Qu Ze paled, then bolted out. Yao Si glanced at Mu Xuan before heading out after him. The shaking had stopped. She looked up instinctively and saw the sky dotted with shooting stars. The meteorites rained continuously, crashing against the ground. She could even hear the larger pieces landing with earthquake-like thuds. In less than a minute, the Red Planet activated its defence system, holding back the hail of meteorites.

“This…” What’s happening? What’s with the downpour of shooting stars?

Mu Xuan frowned and switched on his optical computer to check for any news on the incident. The first line that popped up had a few enlarged words: The Fall of Red Army 4

Red Army 4! Wasn’t it the Red Planet’s largest satellite? He looked up at the sky, and indeed, there was one less satellite in the air.

Yao Si’s heart clenched, and then she too checked her optical computer. The entire Galactic web was filled with news about the Red Planet. Due to unknown reasons, Red Army 4 had suddenly exploded into millions of pieces. The shooting stars they had witnessed a while ago were exactly those pieces. And it wasn’t just the Red Planet which was affected. The surrounding satellites were also affected by the explosion.

“They have retaliated.” Qu Ze sighed.

“What do you mean?” Yao Si stilled. “You know what’s happening? Is it… Euphoria’s doing?”

Qu Ze nodded. “I had gathered that they were about to engage in a huge operation soon. I assumed that they would target Red Planet, but never would I have thought that they would destroy Red Army 4 instead.”

That reminded Yao Si of a possibility. “Was that a reason why you brought me to Nirvana Planet?”

“Mmh, I assumed that the operation was targeted at Your Highness. That’s why… but I never expected…” He nodded as he explained.

This meant that Euphoria had intentions to bomb Red Planet since a long time ago, yet why would an operation which was targeted at her end up with explosion of an uninhabited satellite?

If she were to recall the incident with Yuan Han, he had indeed targeted her as well. But why? If it was an operation against her, what was the use of bombing a satellite? Besides, it was only a few years since she had awakened, so it was improbable for her to have made enemies. Then what was the point of killing her? Just because she was a fifth generation bloodling? What exactly were they trying to achieve?

Yao Si grew more confused with every question she asked herself. She felt as though she was trapped in a maze.

They could only investigate Red Army 4’s situation and hope for a breakthrough. New updates regarding the explosion kept popping up. thanks to the timely lockdown, there weren’t any fatalities, but the debris had piled up in many areas. More than half of the planet was filled with piles of rocks.

Yao Si opened a map and marked the spots where the meteorites had fallen. Dense red dots filled a large portion of the planet as though… it was a large web?

“Eh? On closer inspection, aren’t the meteorites scattered near the larger cities or around them?” Qu Ze muttered.

The very next second, they paled as a horrible thought struck them.

“Mu Xuan, perhaps these meteorites are…” Yao Si turned to Mu Xuan.

He was silent for a moment, then contacted the Elder Council and various other departments in the Red Planet. Before allowing them to say a word, he commanded, “Secure all the areas where the meteorites have fallen immediately.”

He then started to operate the optical computer once more. After a few minutes, Yao Si saw the figures of their trio appear on all the screens and optical computers in the Red Planet.

“All bloodlings are forbidden from coming within five hundred meters of the fallen meteorites. They can potentially hold a deadly virus,” he announced.

Euphoria couldn’t have exploded Red Army 4 without reason; they couldn’t have done it just to let the bloodlings enjoy a meteor shower. There had to be some kind of ulterior motive. Besides, Red Army 4 was a blue planet and located farthest from the Red Planet. There wasn’t a soul there, so the only possibility was… doomsday virus might be present in the stone fragments! Euphoria could be planning to target all the bloodlings at once.

Mu Xuan’s words held authority like nothing else. In less than a minute, a number of aircrafts were leaving the Red Planet.

Once the test results came in, their predictions showed up to be right; there were traces of doomsday virus in a third of the fragments. Due to the timely notification, there was little damage the bloodlings. No one had been infected. However, the quarantine and eradication of the virus was a huge issue.

Moreover, due to the gravitational force, the meteorites that had been blocked from entering the Red Planet had entered the planet’s orbit and were circling around it. In a short while, both the inside and outside of Red Planet was filled with the deadly virus.

The entire Red Planet was quarantined till the meteorites which carried the virus could be cleared. It couldn’t be allowed to spread, or it would infect the entire Galaxy. Fortunately, it wasn’t an airborne virus or it would have been unstoppable.

Yao Si could vaguely sense a menacing curtain surrounding the Red Planet. Although the Elders Council cleared up a large portion of the fallen meteorites in a month, her fear and trepidation only grew. There was a need to rat out the organisation right away! Now that their actions against Red Planet became overt, their next move would definitely escalate in scale.

–

“Your Highness, the fallen pieces have all been cleared, but we can’t confirm if the virus has been completely eradicated, so we will continue to quarantine the areas.”

Yao Qian and Yan Xuan were reporting while pointing at a map. It was clear that they had been planning the operations for quite some time. If they hadn’t detected anything earlier, the Red Planet would have been terrorised by the virus. “Also… we found signs of other races on the back of Red Army 4.”

“Can the perpetrator be traced?” Yao Si asked.

Yao Qian shook his head. “We have been trying, but we can’t confirm to which race they belong.”

Which means that we don’t have a clue. Yao Si’s heart fell.

“Investigate the celestials,” Mu Xian instructed.

Everyone stilled. Yan Xuan, in particular, looked over at him wide-eyed. “Celestials? Why them?” Celestials had always been nonchalant about outside affairs bloodlings had close ties with them, so was it really all right to investigate them?

“That’s right!” Qu Ze nodded, seeming to have realized something. “The virus originated in Nirvana, which is a game planet under the celestials. It is only right then to start from there.”