Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 398: Ancient History (2)

There were far, far too many strings attached to Miracle. When Si Fang massacred that most important planet, countless people in the army and the government must have gone crazy. It was no wonder that she was demoted and locked up in a prison afterward.

At her level, massacring a planet was neither too significant nor insignificant a matter. It was all about the reason; a reason that could decide whether the culprit lived or died. Looking at the outcome, it was clear that the army and the government found a “reason” that landed Si Fang and a portion of her subordinates in prison.

“Si Huang…” Cillin recalled a key figure of the matter.

“Si Huang and Si Fang shared different ideologies and paths. Because of this, they tried to stay out of each other’s way as much as possible. Si Huang wanted to intervene after Si Fang was imprisoned, but Si Fang rejected his offer. Furious and irritated, Si Huang decided to leave her to her fate.”

“Several months later, the fire happened. Si Huang did not intervene because he was busy with something with the Grim Reapers. Later, when he had to fall aslumber due to a personal reason, he did not allow his Grim Reapers to intervene either. That said, the first thing he did after awakening was to kill Oros.”

Oros was one of the Heavenly Edict Generals; the one Lung told Cillin that Si Huang had taken out before. At the time, Cillin did not understand why Si Huang had taken out that Heavenly Edict General. Now, he realized that it was to take revenge for Si Fang. Oros most likely had something to do with that fire.

Yin Wushe said with obvious schadenfreude, “Oros was furious when he learned that Si Fang had annihilated Miracle’s planet, but he couldn’t just execute her because of her merits. So, he resorted to an underhanded method instead.”

“Is Si Huang that strong?” Cillin asked. A Heavenly Edict General was strong not just because of their individual abilities, but also the sheer amount of people they commanded. Assassinating Oros was anything but easy.

“Heh, now you’re asking the right questions. As you say, things would not have gone so smoothly had Si Huang tried to assassinate Oros alone, not unless he chose to drag everyone in Grim Reaper into it. He didn’t need to though since someone supplied him with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That person is Wei Ting.”

Wei Ting was also a Heavenly Edict General. To be specific, the Heavenly Edict Generals were the one in the Yu Family, the one in the Ci Family, Oros and Wei Ting.

Cillin had wondered why Wei Ting was acting so quiet after Oros’ death. Now he knew it was because he was none other than the backstabber himself.

“Wei Ting was Si Fang’s most competent aide and the highest leader of the group who was sentenced to various punishments back then. If Si Fang hadn’t been sentenced back then, the army might have been in a different state than it was now.”

“After Si Fang received her sentence, some of Si Fang’s subordinates left Wei Ting and joined another group. If I have to guess, it’s because they were extremely disappointed with Wei Ting. It was also around that time Wei Ting’s forces became far weaker than the other three Heavenly Edict Generals.”

“Personally, I think Wei Ting got his just dessert. It was bad enough that he was a wimp who didn’t dare to admit that Si Fang was his lover, but he also failed to protect her. God only knows how he’s still a Heavenly Edict General. I would’ve quitted and drowned myself in a ditch if I was him.”

Cillin: “... I think I figured out something.”

“It’s exactly what you think. This is why I always thought that those fuckers are the hypocritical and two-faced to the max. The multitude worship the Heavenly Edict Generals like they are gods or something, but they’re just men; men with a ton of flaws and an even bigger temper. They are anything but divine.”

Wei Ting had his own family. It was quite common for people at his level to have multiple lovers.

“Oh! Speaking of which, I have a data packet for you.” Yin Wushe suddenly recalled something and said, “This was why Si Fang went so far as to destroy the planet even after she had already massacred every soul on it. This is also why I told you to watch out for Miracle not long ago. Although Si Fang had destroyed the planet, not all of the data was lost. Some of them had been preserved in some of Miracle’s branches. Enough years have passed that I reckon that they have recovered most of the data. This is one of the biggest reasons the Ci Family had been suppressing Miracle in all kinds of ways over the years.”

As Cillin examined the data packet he received from Yin Wushe, he suddenly understood why Si Fang had resorted to drastic measures. If this thing were to be leaked, then its threat level could exceed even that of Zebra.

“That is why you should be careful. Nothing is more important than your own life, understand? This is something even the Ci Family couldn’t handle, so why should you risk your life for it, eh?” 𝖗𝘢ꞐꝊBÈ𝐒

Yin Wushe was no sympathetic soul. He wouldn’t be saddened even if most of GAL were to depart for the afterlife so to speak. Cillin’s pet though, that was a completely different story. If something happened to Cillin, the cat would surely suffer. If the cat suffered, then who would keep lil’ Ice Cream company?

After he was done conversing with Yin Wushe, Cillin checked out the data packet he just received once more. It was really incomplete, but it was still impressive that Merciless was able to gather this much information. Still, he would have to gather more information if he wanted to understand it better.

Cillin was in deep thought when Wheeze poked its head through the door. When it saw Cillin’s stern expression, it twitched its ears, did a little jog over to his side, and jumped onto his shoulder. Then, it swatted Cillin’s face with its paw and asked, “You were talking with Yin Wushe, weren’t you?”

Although Wheeze could not spy on Cillin and Yin Wushe’s dialogue like normal, it could still find out who Cillin was talking to.

“Yep.”

“Did you ask him to pay us back then? He still owes me money, you know! That freesucker!” Wheeze said angrily.

“You mean freeloader.”

“It’s the same thing. Long story short, that old man and that stinky mouse didn’t pay!”

Cillin removed Wheeze from his shoulders and began stroking its back. “The information he just provided is pretty valuable. It’s enough to pay for your ‘jumbo-sized’ meal several times over.”

Wheeze’s whiskers twitched a little. A moment later, it finally said, “That’s acceptable, I guess. I’m still going to beat them up if they ‘freesuck’ us again though!”

“Sure, sure, we’ll beat em’ to death.” Cillin scratched it under the chin next. “How did your surveillance go?”

Wheeze’s ears drooped in disappointment. “There was nothing useful.”

Cillin thought that might be the case. Still, it looked like Samburt shared a fairly good relationship with Si Fang, and he was one of the few people who actually cared for the people of GAL. Sincere or not, it was still better than total apathy.

“What were you thinking just now?” Wheeze asked while licking its paw.

“About all the troublesome things that are headed our way.”

“What’s there to think about? If GAL becomes too hot to stay, then we’ll leave for Mist Bodhisattva. I have my own territory over there. If Mist Bodhisattva becomes too hot for us, there are still other galaxies to explore. It’s not like the entire universe is made up of GAL and Mist Bodhisattva only, is it?”

Wheeze was an easy-going fellow. As long as the handful of people it cared about was fine, it could care less about everyone else!

“I would like to explore the universe to my heart’s content as well, but it is easier said than done.”

“You humans are so complicated.”

“I think so too. That’s why it’s so hard to create an Original robot.”

After that, Cillin would sit on his chair and think for the whole night. Wheeze laid on his legs and slept a whole night as well. Its posture was terrible though. Some time after it fell asleep, it began kicking its legs as well. If he had to guess, Cillin reckoned that Wheeze was fighting against Ice Cream in its sleep.

Besides that one assassination attempt at the beginning, the night passed by peacefully. For now. The good news was that Samburt was looking much better after a full night of rest. Their contact wasn’t here yet, so they still had to wait for a bit.

Cillin had brought enough food with him, so they did not need to head out and risk their lives just to buy some food. Staying within the compound would also minimize their chances of being seen. Not be a lot of people were living in this place, but it also meant that the residents were much more sensitive to an unfamiliar face.

Wheeze and Pian Huo were occupying the only stone bench in the courtyard, so Cillin sat on the ground instead. There were wild grass everywhere, but they looked very lively. Cillin sat on one such grass and began scrawling on an electronic board. They were codes that only Cillin understood, so it did not matter if someone might see his writing.

After loafing on the stone bench for a bit, Wheeze leaped onto the grassy ground and rolled all the way to Cillin’s side. Then, it climbed onto his legs, found a comfortable position, and dozed off once more.

Cillin ignored the grassy stains Wheeze had wiped on his outfit. He was too busy with work to care at the moment.

A fist propping up her chin, Pian Huo watched the duo with a slight smile on her face. If she ignored the fact that the gray cat was a literal man-eater, it was definitely an endearing pet.

The afternoon sunlight was excellent. It wasn’t long before Pian Huo began feeling sleepy herself. She hadn’t slept well last night not because of the assassination attempt, but because Samburt unintentionally or intentionally made her recall a lot of old memories. Now that she had finally resurfaced from those memories, and after she saw how comfortable the cat was sleeping, her drowsiness was creeping into her brain like a worm as well.

She glanced at the descending sunlight before scanning the courtyard for a long chair or a hammock or something, but there was none. Once again, she stared at Wheeze for a moment before she, for whatever reason, began walking over to Cillin. She did not try to check out Cillin’s work. Instead, she started teasing the gray cat whose body was sprawled across both of his legs.

Wheeze lazily looked up at her for a second before closing its eyes once more. No matter what Pian Huo did after that, it ignored her completely.

So, Pian Huo bundled Wheeze into a circular shape, sat down, and rested her head on its body. It was a natural furry pillow, soft and warm.

Cillin paused whatever he was doing for a moment and looked down first at the gray cat bundled on top of his legs, then the woman who was using it as a pillow. Not only was he enduring the weight of a fat cat and a human head, he couldn’t move unless he wanted to disturb their sleep. He tried. As soon as his legs twitched a little, both the woman and the cat began smacking their lips as if they were getting ready to mouth a threat.

Fine, he could endure their combined weight and keep his legs still. But when he saw a trickle of saliva mixed with fish biscuit pieces trickling out of Wheeze’s mouth and onto his pants, when he saw that a trickle of equally suspicious liquid was also trickling out of Pian Huo’s mouth, he could not help but feel a throbbing headache.

These two!!!!