"Did the package arrive, Hulas roared, the starship Ulysses is guarded by a sharp weapon, in five more minutes the nuclear bomb will detonate, and Ulysses will explode along with it. Agon, can you abandon Ulysses and flee?"

Agon gave Hulas a deep look, flashed toward the starship's crash site, and Master Pang Qian fled at the same time.

Hulas retracted his light staff, snorted, and vanished.

Meanwhile, the battle on the other side had also concluded. Balomon, intentionally taking a blow from Master Merlin, managed to tear open a large gash across his chest and abdomen, breaking free from the melee and flashing into the distance.

Master Merlin pursued a few steps with the two master-level experts he brought, then gave up. With the force he commanded, he could certainly have heavily wounded Balomon, but stopping him from escaping was beyond their current combat strength.

Through the Observer's perspective, Yang Ying watched as Hulas and Balomon gathered in the distance before leaving Paradise City via a port. Master-level experts could freely traverse the universe, and Peak Masters could even accelerate their bodies with their mental power, achieving speeds comparable to ordinary starships as they navigated the cosmic currents.

Thus, Hulas and Balomon hadn't bothered boarding a ship; instead, they blasted a hole in the port's outer wall and shot straight out, heading toward an unknown destination.

However, Yang Ying had no mind to pay attention to their departure now. The most pressing issue was that a nuclear bomb had been launched into that one starship.

The situation was that the starship's crash site was not far from Yang Ying, only five or six hundred meters below, visible with a single glance down from the edge of the building where Yang Ying stood.

Suddenly, Master Pang Qian shimmered into existence right on the rooftop platform where Yang Ying was located. He glanced around twice and called out, "Is Yang Ying here?"

He had been discovered!

Yang Ying materialized and greeted him, "As expected of Master Pang Qian. I was concealed so subtly, yet you found me."

"I just happened to be passing by. I had heard rumors you were around, so I made an educated guess. Your cloaking technique is quite unique; if the current situation weren't so tense, I would sincerely hope to exchange techniques with you," Master Pang Qian communicated via mind-link.

Communicating via mind-link was clearly much more time-efficient than speaking.

Yang Ying replied through the same method, "Master Pang Qian, shall we go down together to take a look?"

"No, you must leave this city immediately. Master Merlin just informed me via mind-link—it's too dangerous here; they are withdrawing first. You must go quickly as well; what happens next has nothing to do with you," Master Pang Qian stated firmly.

Next, without Yang Ying seeing Master Pang Qian make any visible motion, he heard the master continue, "I have already told Master Merlin; he will be here to collect you momentarily."

The words had barely finished before Master Merlin appeared on the rooftop. Without a word, he seized both Yang Ying and Master Pang Qian and initiated an instantaneous teleport.

"Wait, Master Merlin, please let me stay here," Master Pang Qian pleaded repeatedly during the spatial shift.

"Impossible. It is far too dangerous here. Do you truly believe Hulas would wait the full five minutes before detonating the nuclear bomb because of Agon? Impossible! Agon might have a sliver of a chance to survive, but for you, it's a one-hundred-percent death sentence!" Master Merlin showed no sign of slowing or relenting.

This was Yang Ying's first experience of the breakneck speed commanded by a Peak Master. The entire journey was a blur, the surrounding scenery rushing backward so fast it was nearly indistinct. The process was so brief that Yang Ying hadn't processed many thoughts before they arrived at the port area within a few steps.

Due to the extreme urgency, Master Merlin didn't follow the established routes within the port but drove straight through, blasting through walls and leaving ruins in their wake.

They passed through a long pier where a starship was docked, its hatch open. The two other master-level energy users who had accompanied Master Merlin were already inside the cabin. Seeing Master Merlin bring back both Master Pang Qian and Yang Ying, they waved from the porthole.

"Let's discuss this inside," Master Merlin stated without pausing, pulling Yang Ying and Master Pang Qian into the cabin. As the hatch sealed, the starship departed.

"Sit anywhere you like," Master Merlin sighed upon entering the cabin.

Master Pang Qian, clearly subdued by the rapid journey, found a seat in a quiet corner of the cabin.

For a time, the cabin was silent. The atmosphere of quietude pressed down on Yang Ying with a sense of gravity.

Yang Ying looked at Master Pang Qian, then at Master Merlin. After a moment's thought, he extended his right hand, projecting a light screen—it was the visual feed transmitted by the Observer of the pointed-nose starship's crash site.

Inevitably, this drew everyone's gaze.

The light screen displayed a deep crater that had pierced through the sewers beneath. At the center of the pit lay the pointed-nose starship, resting silently, emitting black smoke with scattered flames around it.

Agon was already standing beside the ship, drawing his light blade and beginning to cut into the hull.

Vaguely visible through the starship's viewport was a handsome face, appearing to be in his mid-thirties, his eyes fixed coldly on Agon.

Agon swiftly carved a circle with his light blade, opening the ship, and reached toward Ulysses. This was the last image transmitted before a blinding white light erupted, and the entire screen flickered with text indicating severe signal interference.

Simultaneously, a brilliant white light flared outside the viewport, as if a miniature sun had appeared behind the starship.

"The nuclear bomb detonated before the five minutes were up. Hulas broke his word. He must have a remote detonation device. Seeing Agon appear next to the pointed-nose ship, he set off the bomb," Master Merlin sighed.

Yang Ying turned off the light screen and asked, "I still have some questions. May I ask—"

"Wait a moment," Master Merlin suddenly closed his eyes, as if sensing something. "Indeed, Agon's perception remains. He did not die in the nuclear explosion."

At these words, the three masters present, including Master Pang Qian, along with Yang Ying, showed expressions of shock.

"But, Master Merlin, even a Peak Master, unarmed, would perish if directly hit by a nuclear blast. How could Agon possibly survive?" one of the masters asked.

Yang Ying shared the exact same doubt.

Master Merlin nodded. "A Peak Master's physical body alone cannot withstand a nuclear weapon. However, judging by the size of that pointed-nose starship, the yield of the nuclear bomb it could carry wouldn't be very large. Furthermore, Agon was not unarmed. Have you forgotten that Agon's personal fighter jet was also inside Paradise City?"

A thought struck Yang Ying, and he exclaimed, "Force Field Wall!"

"Exactly!" Master Merlin confirmed. "If it was Agon's fighter jet, it could expand the force field wall to a radius of several kilometers or compress it to one-hundredth of that size. If the force field wall was activated when the nuclear bomb detonated, it would have given him time to delay and retreat to a safer distance."

In the technologically advanced 26th century, remotely controlling a fighter jet over long distances was hardly difficult.

Master Pang Qian also approached. "Young friend Yang Ying, could you reactivate that light screen? Let's see if the signal has recovered."

"Right." Yang Ying reopened the light screen, and the image had indeed returned.

Paradise City Two was now a mass of ruins, split in half from the center. Countless fragments floated in space—shattered rock, ice shards, and metal debris—making the entire area incredibly murky.

After some searching, everyone finally located Agon. He was floating in space, one hand supporting Ulysses, lying across the back of a dull yellow fighter jet. Ulysses was clearly unconscious, and being in a radiation zone would have a severe impact on his body as well.

"We must hurry there. Hulas and Balomon will sense that Agon is not dead," Master Merlin immediately instructed the cockpit.

Yang Ying took the opportunity to move closer to Master Pang Qian, asking, "Master, I still don't quite understand. Agon is an Ape-man, and Ulysses is human. Why does Agon show such—such importance to Ulysses?"

"To say 'importance' is insufficient. Agon's feelings for Ulysses run far deeper than mere importance. Since you have overheard so much and are now involved in this feud, there is no harm in telling you," Master Pang Qian said, a nostalgic look crossing his face. "What you just said was incorrect. Agon is an Ape-man, but Ulysses is not entirely human. He is the only successful case among human-Ape-man hybrids. He is Agon's son!"

"Son!"

Yang Ying was stunned by the answer. Ulysses had hunted him in Grey Port, and Yang Ying remembered Ulysses's physique, bone structure, and facial features clearly. There wasn't a single sign indicating any connection between Ulysses and the Ape-men. If there was anything, perhaps it was Ulysses's heterochromia, the different colors of his pupils, which gave him a somewhat sinister look, but to claim that pointed to a human-Ape hybrid—

Master Pang Qian saw Yang Ying's expression and knew what he was thinking. He continued, "Ulysses's mother was named Catherine Sinclair, hailing from a European noble family. She was congenitally blind, but her latent psychic talent was extraordinary. She was once taken as a disciple by Saint Hayden, the former Grand Master of the Holy Light Knights, and had the potential to succeed him as Grand Master—meaning, she possessed the talent to become a Saint Knight."

"Later one day, the Ancient Legion suddenly appeared in Pluto's orbit, shocking humanity. At first, people didn't anticipate the brutal war that would follow with the Ancient Legion, so Earth initiated some tentative friendly exchange missions. Catherine Sinclair, as the Vice Grand Master of the Holy Light Knights and a representative of Earth's religious community, frequently interacted with the Ape-men. Somehow, she and Agon fell in love. Many people said Catherine only fell for an Ape-man because she was blind, as even after becoming a high-ranking Knight, Catherine's eyes were never cured."

"When Catherine overcame all obstacles to be with Agon, the war between humanity and the Ancient Legion erupted. Overnight, the couple became the target of universal scorn, pursued almost by all of humanity. They managed to hide for a few years, but then news arrived that Catherine had died, Agon had vanished, and the newborn Ulysses appeared at the headquarters of the Psychic Temple on Mand Island."