago, the two families intermarried. Coupled with Comrade Yi Tianfeng’s overwhelming sense of obligation, and his semi-retirement these last few years, Comrade Tan Zhong's actions are now severely impacting the Republic’s normal development."

"What is the Chairman's intention?"

Chairman Li pointed to the investigation report on the table: "The leader of the Super Soldier Team, a specialist doctor from the Army Hospital—heh, this Zhao Qian interests me greatly. This young man who collects medicinal herbs is no simple figure. He managed to enchant the daughters of both the Fang and Xiao families, dares to snatch women from the hands of the second-generation scion Tan Tian, is surrounded by exceptional superhumans, and his own power is unfathomable. He is a secret weapon."

Prime Minister Qiao nodded slowly, "I understand the Chairman's intent, but he is also a ticking time bomb. If he slips beyond our control, I fear he might explode."

Chairman Li rose to his feet: "No. I believe this young man is inherently good. He will be a blessing, not a curse, to Great Dragon Country. I must go speak with him personally."

The army of snakes and rats swept through everything; nothing could stop them. Riding atop the massive snake bodies, they swiftly breached the old military encampment. The defending soldiers inside were quickly subdued by the rats and snakes. Two giant snakes, codenamed Big King and Little King, led the way as the group thundered into the underground prison.

It was fortunate everyone knew the high-security inmates were off-limits; releasing them would have caused endless trouble later. Led by the intelligence rats, the group successfully appeared before me.

"Brother, I’m glad you’re alright." Xiao Yudi was nearly in tears. She raised her hand and snapped the thick, electrified iron bar in half with one punch.

I comforted her, "Don't cry, little sister. Your brother is fine; it's just something weighing heavily on my heart."

Zhu Da blurted out frankly, "Commander Zhao, you seem quite relaxed in here! Do you know everyone else is fighting and bleeding outside? I know you feel wronged, but sitting here achieves nothing. The real traitors are getting away clean! Are you even a man? If you are, stand up and let's go fight the collaborators!"

His words jolted me awake. What good was further contemplation? One cannot be indecisive in life. If someone stabs me, I must return the favor tenfold, ensuring they remember the pain and never dare to frame me again.

"Commander Zhu is right. Since things have escalated this far, let's go deal with the traitors. This Chen Wanzhi dared to frame me; we'll start with him, and then find the mastermind behind it all. I don't care who he is—King of Heaven or Earth’s ruler—if he starts the first move, I'll make the fifteenth!"

Zhu Da gave me a thumbs-up: "Good! A real man! Brothers, let’s go!"

I scooped up Taozi, telling it, "Hurry up and find Chen Wanzhi’s whereabouts. Since the main force is mobilized, we won't stop until our goal is achieved."

"Affirmative!" Taozi shot off like an arrow.

The group emerged from the underground prison, startled by the scene bathed in bright light outside. Tens of thousands of rats and wild snakes formed a protective circle around the six of us. Beyond this perimeter stood heavily armored tanks, and in the sky, armed "Flying Dragon" helicopters circled low, their searchlights cutting through the dark. It turned out there was a secret military base near the prison, and they had responded rapidly to their orders.

"Attention inside! Immediately cease all resistance, or we will open fire!" The loudspeaker blared again, and the large-caliber cannons on the tanks all trained on us.

I stepped forward and roared, "Open fire? You have the guts to shoot at real traitors! I, Zhao Qian, act honorably and have a clear conscience before heaven and earth! If you dare harm a single person beside me today, I will annihilate your entire force!"

Although we had no amplification equipment, my voice carried clearly to the last tank in the line. An old man in an imposing general's uniform frowned deeply—this was Army General Tan Zhong, Vice Chairman of the Republic's Military Commission!

He had spent years worrying about his only beloved grandson. The grandson had loved a girl from the Yi family since childhood. Finally married, he scorned her due to her "rust spots" and refused to sleep with her. Who knew that not long ago, that girl miraculously cured the rust spot disease? Now the grandson was fond of her, but she no longer cared for him—or perhaps, she had never cared for him at all.

But whether the Yi family girl liked her husband was secondary; she had brought shame upon the Tan family by having a lover outside and was now demanding a divorce! This was an unprecedented scandal in Tan family history, and as the head of the family, Tan Zhong would never permit such a thing.

Now, General Tan Zhong finally had an opportunity. Based on the investigation data provided by his grandson Tan Tian, he had directly charged the other party with treason. Eliminating him would settle everything.

But events had spiraled unexpectedly. The opponent was too arrogant. Not only had he ruined his grandson's prospects, but he could command rats to disrupt his entire plan and speak such insolent words. The habitually arrogant old man could not tolerate it. He climbed out of his tank, grabbed a megaphone, and shouted:

"Brat with milk still on your breath, what right do you have to stand before me? I, Tan Zhong, always keep my word! If I say you are a traitor, you are a traitor. If I say you die, you must die! Aim all cannons! If they do not surrender within one minute, bombard them relentlessly!"

I leaped next to a tank, gripped its cannon barrel with both hands, and swung it around. Ignoring the half-terrified soldiers, I yelled toward Tan Zhong in the command tank: "I'd like to see who dares to fire! Tan Zhong! I respect the great contributions you made to the liberation of the Republic, but do not become arrogant! This country is not your Tan family's property, nor is it yours to command! Tan Tian and Yi Xiaorou's marriage was nothing more than feudal arrangement by your two old families. A piece of trash like Tan Tian doesn't deserve Yi Xiaorou! I am now formally notifying you: Yi Xiaorou is henceforth severed from all ties with your Tan Tian! Anyone who dares lay a single finger on her, I will ensure they meet a desolate end!"

Regardless of how little Yi Xiaorou believed me, she was my woman for now, and I did not want her to suffer harm because of me.

"Fire! Fire my cannons!" Tan Zhong was completely enraged. He couldn't recall how many years it had been since anyone dared speak to him this way. Although he felt fear—a tank weighed a tremendous amount—yet in the opponent's hands, it moved like a toy. The more afraid he became, the more Tan Zhong wanted to eliminate these people, for he had a premonition: if these people didn't vanish, the Tan family would.

Before the gunners could even touch the firing buttons, the sky suddenly seemed to ignite like a rising sun. Everyone involuntarily looked up. A massive, white-glowing behemoth had arrived overhead from somewhere unknown. It descended vertically without a sound. Once positioned above the "Flying Dragon" armed helicopters, countless white skeletal figures suddenly leaped from the white light, forming a dense, sprawling mass more spectacular than snowfall.

These skeletal figures wielded white-glowing guns. They moved with perfect order, one hundred per squad. Before even touching the ground, beams of light shot out, hitting the heavily armored tanks. The tanks emitted puffs of white smoke and all died instantly. At this point, forget firing shells—they couldn't even start their engines to flee.

Xiao Yudi happily exclaimed to me, "Xiao Hui is here, Brother! Shall we arrest them all?"

I looked at the sea of mechanical soldiers—easily five thousand, if not ten—and realized things had escalated far beyond measure. It seemed Great Dragon Country would no longer have a place for me. Might as well build warships and submarines and take to the sea.

"Yes, but be careful not to harm them." I was a soldier once, after all; these men were merely following orders.

The machine soldiers were efficient. Although they met some resistance from the human soldiers, the metal shells covering them could not be penetrated by ordinary bullets. The entire engagement ended in under thirty seconds, and General Tan Zhong himself was apprehended.

General Tan Zhong was clearly bewildered by the monsters descending from the sky, yet he remained defiant: "Zhao Qian, your treason is an established fact! How could a mere retired soldier like you manufacture robots? It must be an enemy nation supporting you behind the scenes! What are your true intentions toward Great Dragon Country?"

Zhu Da stepped forward and cursed, "Believe it or not, I’ll slap you. Shut up if you don't want to die! We’ve had enough of your arrogance here. If we kill you, we’ll revolt and crown ourselves kings!"

Tan Zhong truly fell silent. The two machine soldiers holding him gripped him tightly. At this moment, even a child could easily slap him, and he didn't want to suffer that immediate humiliation, silently allowing the machines to drag him away.

"Brother Zhao, Brother Zhao, save us!"

I looked up to see the four women—Zhao Fen, Zhao Fang, Fang Yanmeng, and Xiao Chuchu—also being held by machine soldiers. Xiao Yudi waved her hand, and the machine soldiers released the four and stood by to await orders.

"Why are you all here?" I asked in surprise.

Fang Yanmeng rushed to explain, "It’s all because of you! You’ve become famous this time. The Chairman of our Great Dragon Country Military Commission specifically requested to see you."

Zhao Fen added, "Yes, Brother Zhao. Chairman Li sent us to persuade you. Let tonight’s events conclude here for now; he has something to say to you."

"This…?" I hesitated. My original plan was to leave immediately to hunt down Chen Wanzhi once Taozi brought back information. After tonight's turmoil, Great Dragon Country would likely no longer tolerate us anyway, so after killing Chen Wanzhi, we would retreat to the secret base under the desert. Now the Military Commission Chairman wanted to see me—what should I do?

The machine soldiers had cleared the area. Everyone except Xiao Yudi and me was eagerly waiting for me to resolve the confusion: these machine soldiers, these giant rats and giant pythons...

Zhu Da was the most impatient. "Damn it, Commander Zhao, tell us quickly, what exactly is going on?"

Xiao Yudi and I exchanged a look. There was no need to hide these matters from them any longer. I explained the physical transformation in the Black Pine Forest, being sucked into the Hope spaceship after finding the red energy stone in Peach Blossom Village floodwaters, meeting Xiao Yudi, my sister from ten million years in the future (I kept the detail about her **metal body hidden, fearing they might develop special views toward her), returning to the town to find the four women only to accidentally subdue the giant rat and python, treating Yi Xiaorou's illness (I naturally omitted that the treatment involved sharing a bed), incurring Tan Tian's wrath, and how Chen Wanzhi stole the smart navigation system for the ballistic missile and framed me.

Everyone was stunned into silence. Zhu Da actually tried to playfully hug Xiao Yudi, who laughed and dodged him. "Commander Zhao, is Xiao Yudi really from ten million years in the future? No wonder these machine soldiers are so formidable, and that massive spaceship in the sky—our world truly lacks that kind of technology."

I shrugged, "That is the sequence of events. My current idea is to eliminate Chen Wanzhi, and then everyone relocates to the underground base. Once our strength increases substantially, we will develop our path on the sea. What do you all think?"

All the women unanimously disagreed, and among the men, only Zhu Da and Zhang Ersha shared that negative opinion.

Zhao Fen took my hand, "Brother Zhao, things aren't quite as you imagine. The Chairman harbors no hostility toward you; on the contrary, he values you highly. He knows you were framed. The sheer size of the Tan family's influence is already disrupting the normal development of the Republic's military. The Chairman is constrained in many matters; I suspect one of his reasons for wanting to see you relates to the Tan family."

Zhu Da pointed at the distant Tan Zhong: "Him? What ability does he have? Isn't he in our hands now? If we want him dead, he dies; if we want him alive, he lives. He’s useless now."

Xiao Chuchu shot Zhu Da a disdainful look: "Idiot! No matter how capable a general is, he is still an individual. The key is the Republic's officers behind him. Besides, we can't harm him now because mishandling this could trigger a military mutiny, which would be a massive disaster for the country."

I considered the matter and told everyone, "Fine, I agree to meet the Chairman. Tan Zhong can be handed over to him for disposal. However, that scum Chen Wanzhi is mine to deal with—no one gets a say. If I don't kill him, I swear I won't be human!"