Yu Ran carefully checked every corner of the spacecraft and found no traces of cameras or any eavesdropping devices. Only then did he lift the perception block on Lu Zexuan.
Lu Zexuan could finally see the scene in front of him. He found himself on a private spaceship, with only Yu Ran in front of him. There was a huge container on the open space under his feet, and there were rustling sounds coming from it, as if something was struggling to get out.
Lu Zexuan asked in his mind: "Ranran, what's going on? Is it safe now?"
Yu Ran said: "We have left Planet B73. The next stop is a tourist resort. We are currently on an interstellar route and are safe for the time being."
Seeing Yu Ran looking at the container in front of him seriously, Lu Zexuan couldn't help but ask, "What's in it?"
Yu Ran sighed and said, "See for yourself."
Lu Zexuan was puzzled and took a step forward to open the container.
At that moment, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his hands at his sides were shaking violently—
He met a familiar face.
A face that had often appeared in his dreams over the years, making him feel guilty.
Major General Lu Chengan, his most respected brother!
The man's face was still the same as in my memory, handsome and strong. However, the bright smile in my memory was no longer on his face. His expression was extremely dull, and his eyes were only the dark color of falling into the abyss. There was no trace of the spirit of a living person.
More importantly, his body... had been completely deformed into the appearance of a golden eagle.
There was a familiar circle of white feathers under the golden eagle's neck, like a necklace. The originally ferocious overlord of the sky now had large areas of feathers burned black, and a long knife scar on its chest, with glaring blood that had not yet dried.
Lu Zexuan's hands kept shaking. He reached out tentatively, wanting to touch the other person's familiar face, but when he was about to touch it, he shrank back stiffly and called out in a hoarse voice: "Brother..."
There was no response from the other party.
Lu Zexuan almost collapsed: "Brother! Brother, how did you become like this... Brother..."
He rushed over and knelt in front of the golden eagle, his eyes filled with tears and his whole body shaking violently.
A sharp pain came from his heart, as if his heart was being squeezed tightly by a pair of hands, almost making it impossible for him to breathe. He could not imagine how his brother had survived all these years and how much he had suffered.
How could that proud and brilliant child of destiny turn into such a monster that is neither human nor ghost? !
The golden eagle had lost too much blood and had been tortured by electric shocks from being locked in a cage for a long time. Although it had woken up, it was still very weak and could hardly open its eyes. Moreover, it was unconscious and did not respond even after Lu Zexuan called it several times.
Seeing Lu Zexuan's collapse and pain, Yu Ran walked over to him, gently placed her hand on his shoulder, and comforted him, "Don't be too sad. Your brother didn't die back then. He was captured and locked up by the Dark Night Organization because he became deformed into this state."
Lu Zexuan wiped his face carelessly, stood up and looked at Yu Ran. He knew that his brother was deformed and had no consciousness. It was useless for him to say anything to Lu Chengan now, because Lu Chengan could not understand him at all.
Looking at the knife wound on the golden eagle's chest, Lu Zexuan's eyes turned red, and he asked in his mind: "Just now, the person Mo Wei asked me to kill was my brother?"
Yu Ran nodded: "Yes. So, I didn't dare to remove your shield. I know you have a deep relationship with your brother. Once you see him, you can't pretend to be expressionless and stab him with the knife."
Lu Zexuan clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles crackled.
Mo Wei, this inhuman beast, actually used such cruel means to test them!
What Ran Ran said was right. If he really saw his brother like this, how could he pretend to be expressionless? How could he bring himself to stab him with the knife
Fortunately, Ranran reacted quickly enough and used the method of perception shielding to allow Lu Zexuan to successfully act out the drama without being aware of it, deceiving Mo Wei.
Yu Ran glanced at Lu Cheng'an and said softly, "There was no other way at the time. I could only let you stab him for real. I calculated the position of his heart and asked you to stab him a few centimeters off. That stab would only cause him to lose too much blood and pass out, but it would not be fatal. This is also the only hope of saving him."
Lu Zexuan hugged Yu Ran tightly, his voice almost choking: "Ran Ran, thank you for your hard work... I don't know anything. You must have been under a lot of pressure at the time, right? Thank you... for finding a way to rescue him."
Noticing that Lu Zexuan was shaking, Yu Ran inexplicably softened his heart. He patted Lu Zexuan on the back and said, "Why are you being polite? He is your most important family member, so of course I have to find a way to save him... Okay, calm down first, and I'll check his mental state."
Lu Zexuan let go of Yu Ran, calmed himself down, and turned to look at the golden eagle in the box.
There was still no expression on Lu Chengan's face. He looked dazed, and his dark eyes stared blankly at Yu Ran.
Yu Ran extended a green thought tentacle and connected to his brain—
Lu Cheng'an's mental picture was even worse than what Yu Ran had imagined. This place should have been an endless grassland with many beautiful wild flowers. Golden eagles soaring freely over the grassland was also a magnificent sight.
But now, there is only wasteland here.
The originally lush green grassland looked as if it had experienced a cruel catastrophe, and not even a blade of grass could be seen.
There is no trace of the golden eagle in the mental image - because the deformed sentinel has merged with the golden eagle.
Seeing Yu Ran's grim expression, Lu Zexuan clenched his fists worriedly: "How is he... Can he be saved?"
Yu Ran was silent for a moment, then said, "He has been distorted for too long, and his mental picture has been completely destroyed."
Lu Zexuan lowered his head in pain. He knew that a deformed Sentinel was almost a death sentence and there had never been a precedent of saving them. Moreover, his brother was an S-level deformed Sentinel, so it was even more impossible for him to fully recover.
Lu Chengan was injured now and did not attack them. Once his injuries healed, he might eat them mercilessly.
Seeing Lu Zexuan's sad look, Yu Ran comforted him, "Fortunately, he is still alive. As long as he is alive, there is hope. I heard that the president of the Guide Association is the guide with the strongest healing ability in the entire Federation, but it is not certain whether the president is an enemy or a friend. In the future, when everything is settled, if he and Mo Wei are not in the same group, perhaps I can join forces with him? Two S-level guides working together to treat your brother may be able to save him."
Although the hope is slim... but as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he can't give up Lu Chengan.
Lu Zexuan quickly calmed down and said, "Then what should we do next? Where is the best place to hide him?"
Currently, the safest place is Red Spider Star.
It was absolutely impossible to go back to the capital planet. They couldn't even pass the security check with Lu Chengan, a mutant. They didn't know whether other planets were the experimental bases of the Dark Night Organization. Lu Chengan was huge after the deformation, and his features were too obvious, so it was difficult to find a suitable hiding place.
Only the Red Spider Star is not within the Federation’s territory, and no one knows the location of that mysterious planet.
Yu Ran thought carefully for a moment and said, "I told Mo Wei that I would lure your father out and create an accident, and then you will inherit the position of leader of the Falcon Corps. Three days later, I will lure General Lu to the vicinity of the wormhole in Triangulum Austral and pretend to blow up his starship. We will notify him in advance and let him take Lu Cheng'an into the wormhole, and they will fall onto Red Spider Star."
Lu Zexuan pondered for a moment, and followed Yu Ran's line of thought and said, "In this way, they can meet up with the Falcon Special Forces, and no one will know they are still alive. Father faked his death, and you completed the mission as planned, supporting me to become the head of the corps. Mo Wei will trust you more. When the critical moment comes, let father bring the Falcon Special Forces back to attack him and catch him off guard?"
Yu Ran said: "Yes, this is the only way at the moment."
Lu Zexuan said worriedly: "But... Lu Xiaolong, he knows the existence of Red Spider Star."
Yu Ran looked calm: "Don't worry, I've thought of this a long time ago. When we left Red Spider Star and went to Doradus to release the two little monsters, I secretly attacked Lu Xiaolong's mental image and modified his memory, making him think that we escaped from Doradus."
Yu Ran replaced Lu Xiaolong's memory of "the starship fell into a cosmic wormhole, and everyone used the escape pod to land on the Red Spider Star" with "the starship was attacked by a flying monster in the air, and everyone used the escape pod to land on the planet S107 in Doradus."
It's still the same situation where they encounter danger and land using an escape pod, but the location has been changed.
The replacement of a "location" in his memory, Lu Xiaolong hardly noticed the change of this information. Moreover, after attacking him, Yu Ran used the white fox's repair ability to completely erase the traces of damage to his spiritual world.
After arriving at the capital planet, the only thing left in Lu Xiaolong's mind was Doradus. He thought that everything happened on the planet S107 in Doradus. He didn't remember at all that everyone had ever been to a strange planet under a wormhole.
Therefore, the Dark Night Organization is still unaware of the existence of Red Spider Star.
Lu Zexuan admired Yu Ran's planning very much. Yu Ran was really cautious and had almost thought out all the details. This also showed that Yu Ran had been preparing for this day for too long.
Perhaps as early as when he left Red Spider Star that year, he regarded this planet as the most important part of his plan.
***
Lu Zexuan and Yu Ran pretended to travel and relax, and drove the spaceship around.
In order to prevent Lu Chengan from being discovered, they ate and lived on the spaceship these days. When they occasionally went to some tourist attractions, they would dock the spaceship in a safe place and carefully hide the golden eagle.
The self-destruct device that Mo Wei gave to Yu Ran was disassembled and modified by Yu Ran. It was changed into a piece of junk that made a loud thunder but produced little rain, and automatically shut down after just one explosion.
Three days later, Yu Ran filmed a video of Lu Cheng'an's face and sent it to General Lu Tingyu: "General Lu, your nephew is in our hands. If you want his life, please bring a ransom of 1.25 million star coins and come to pick him up in person."
The tone of this lion's mouth is really in line with the style of a "star pirate".
Lu Tingyu, who is usually gentle and good-tempered, was so angry that he smashed a table after seeing the video!
He immediately summoned several of his most trusted guards and secretly went to the place designated by Yu Ran.
At this time, Yu Ran and Lu Zexuan had already returned to the capital planet on a civilian spacecraft. He wanted to create an alibi for Lu Zexuan, and after hearing the bad news about General Lu, he quickly took over the Falcon Legion to avoid internal strife in the legion.
When the two returned to the capital planet, General Lu was just about to set off.
He drove a small starship to the depths of the universe, and according to the navigation location in the information, he came to an unfamiliar star field.
The guard beside him whispered, "General, I'm afraid this is a trick. Major General Lu Cheng'an died many years ago, how could he suddenly come back to life? Did the other party make a fake video to deliberately lure you into the trap?"
Lu Tingyu's face was extremely serious. "My nephew, whom I personally raised, I can't even tell the difference between real and fake? That's Cheng An! These crazy space pirates actually captured Cheng An and want to ask me for a ransom! I will make them pay for it!"
The guard wanted to say more, but the next moment, Lu Tingyu interrupted him with a wave of his hand: "Stop talking. Before my brother died, he asked me to take good care of his only son. I failed to take good care of Cheng An back then. Now that I know he is still alive, I must save him, no matter what the cost!"
The soldiers around him looked at each other and said nothing more. The old general was stubborn and could not be persuaded!
Little did he know that a drop of cold sweat was running down Lu Tingyu's forehead at this moment - Son, I'm here to act with you, is dad's acting skills okay
In that video, there is a number, 125, which is the distress signal agreed upon by the father and son when they handed over the agent token.
This shows that Lu Zexuan was also present when the video was recorded.
Combined with the words Lu Zexuan asked the agent to convey to him before he left, Lu Tingyu understood it almost instantly.
His son had already found out the secrets of the Dark Night Organization and even rescued his brother, so he needed to go and pick him up! Lu Tingyu acted in secret and only told a few generals of the legion that if anything happened to him, he would immediately let Lu Zexuan take over as the legion commander.
***
On June 3, 500 of the Star Calendar, a piece of bad news once again swept across major news websites in the Federation.
Major General Lu Cheng'an of the Falcon Corps was kidnapped by space pirates. General Lu Tingyu secretly went to rescue him with a ransom. Unexpectedly, the crazy space pirates blew up General Lu's starship directly! The wreckage of the starship was sucked into the cosmic wormhole, and Major General Lu Cheng'an and General Lu were both killed.
On the day the news reached the capital planet, several generals of the Falcon Legion came together to find Lu Zexuan in accordance with Lu Tingyu's last instructions.
When Lu Zexuan heard the sad news of his father's sacrifice, he burst into tears in front of several seniors.
Yu Ran's eyes were red, and she gently hugged Lu Zexuan and said, "How could this happen... Zexuan, don't be too sad..."
Lu Zexuan wiped away his tears and choked up, "I must avenge my father!"
Three days later, General Lu’s funeral was held grandly in the capital star.
His wife Jiao Shuo attended the funeral. The woman looked pale and could hardly stand. Lu Zexuan supported his mother and bowed deeply to Lu Tingyu's portrait in front of the tombstone.
From this moment on, Lu Zexuan will become the youngest legion commander in the history of the Federation.
(End of this chapter)