Chapter 53: Reclaiming the Gem and Unveiling the Identity

Every brick in the Golden Dome Hall was made from special crushed gold-veined marble, and the 5-meter-tall giant stone doors were wrapped in copper plates. The pillars and corridors were engraved with exquisite reliefs.

The main entrance is only opened for royalty or important foreign dignitaries. Therefore, Xiao Sa and his group had to enter through the side door.

The ceiling was a circular skylight made of huge stained glass, with a massive crystal chandelier hanging in the center, casting a dazzling array of colors onto the marble floor below.

Along the way, there were etiquette officers specially dispatched by the royal family to teach them the proper etiquette for meeting the emperor, from dress code to behavior. Even the distance of each step had to strictly adhere to royal protocols.

Xiao Sa walked carefully along the red carpet into the dome hall. Behind him were the runner-up and third-place winner of this year's Heavenly Ascension Arena, two young men he had never met before. They appeared both nervous and curious, their eyes darting around until the etiquette officers sternly reminded them to stay focused.

As they entered the inner hall, the interior was designed in a curved, stepped fashion, with the sides higher than the center. At the top of the front steps stood a golden throne.

Seated on the throne, holding a scepter, was the emperor of the Dawn Empire—an elderly man dressed in elaborate and luxurious robes. Standing nearby were the emperor's personal guard commander, the crown prince, and the third prince, whom Xiao Sa had met before.

Further down the steps were other nobles and ministers of the advisory council, with palace guards lined up on either side.

The etiquette officer reminded them not to look directly at the emperor. Xiao Sa glanced briefly and then lowered his gaze.

About ten meters away from the steps, the etiquette officer instructed the three to kneel on one knee to salute the emperor.

In the hall, the royal family sat in order of rank, while nobles and ministers stood. The three lucky civilians knelt in the center on the floor.

The etiquette officer began to deliver the emperor's words of commendation, the sound echoing through the dome hall as cameras and flashes continued to click away. The lenses captured the excited expressions of the two people next to Xiao Sa.

On the Stellar Network forums, discussions about the live broadcast were heating up.

"I didn't expect the mysterious Alpha to be so handsome. Can someone check his compatibility? It's not for me, it's for my gay best friend."

"The Alpha is so young? I thought he'd be a middle-aged muscle man. Oh no, my feelings for dad have changed."

"Urgent! I need to know which legion the Alpha is going to! Is it too late for me to enroll in the military academy now?"

Throughout the entire reading of the commendation and before the medal presentation, they were required to kneel on the floor according to imperial protocol.

Xiao Sa felt a growing unease, unable to shake the thought that even someone like Landis, who was already part of the power structure, had to kneel before the emperor.

The lengthy speech finally ended, and the etiquette officer brought the medals to Xiao Sa and the other two.

"Congratulations to the three of you for standing out in this year's Heavenly Ascension Arena! The empire and His Majesty have high hopes for your future. May you serve in the military and relieve the emperor's worries. We wish for the continued prosperity of our Dawn Empire!"

From start to finish, the emperor on the high platform did not speak a single word to them, with all communication handled by the etiquette officer. The nobles in the hall and the media on the Stellar Network were filled with various praises for the royal family.

The next part was the usual celebration and royal banquet.

Xiao Sa dismissed the people who came to chat him up and quietly said to Haino, "The operation is about to begin."

He quietly slipped away from the crowd at the banquet and found a central air conditioning vent, where the indoor surveillance conveniently avoided his angle.

Xiao Sa took out an extremely thin glass tube with a micro-detonator at the tip. Inside was a highly concentrated Alpha pheromone extract from his glands, without any dilution, and a paralyzing gas collected from the venom of a man-eating flower.

The pungent smell inside would cause lower-level Alphas in a venue on the home planet to lose control, driven into a frenzy by the overwhelming pheromones.

Xiao Sa flicked his finger, launching the information detonator directly into a central air conditioning vent, and repeated the process near several other vents.

After completing the preparations, he nonchalantly walked back to the hall, then silently began counting down.

"Ten... nine... five... three, two, one—" Xiao Sa silently mouthed the word, 'Explosion,' his lips barely moving.

"Bang bang bang—" A series of violent explosions detonated unexpectedly at the ventilation outlets in the domed hall.

A strong aroma of tequila pheromones instantly overflowed and rapidly spread through the air ducts of the central air conditioning, eventually wafting out from the vents across the hall.

Within minutes, the entire domed hall was quickly filling with high concentrations of S-grade Alpha pheromones.

"What's going on?"

"What's happening? Is it a terrorist attack?!"

Panic erupted among the crowd, throwing the hall into chaos. The palace guards immediately rushed to protect the royal family on the high platform, and the alarm system nearby activated instantly.

Xiao Sa also pretended to be surprised and retreated into the crowd.

When the security team rushed into the domed hall with their mental entities, the events unfolded exactly according to the plan Xiao Sa and Haino had prepared.

The people of the star sea region could not smell Xiao Sa's pheromones. These explosions were merely for show, creating the illusion of a terrorist attack to cause confusion and panic, but they would not harm anyone.

The only effect was a diluted paralyzing agent in the air, causing dizziness, drowsiness, and numbness.

True chaos erupted when a large number of mental entities were released by the palace guards and the security team.

As soon as these mental entities caught the scent of Xiao Sa's highly concentrated tequila pheromones, they received a strong attack signal. Some mental entities with particularly developed olfactory nerves, after a brief moment of confusion, quickly fell into a state of pseudo-rage.

Suppression, expulsion, rejection, attack—each successive negative impulse from the mental connection grew stronger, transmitted to their owners.

The frenzy of these mental entities quickly spread, pushing everyone's nerves to the brink.

Xiao Sa silently unleashed his mental domain. By controlling just one or two of the most severely frenzied mental entities, he initiated indiscriminate attacks. Soon, all the mental entities in the domed hall were affected, falling into a state of mutual attack.

At the front of the stone steps, a wolf-type mental entity bit into another nearby snow fox entity, only to be suddenly bitten on the hind leg by a hissing cobra.

No matter how their owners commanded or called out, the red-eyed mental entities barely responded to their masters' orders in time.

The head of security shouted in the middle of the crowd, "Quickly recall your mental entities! There may be a contaminant in the air!"

He did not know that it was the pheromones causing the frenzy. Generally, anything that caused mental entities to go berserk was considered a contaminant.

At the mention of 'contaminant,' the screams grew louder, drowning out the head of security's voice.

At the top of the steps, the crown prince, guarding the emperor's side, looked anxious. "Leave this to the personal guard commander and the security team. You should retreat to the underground palace for safety, Your Majesty."

How could a contaminant have leaked into the palace? The third prince, his face pale, coldly observed the chaotic scene below.

He had a feeling that the instigator of this incident might be in this very hall.

He ordered loudly, "Have the outside guards surround the domed hall. No one is to leave for now."

This order immediately provoked strong dissatisfaction among the other nobles and ministers. Realizing that there might be toxic gas or even contaminants in the air, their first instinct was to seek refuge in the underground palace. How could they stay in this dangerous hall?!

The personal guard commander next to the emperor wiped his sweat. "Your Majesty, please retreat to the underground palace. The security team will handle this by deploying air purification devices."

In the event of an attack or gas attack, the palace's defense systems should have activated protective measures, spraying purifying agents. But so far, the entire palace's intelligent defenses had not issued any warnings.

The security team had no choice but to use suppression guns to subdue the frenzied mental entities one by one.

Before anyone could question why the defense system had failed, the palace guards and security team escorted the emperor and the two princes, along with the nobles and ministers, into the emergency passage leading to the underground palace.

At this moment, the commoners in the banquet hall were left unattended. The media cameras had been ordered to stop broadcasting signals at the onset of the chaos, but for some reason, the signal had not been interrupted. Even the central control system of the palace seemed to have fallen into a strange state of stagnation.

Amidst the chaos, Xiao Sa closely followed behind the nobles and smoothly entered the first level of the underground palace through the emergency passage.

Once inside the underground palace, Xiao Sa’s entire operation was already half successful.

The silver-rimmed glasses he wore displayed the map of the entire underground palace and the channel indicators on the lenses.

Haino’s voice spoke in his ear, “Xiao Sa, the third intersection ahead is the elevator that leads directly to the core control room.”

Xiao Sa murmured, “Got it.”

With Haino’s help, as long as there was a port connected to the Central Mind in the underground palace, all electronic infrared identifications were rendered useless to Xiao Sa.

However, inside the core control room, apart from the infrared monitoring, there was an additional primitive barrier to the core energy chamber of the Central Mind terminal that required a key to open.

This key was held by the personal guard commander of the emperor. The key’s structure was complex, and if subjected to violent shaking, it would immediately trigger an alarm.

Xiao Sa asked Haino in a low voice, “Where is the personal guard commander now?”

Haino replied swiftly, “He’s in the central shelter on the first level of the underground palace, with the royal family members.”

Xiao Sa nodded, “Go ahead and send the projection as planned.”

After that, Xiao Sa quietly disappeared behind the crowd and rapidly moved towards the elevator.

Just as he was about to reach the elevator bay, Haino suddenly warned, “There’s a security team ahead, and another team is coming from behind. Xiao Sa, you’re caught in a pincer!”

Xiao Sa’s expression darkened, and he remained silent.

He quickly flattened himself against the wall. He pulled out a vial of paralyzing gas, popped the bottle cap, and threw it onto the ground behind the corner. After counting to five, he lunged forward, moving swiftly and striking with overwhelming force, taking down the three security officers in an instant.

Dragging one of them aside, he swapped uniforms with the unconscious guard.

“Haino, help me mimic this guy’s appearance.”

Soon, Xiao Sa, now dressed as a security officer, swaggered into the direct elevator.

The elevator descended to the core control room, and he effortlessly bypassed all security checks, arriving unimpeded.

Once again using the same trick, he used his high-concentration pheromones and paralyzing gas to incapacitate all the operators inside.

After a short while, the entire core control room was empty except for him.

Right in front of him, inside the towering special glass column, was the Central Mind.

※※※

Meanwhile, within the shelter on the first level of the underground palace.

The minister of security was frantically directing the security team and the palace guards to clean up the mess in the dome hall and search for suspicious individuals.

The emperor, with a dark expression, glared at his two sons and the ministers who were exchanging puzzled looks. His anger was overwhelming, “Who can explain what the hell happened today? How did a grand ceremony turn into this chaos?”

“Your security department has been negligent! And where is the military? Was the riot caused by mental entities, and how did they even get into the palace?”

The emperor’s cold gaze swept across everyone’s faces, but the high-ranking officials from the security department and the military were drenched in sweat, unable to provide a definitive answer.

The third prince said gravely, “The sudden appearance of humanoid mutants in Central Star’s atmosphere remains unresolved. It’s possible that this incident is related to the previous one involving the humanoid mutants.”

“The military should conduct a thorough sweep of Central Star. Crown Prince, the security of the palace has always been under your charge, don’t you agree?”

The crown prince narrowed his eyes, staring down the other person with a stern expression, a cold smile on his lips, saying nothing.

Just as everyone was baffled, the projection equipment in the shelter suddenly turned on, emitting an alarm message, displaying the image of the core control room.

Everyone was startled, their eyes widening in shock. A person dressed as a security team member had secretly infiltrated the core control room, which was supposed to be the most heavily guarded!

"What the hell? How did he get in there? That's the core control room!"

The emperor's face paled, and he shouted to the personal guard commander, "Quickly, take people to the control room! Don't let him touch any core equipment! The Central Mind must not be compromised. If there is resistance, kill him on the spot!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Even without the emperor's outburst, the personal guard commander understood the severity of the situation.

He immediately led two squads of heavily armed guards, rushing down to the core control room to capture Xiao Sa.

At the same time, in the core control room.

Haino quickly warned, "Xiao Sa, the personal guard commander is coming."

Xiao Sa's lenses displayed over twenty red dots rapidly approaching.

By then, the chaos in the dome hall had been quelled, and now the security team and palace guards were heading to the underground palace, with defense forces stationed near the palace also on their way.

"Radar defense system activated..."

"Atmospheric layer outer surveillance system activated..."

"The monitoring system is being manually controlled..."

As Haino quickly relayed the updates, Xiao Sa understood that the situation was becoming increasingly tense, and time was running out. He needed to race against the clock.

With the royal family mobilizing all available resources and forces, even with Haino's help, it would be difficult to achieve the goal and retreat unscathed.

Just as the personal guard commander, leading two squads of heavily armed guards, was about to burst into the core control room, Xiao Sa's eyes flickered, and he coldly said, "Haino, cut the power to the core energy room."

The moment the personal guard commander opened the gate, everything went dark!

The entire core control room and the corridor outside were plunged into pitch-black darkness.

He shouted, "Beware of enemy ambush, activate emergency energy lights!"

As the emergency energy lights lit up, everyone's vision suddenly blurred, and a figure swiftly approached the personal guard squad!

The external powered exoskeleton devices on the personal guards emitted a dull cracking sound, and the sound of laser gunfire was continuous, but it was unclear if they had hit a teammate.

The personal guard commander stared intently and saw that the intruder held the Central Mind core, which emitted a purple gem-like glow.

The Central Mind core was missing?!

How was this possible?!

A wave of shock washed over the personal guard commander, and he shouted in a low voice, "Stop him! We must not lose the Central Mind core at all costs!"

"Immediately send the message about the core being stolen to His Majesty and the security ministers. We need to activate the emergency backup system!"

Gritting his teeth, the personal guard commander swiftly transmitted an instruction, then quickly entered the core control room, retrieving the energy chamber key he carried, a mechanical cipher resembling a kaleidoscope.

He aligned the key with the lock, and with a click, the door to the core energy chamber swung open.

A brilliant purple gem, embedded in the Central Mind, rested silently within the energy chamber.

The personal guard commander didn’t even have time to relax before his expression changed drastically. "Damn it! We've been tricked!"

Before he could even finish his words, his rear neck was suddenly struck with great force. He didn’t even have time to turn around and see who the attacker was before he completely lost consciousness and crumpled to the ground.

The gem necklace, which had been away from him for so long, now lay quietly in front of him.

Even someone as composed as Xiao Sa couldn’t hide the surge of joy and excitement at reclaiming what was lost.

"Quick, catch him! Notify the others to hurry over! Seal off all exits! We can’t let him get away!"

Xiao Sa’s sharp eyes narrowed as he turned to face the guards closing in, his gaze cold and calculating. His invisible mental energy instantly spread out from him in all directions.

The aggressive pheromones surged forward like a whirlwind of icy spikes, mercilessly battering the enemies.

The guards’ laser guns couldn’t even lock onto Xiao Sa’s incredibly fast movements. After a brief but intense exchange, they fell one by one.

Haino raised his voice, urgently reminding him in his ear, “Xiao Sa, a large number of people are coming. I’ve activated the Central Mind’s hibernation mode, but the royal family is activating the backup energy system.”

“They’ve already detected an issue with my access rights and are urgently changing them. I can only hold them off for another ten minutes at most. You must escape the underground palace within ten minutes!”

“According to plan, I’ve already mobilized a defense mech at the emergency entrance to wait for you. If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late—there’s no time to waste!”

"I understand," Xiao Sa said, quickly turning back to the energy chamber, reaching out to take the gem and Haino’s core.

Around his neck, he wore a tiny signal receiver that allowed the Central Mind core to remain in communication with the Central System even after being removed from the energy chamber.

However, the first unexpected event occurred.

The moment Xiao Sa’s fingers touched the gem, he suddenly felt his mental energy being sucked into a bottomless vortex, and no matter what, it couldn’t be stopped!

Xiao Sa’s eyes widened in shock. "How is this happening?"

The gem necklace had been with him for nearly twenty years, always worn around his neck, and had never shown any anomalies before.

How could such an unexpected situation occur after just being away for half a year?

He didn’t have time to think. Struggling to hold the gem and core in his hands, he tried to remove the gem through his gloves, but the suction was impossible to cut off.

A severe dizziness swept through his spiritual sea, and his heart rate began to skyrocket. Within just a few seconds, he felt his limbs tremble, his vision darken, and large beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, dripping down his cheeks into his clothes.

He felt a burning sensation within him, as though the fire needed to find an outlet.

"This feeling... it was all too familiar."

Xiao Sa’s breathing became rapid and heavy, his chest heaving violently, much like when he first underwent differentiation into an Alpha.

Was he really about to undergo a second differentiation right now?!

“Xiao Sa, go! More reinforcements are coming! Most of my access rights have been locked, and the area I can monitor is shrinking.”

Xiao Sa clenched his back teeth, determined not to pass out at this critical moment. No matter what, he had to hold on until he could reach the mech and escape.

Suppressing the discomfort, he quickly left the control room, all the while taking down the guards rushing in to capture him.

Just as he was about to reach the emergency exit, another unexpected event occurred.

A tall man in a black military uniform hurried toward him, his boots clanging against the cold metal floor of the corridor. His military coat tails flared out with each swift step, and his military cap was pulled low, revealing only the lower half of his cold, stern face.

Xiao Sa immediately recognized him, his pupils trembling violently—hadn't Landis been sent on a mission to the frontlines? What was he doing in the palace?!

Shaken by the shock, his already unstable mental energy surged, and his legs froze in place.

The moment Landis spotted the "rioter" in the suspicious guard uniform, he drew his gun and aimed it at Xiao Sa's forehead, his voice icy. "You're surrounded. Surrender or there's no way out."

Xiao Sa opened his mouth, unsure of what to say.

Only Haino's anxious voice rang in his ear, "Only five minutes left!"

The next second, Landis suddenly wrinkled his nose, as if catching a familiar scent.

Black Flame materialized at his feet, its eyes initially wary, then confused, before it let out a sharp howl. Its two dark golden pupils rounded in surprise, staring incredulously just like his master.

"Xiao Sa... How can it be you?!"

Landis found the whole situation absurd. He lowered his gun and strode forward, closing in on Xiao Sa.

He stared intently at the unfamiliar face before him, disbelief written all over him. Even if the world was deceived by false identities, even if he couldn't see, even if this person turned to ash, he would never mistake that familiar scent.

Confusion, shock, and suspicion flashed across Landis' features.

His gaze landed on the gem and core clutched tightly in Xiao Sa's hand, his brow furrowing, and his voice hoarse. "You infiltrated the palace for this?"

Xiao Sa felt the gem in his palm burning hot, his mental energy draining rapidly.

He instinctively licked his dry lips, unsure how to explain. "Landis..."

He had planned to tell him everything afterward, but he never expected to reveal it all like this.

When Landis wasn't smiling, his ice-blue eyes were like an iceberg before a storm.

No one could stand up to the weight of his scrutinizing gaze.

Suppressed anger crept into his brow, and the color drained from his trembling lips.

The last remnants of his composure crumbled under Xiao Sa's stony silence, revealing the pain and disappointment he had tried so hard to hide.

Even his usually steady voice quivered ever so slightly.

"Xiao Sa, tell me—who are you really? Did you only agree to marry me to get to this point?!"