The woman covered her cheek, eyes wide to their limit, mouth slightly agape, her face frozen in a mask of shock-induced blankness.

Zhong Yun held her gaze without yielding an inch.

The air grew heavy with silence.

After a long while, the woman seemed to finally register the reality of what had just transpired. "You... you... how dare you... dare to hit me?" She spoke as if witnessing the most absurd thing in existence, the pain in her face temporarily forgotten.

Zhong Yun raised an eyebrow and said coolly, "You brought this upon yourself. Those who insult others will perpetually be insulted."

"You actually dared to hit me..." The woman hadn't registered a word he said, merely repeating the phrase in a daze.

Though still simmering with anger, Zhong Yun found her reaction almost ludicrous. From the moment they met, her lofty, condescending attitude had grated on him, especially her constant dismissive remarks, labeling him a barbarian, uncivilized—truly infuriating.

However, looking at her now, he felt that sparring with such a person wasn't worth the effort. She was clearly a girl spoiled by high birth and sheltered upbringing, existing within a strictly hierarchical environment.

Considering this, guessing her origin was difficult. In the Omi Galaxy, there were numerous monarchical states, the most famous being the Gaean Empire and the Mosi Empire. Both were among the supreme civilizations dominating the Omi Galaxy.

If this woman hailed from the nobility of either of those nations, Zhong Yun was in serious trouble. The Three Great Advanced Civilizations were the proxies of the Grand Cosmic Federation in the Omi Galaxy, tasked with maintaining its stability on the Federation's behalf. The nobles of those two empires could crush Zhong Yun, and no one could stop them.

But the woman refused to divulge her background, leaving Zhong Yun utterly helpless. He had exhausted all viable methods. She seemed to possess an innate resistance to hypnosis; none of Zhong Yun's attempts had any effect.

As for the methods he wouldn't use, he reserved those only as a last resort. Such measures often carried severe side effects; truly killing her would lead to immense complications.

Yet, no matter how he schemed, Zhong Yun could never have predicted that events would slide precisely in the direction he dreaded most.

To evade potential pursuit, Zhong Yun had deliberately instructed the Forty-Fifth Fleet to take a circuitous route. More than ten days later, they arrived at the spatial jump point where they had initially departed.

Under Zhong Yun's meticulous care, Liu Yunliu showed significant improvement. After about ten days, she seemed to have emerged from the shadow of her brother's death, her demeanor noticeably brighter. The tension Zhong Yun had carried finally eased. Although she hadn't fully recovered, he trusted it wouldn't take long for her to become the Liu Yunqi he once knew.

Just before initiating the spatial jump, Zhong Yun received the news that the woman was gravely ill—a shock that staggered him. How could she suddenly fall ill without reason?

When he rushed to the intensive care ward, a military physician was examining her.

Zhong Yun waited outside the infirmary, finding the situation highly suspicious. With the current medical standard on Davor, few illnesses could genuinely threaten a life, let alone within the confines of Mars.

After deep contemplation failed to yield any answers, he brought up the topic with Xiao Ling: what kind of disease could fell a modern human? The answer startled Zhong Yun: in this world, many diseases posed a genuine threat to human life. Even those who reached Level Ten in physical arts could potentially be struck down by sickness, though the incidence rate was lower for Level Ten experts.

As for what affliction this woman suffered, or whether it was contagious, remained unknown. While Mars was advanced, it wasn't omniscient; its medical equipment couldn't screen for every possible malady.

Unconsciously, Zhong Yun chatted with Xiao Ling for over two hours, gleaning valuable knowledge that convinced him he needed to study this field more thoroughly.

The physician finally emerged from the medical bay, drenched in sweat and looking exhausted.

"Doctor, what's wrong with her?" Zhong Yun stepped forward to ask.

"Commander-in-Chief." The physician offered a crisp salute before sighing, "Her condition is dire. If she doesn't receive effective treatment soon, I fear..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but Zhong Yun understood the implication. He frowned and asked, "What exactly is she suffering from?"

"I don't know what illness it is," the physician admitted, his expression troubled. "Her life force is continuously draining, but I cannot find the cause. All her bodily functions are normal; logically, this loss of vitality shouldn't be occurring."

"Is her sickness contagious?" Zhong Yun asked. He had just learned from Xiao Ling about the massive devastation an unknown contagion could inflict, making this his chief concern.

"That requires further observation. I recommend isolating her," the physician advised.

"Understood. You should go rest now." Zhong Yun, noticing his unconcealed fatigue, said considerately.

The woman's condition deteriorated with terrifying speed. By the second day after the Forty-Fifth Fleet returned near Mandus Star via a secret spatial jump point, she was near death.

Through the transparent isolation wall, Zhong Yun watched the once spirited and arrogant woman lying there, her face sallow, cheeks sunken, attached to various transparent tubes used to sustain her last vestiges of life force.

Her illness remained undiagnosed. The physician could do nothing but perform routine checks at intervals and record the changes in her body.

Watching her state, Zhong Yun began to strategize. If this woman died here—whether from sickness or accident—her kin would undoubtedly hold him accountable, simply because she died under his watch. It would be sheer bad luck.

Her death meant the beginning of endless pursuit; her family would never let him go. Furthermore, those aware she was in his custody, besides his own personnel, included members of the Hongxian Federation. Zhong Yun was certain they had already reported the matter to the woman's faction. They would never pass up an opportunity to saddle their great enemy with a powerful new adversary.

If he hadn't witnessed the protective strength of Puji Star, and if it weren't already too late, he would have seriously considered turning back to eliminate every witness.

"I know her origins," Xiao Ling’s voice cut in abruptly.

Zhong Yun was startled by the sudden sound and blurted out, "What?" startling a passing nurse, who blushed crimson and looked at him helplessly.

"It's nothing. You carry on," Zhong Yun waved her off, then quickly stepped into a vacant adjacent room.

"Xiao Ling, you said you knew her origins?" Zhong Yun asked urgently. These past few days, aside from worrying about Liu Yunqi, the woman’s identity had been his greatest concern.

Over time, it had become a splinter in his mind—a worry he couldn't settle until it was pulled out.

"There is a 54.3 percent probability that she originates from the Jinjing Family." Xiao Ling’s figure materialized in the room; whenever they were alone, he adopted this appearance before Zhong Yun.

Sometimes Zhong Yun found it odd; he vaguely felt Xiao Ling placed a high value on this sense of presence.

"The Jinjing Family?" Zhong Yun had never heard this name before. But he knew that anything appearing in Xiao Ling’s database had to be an extraordinary family.

"The Jinjing Family is an ancient lineage, with a history exceeding seventeen thousand years. They are dispersed across the star systems of the T Starfield, branching from the Garlan civilization."

While astonished by the family’s antiquity, Zhong Yun was confused by the unfamiliar term, "T Starfield." Following his habit, he asked his teacher, "Where is the T Starfield located?"

"The T Starfield is the collective designation for a union comprising seventy-two star systems. The Omi Galaxy is just one among them," Xiao Ling explained.

"A union composed of seventy-two galaxies as large as the Omi Galaxy?" Zhong Yun was now shocked. He, a former Earthling, considered the Davo Republic already vast beyond measure, let alone seventy-two such systems. How immense would that reach be?

A single Omi Galaxy spans over two hundred thousand light-years in diameter, and the void between two galaxies is at least tens of thousands of light-years. Seventy-two systems...

Zhong Yun couldn't calculate it; it was simply a realm of incomparable scale. Relying solely on the jump points within the Davo territory, capable only of crossing five light-years, he would never reach the other side in a lifetime.

Did the "Jinjing Family" mentioned by Xiao Ling, scattered across the T Starfield, imply they held immense influence across those systems?

Zhong Yun swallowed hard and managed to ask, "Are there any Jinjing Family members in the Omi Galaxy?"

"Yes," Xiao Ling replied, his tone unchanged, the mechanical cadence grating slightly on the ear.

"In which nation?" Zhong Yun pressed on, steeling himself.

"The Gaean Empire, the Royal Family."

"The Gaean Empire? The Royal Family?" Zhong Yun stared blankly at Xiao Ling for a long moment, then finally blurted out, "Damn it all, I killed a princess."

Killing a princess wasn't unheard of; on his home world, Qiyun Star, they kept several princesses abducted from uncivilized planets.

What was shocking was that he had killed a princess from a supreme civilization. It was akin to a savage slaying the daughter of the President of the United States—the consequences would be catastrophic.

Worse still, the Gaean Empire was a monarchy. Killing a princess would surely invite endless, relentless retaliation.

"You couldn't have made a mistake, could you?" Zhong Yun asked, clinging to a sliver of hope.

"Direct descendants of the Jinjing Family possess highly distinctive traits: they all have golden-colored blood. Moreover, they must consume petals of the Jinjing Flower daily, or they will rapidly wither, much like the flower itself."

Zhong Yun bolted out of the room, threw open the door to the woman's isolation chamber, approached the bedside, and used his finger to slice open the skin of her arm. A drop of golden blood seeped out. Under the light, it shone with a dazzling brilliance that momentarily blinded Zhong Yun, even as his heart plummeted.

P: I don't know when the next chapter will be finished; I've decided to release it tomorrow morning. Everyone should read this and go to sleep. I still have to keep writing.