"Why are you always like this? Why do you always jump to conclusions before I can even finish speaking?" As her agitation mounted, Weiwei couldn't help but start to weep. "You always decide things for me without asking, but you have no idea what I actually want."

The old man fell silent, his thoughts unreadable.

Zhong Yun walked over and pulled Weiwei into his embrace.

The elder finally spoke again, "Everything I have done was for your own good."

"You keep saying it's for my own good, but you know nothing! You know nothing at all..." Weiwei was sobbing uncontrollably now.

"Weiwei..." The old man's voice carried an ineffable pain. He probably never imagined his actions would cause his daughter such profound suffering.

The scene settled into a heavy silence, broken only by Weiwei's quiet sobs.

Zhong Yun quickly calculated the time; the Mercury vessel still needed another ten-plus minutes for full activation. Until then, they were stuck in this stalemate. Furthermore, the men sent by Weiwei's father were still lingering in the first sector, so they still had a relatively manageable amount of time.

He glanced down at Weiwei and sighed internally. Her sudden outburst today must stem from the realization that she would never see her father again.

Had she truly made up her mind to leave with him? Such a question arose in Zhong Yun's mind. It would mean leaving the place where she was born and raised, leaving her parents and relatives, leaving her friends...

Was she truly prepared to abandon everything?

These doubts relentlessly spun in his mind...

Time ticked by, second by second. The Mercury vessel finally lit up with the signal indicating hot start completion. Zhong Yun spared it a glance before looking away. This matter—he had to see it through. He didn't want to harbor regrets later.

The elder’s voice finally broke the silence again. "Zhong Yun, is it? Take my daughter out here, and I can spare your life."

The hands Weiwei had wrapped tightly around Zhong Yun’s waist suddenly clenched. Zhong Yun patted her back reassuringly. "I'm sorry, I can't do that."

"Young man, you'd best consider this carefully. Don't ruin yourself over a moment of impulse," the elder's tone was laced with menace.

"Old sir, perhaps you shouldn't speak so absolutely. There are some people in this world who are not to be trifled with," Zhong Yun said with a smile, his words sharp beneath a veneer of politeness.

"How dare you threaten me." The old man was clearly angered. A mere youth dared to lecture him to his face—truly a man courting death.

"I wouldn't dare. This is merely a small piece of advice from a junior. It carries no other meaning."

"Sharp tongue." The patience the old man had painstakingly gathered was entirely depleted. Simultaneously, his opinion of Zhong Yun plummeted to rock bottom. The thought that his daughter might have been seduced away by honeyed words sent him into a fury, branding Zhong Yun the chief culprit responsible for driving a wedge between him and his daughter.

"Uncle Manson, I call you uncle only because you are Weiwei's father. Given your prejudice against me, I will refrain from meeting you face-to-face. Here, I formally ask you: please entrust Weiwei to my care. I will look after her well."

Hearing Zhong Yun’s words, Weiwei’s body gave a sharp jolt. She suddenly lifted her head, staring at him in disbelief, her eyes instantly filling with tears.

"In your dreams," the elder's voice was ice-cold; his heart was boiling with rage.

Weiwei's expression dimmed. Her father's words had clearly stated his position. Even though she had mentally prepared for it, hearing it directly still caused her immense pain.

Zhong Yun saw the look in her eyes and sighed silently. Love wasn't that simple. Even if they came together because of a momentary surge of emotion, what about afterward?

"I apologize, I am not making a request of you. I am formally informing you. After this, we will be leaving Planet Keton for a distant place. Perhaps we will never return," Zhong Yun’s voice was soft, yet for the two listening, it struck with the shocking impact of a tidal wave.

"Don't even think about it," the elder roared, almost howling. "I will never allow you to take Weiwei away from me. Never!"

"Dispatch the First, Second, and Third Squads immediately. Bring Weiwei up to me safely, no matter the cost." The words were delivered with a chilling killing intent, clearly a direct command to those around him.

"It's useless," Zhong Yun stated calmly. "Unless Weiwei herself tells me she doesn't want to come with me."

He looked down at the incomparably beautiful Weiwei in his arms and softly asked, "Are you willing? Are you willing to leave the home you grew up in, leave your father, leave your friends... give up everything?"

He stared intently into her eyes, "And come with me to a place completely unfamiliar to you?"

Say yes. If she answered yes without hesitation, he would take her away without hesitation.

But he was disappointed. He clearly saw the pain and struggle in Weiwei's eyes. In a daze, he once again recalled the resolute, uncompromising determination Yun Qi had shown when she fled D'Avos with him.

In this world, only she could treat him so completely without reservation. For him, she could abandon everything.

Weiwei felt utterly lost. When she finally had to face this choice, the anguish in her heart was unbearable. On one side was the father who bore and raised her for twenty years; on the other, the man she deeply loved.

Between the two most important men in her life, she could only choose one.

How cruel fate was to her.

"Weiwei, you must not be deceived by him. In this world, the only one who truly cares for you is me," the old man's voice grew anxious; fear crept into his heart. If his daughter made a rash decision and left him, he didn't know what he would do afterward.

His wife had passed away early; all his emotions had been poured into his only daughter. Simply put, his daughter was his entire world. He absolutely could not let anyone take her away.

Zhong Yun watched her silently, awaiting her decision.

Weiwei’s gaze was helpless and bleak. She had already resolved to be with Zhong Yun forever, never to separate. But with her father standing right there, the memories of twenty years flashed through her mind.

She could not simply abandon her father to face the future alone. She couldn't do it.

"I understand," Zhong Yun saw the answer in her eyes. He sighed, released her, and walked step by step to the control console and sat down.

Weiwei's heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible giant hand. Her limbs felt icy cold, and boundless panic engulfed her.

"No..."

A chair automatically slid out behind her, gently nudging the back of her knees. She sat down involuntarily. Her muscles were stiff, rendering her speechless, but the fear in her heart intensified.

The chair began to slide rapidly out of the control room.

Tears instantly blurred her vision. In the distorted view, Zhong Yun sat with his back entirely to her, not turning back even once.

"Your father needs you more than I do," Zhong Yun's voice reached her ears.

Then, under her despairing gaze, a door sealed off her view.

Shocked and overwhelmed, her vision went black, and she fainted.

Inside the control room, Zhong Yun let out a listless sigh. His heart felt empty. He murmured softly, "Let's go home."

After millennia, the Mercury vessel finally started up again. Months ago, Zhong Yun had sent all the construction robots out to excavate the soil from the Mercury, leaving only a layer of earth a few dozen meters thick, supported by structural frames, so it appeared normal from the outside.

The Mercury lifted straight up, the massive airflow stirring up turbulence that shook the area for tens of kilometers. The forest instantly convulsed as if the earth itself was moving. Flocks of various birds and beasts scattered chaotically through the woods, resembling the onset of the apocalypse.

This sudden anomaly provoked a swift response from the forces loyal to Weiwei's father. Emergency orders were issued for the mechanized brigades already underground to evacuate. Simultaneously, all mechs ascended into the sky, maintaining their formation.

"Why is there a sudden earthquake?" In the command fighter, Weiwei's father was startled and furious. "Weiwei is still underground! No matter what, she cannot be harmed."

"The Young Miss will be fine," his adjutant, a middle-aged man, tried to comfort him.

"No, I'm going to save her." The elder bit down hard and made up his mind.

The adjutant was greatly alarmed and quickly tried to restrain him. "No, General! You absolutely cannot go..." If the elder were to rush underground and meet with an accident, his own life would be forfeit. Therefore, he had to stop the old man by any means necessary.

Everyone in the fighter jet realized this and rushed forward to persuade him. "General, calm down!" "General, please don't be impulsive!"...

"Get away from me!" The restrained elder erupted in anger, shaking his body. A crimson light flared, and a wave of heat suddenly surged out of nowhere, sending them flying backward, slamming against the cabin walls with dull thuds.

Just then, the ground vibrations intensified dramatically. Suddenly, the earth across thousands of square kilometers began to swell, as if something immense was about to break through the surface.

The rumbling grew louder and louder, like thunder rolling in a storm, echoing across the entire sky.

The ground, centered on the base, tore open with a bottomless fissure that stretched to the horizon, as if the entire earth had been split in two.

The crack widened continuously, and the ground around the fissure continued to bulge higher. In just a few minutes, this patch of forest transformed into a mountain over a hundred meters tall.

Everyone present was dumbfounded, having never witnessed such a scene. It was as if the earth's crust had been injected with stimulants and was moving frantically, raising a mountain from nothingness in such a short time.

Several more fissures appeared on the 'mountain,' multiplying rapidly, tearing the ground into shards.

"No! There's something beneath the surface! It's about to break out!" A junior staff officer cried out in terror. "It's huge! It's enormous..."

"All mechs, receive order! Evacuate this area immediately! Evacuate this area immediately!" The elder, seasoned by experience, decisively issued the order before others could react. When danger struck, he immediately snapped back into command mode.

Thousands of mechs in the sky accelerated to maximum speed, scattering in all directions.

"It's out!" The staff officer's voice held a strange mix of excitement and fear as he roared.

P: One more chapter.

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