"Have you found them?" Bai Yan asked anxiously.
"No." Jin Ao shook his head.
"Cui Bai City, Moon City, we’ve searched everywhere they might go." Kong Chengrui replied, "Where else could they be?"
Xue Ruiyang comforted Bai Yan, "Xi Qu and Ying Fei are already at Twelve Stars. With their strength, they won’t encounter danger."
The topic of Superpower Levels came up.
Bai Yan’s family’s superpowers had all improved.
While Xiao Jinsheng and the others were still absorbing Star Stone Energy near the Star Stone Mine to increase their Star Levels,
Xi Qu and Ying Fei had broken through to the Twelve Stars capability just three months after taking the Star-breaking Pill.
Meanwhile, Jin Ao, Xue Ruiyang, Bai Qiming, Kong Chengrui, and Qing Zelin, after being encouraged by Bai Yan to take the Star-breaking Pill, all reached Eleven Stars in strength.
Over the past three months, they had been trying to break through the bottleneck to Twelve Stars.
But because of Xi Qu and Ying Fei’s disappearance, everyone had spent more than twenty days searching, delaying their own affairs.
Bai Yan: [System, can’t you locate them?]
Insect Brain: [Sorry, I’m only bound to you. I can only track my own host.]
Insect Brain: [I could search for Xi Qu and Ying Fei, but it requires switching bindings. Are you sure? Once the binding is swapped, you’ll no longer be my host.]
Bai Yan furiously replied: [You’re even more useless than System 1.0.]
Though Insect Brain 1.0 often rebuked her, it at least played a significant role in locating people and objects.
"As long as your Star Map binding with them remains, they’re not in danger," Bai Qiming reassured. "As long as they’re alive, we can find them."
"Let’s keep searching." Bai Yan frowned.
For some reason, a foreboding unease kept creeping into her heart.
Insect Brain observed the frantic Bai Yan darting around, and for the first time, dared not say a word.
It had tracked Xi Qu and Ying Fei’s location—toward the Northern Cloud Island.
Cloud Island—the territory of the Terminal.
Through the eggs laid on Xi Qu and Ying Fei, Insect Brain saw for the first time what the Mist Continent environment belonging to the Terminal looked like.
Xi Qu and Ying Fei were each trapped in different iron cages.
A black mist morphed into a humanoid silhouette, with visible limbs but no facial features, floating close.
It tossed aside a drained Ten Star Star Stone from its hand, the Star Stone landing squarely on the Snow Cliff Ice Sea of Cloud Island.
Xi Qu watched as the creature consumed Star Stones, exchanging a solemn glance with Ying Fei in the adjacent cage.
They had been trapped in these cages for over twenty days.
Upon reaching Twelve Star Superpower Levels, Xi Qu and Ying Fei had planned to fight back to Moon City for Bai Yan’s revenge.
They left silently, not wanting Bai Yan to worry, and confident in their Twelve Star capabilities as the pinnacle of strength in Mist Continent.
However, before entering Moon City’s territory, during the late-night silence, the two were swept away by a black mist.
When they woke, they were already confined in these iron cages.
The cages appeared simple yet could not be escaped, not even a little.
Even superpowers seemed unusable in this eerie place.
Star Maps didn’t work. Superpowers didn’t work. The iron cages couldn’t be broken.
In these twenty days, Xi Qu and Ying Fei were driven to the brink of mental collapse.
Today, however, they saw another living entity here apart from themselves.
Not something one could call human.
The misty humanoid silhouette floated between the two cages.
It sniffed Xi Qu on the left and shook its head: "Not enough, the taste is wrong."
Tilting its head, it sniffed Ying Fei on the right and shook its head again: "Wrong, all wrong. Your emotions are all wrong."
"Who are you!" Xi Qu demanded in a low voice.
The Terminal turned, its gaze lighting up, and it responded with delight: "The taste is starting to change. Now, this is right."
"You ask who I am?" The Terminal sneered. "How about asking who has sent you here?"
"What do you mean?" Ying Fei frowned.
The Terminal floated upward in glee, mist condensing into a screen.
On the screen appeared Bai Yan’s face.
The image of Bai Yan, her expression dark and no one around her, but her monologue could be heard: [Give me the Star-breaking Pill.]
Soon, Xi Qu and Ying Fei heard a strange, mechanical voice in the image: [Do you even know what you’re asking for?]
The mechanical voice was stern: [Think carefully. The Star-breaking Pill can indeed elevate a Beastman’s strength from zero to Eleven Stars instantly, with no detectable side effects, but each use of superpowers consumes the Beastman’s life force.]
At this, Xi Qu and Ying Fei immediately thought of the pills they had taken aboard the ship—pills Bai Yan had described as rewards from the Terminal for upgrading superpowers.
Bai Yan responded indifferently: [I’ll just stop them from using superpowers, won’t I?]
The System hesitated: [... If you can handle the consequences, it’s your choice. How many pills do you want?]
Bai Yan demanded: [Two pills.]
Soon, the screen showed Bai Yan coaxing Xi Qu into taking the Star-breaking Pill.
As Xi Qu stared in shock at the misty screen, it then displayed Bai Yan at Jin Ao’s door, hesitating with the second pill.
Ying Fei watched this unfold, piecing together Bai Yan’s earlier conversation with the mechanical voice. He felt an icy chill deep within.
Sure enough, Bai Yan didn’t knock on Jin Ao’s door but instead brought the second pill to Ying Fei.
The Terminal laughed cruelly, "You’ve seen it yourselves. These Star-breaking Pills are no good. Strength gained by consuming your life only brings you closer to death step by step."
"Why should we believe you!" Xi Qu shouted. "What kind of being are you? Just an illusion trying to deceive us!"
"You’re furious." The Terminal chuckled, its black misted body like a shadow, growing sinister black eyes devoid of whites.
Its gaze was dark and penetrating as it stared at Xi Qu, "You’re angry. You’re angry enough to curse yourself, questioning whether you should believe the truth—that the Female Master you love wants you dead."
"Shut up! Bai Yan wouldn’t harm me!" Xi Qu barked in fury.
"Believe whatever you like." The Terminal burped contentedly and turned away. "But thank you for helping me discover other escaped food."
The Terminal had already feasted well today.
It intended to raise Xi Qu and Ying Fei for a while longer.
Feeling an imposing, invisible force in the darkness like a tangible stare pressing down on it.
The Terminal looked upward toward the skies.
It extended a claw of its black mist, seized the phantom image of a limp, pitch-black insect, and shoved it into its mouth.
Insect Brain, monitoring Xi Qu and Ying Fei’s captivity, absorbed the explosive revelation that the Mist Continent’s Beastmen were merely food for the Terminal. Then, it felt a strange warmth.
It was as if something damp and limp had slithered its way from head to tail.
The Terminal licked the phantom of Insect Brain, smacking its lips in satisfaction, the sinister eyes gleaming in delight: "Delicious. Fresh snacks."