"Are you asleep?" Li Ran whispered, her breath as fragrant as an orchid as she slipped into Ye Xiu’s covers and moved her lips close to his ear.

Ye Xiu nodded. "Yes, I’m asleep."

Li Ran was stunned.

It was just a casual question, a probe to see how soundly he was sleeping. It was already past one in the morning, after all—when sleep is deepest. She had been worried that barging into his bed might anger him. If he was in a deep sleep, she could naturally share the bed with him until dawn, when Zhang San, Li Si, and Wang Wu from the same tent would see them. Then, everyone in the film crew would know she had become Ye Xiu’s woman, and he would have no choice but to accept it!

But to her surprise, the man was still wide awake after one in the morning! How embarrassing!

"I’m Li Ran," she whispered, changing her tactic. "From now on, I’m your woman. You can do whatever you want."

"Anything?" Ye Xiu asked excitedly, opening his eyes and turning to look at Li Ran’s face, now just inches from his own.

Li Ran immediately beamed. "Mhm!"

Five minutes later, a loud singing voice woke the entire sleeping film crew.

"The mountain azaleas are blooming, so bright and red..."

Crew members scrambled out of their tents to find Li Ran doing the splits under the night sky while singing at the top of her lungs.

Is she a lunatic?

The entire crew was dumbfounded. Had Li Ran lost her mind in the middle of the night?

At that moment, Li Ran was even more bewildered, her spirit completely shattered.

It turned out Ye Xiu had told her to get dressed, go outside, and sing while doing the splits for half an hour... or he would kill her.

「Biluo Island, just past seven in the morning.」

After Mo Luo and Dizang led their team to infiltrate the island, Dizang ordered his men to split up and proceed according to plan. He and Mo Luo, meanwhile, headed to the Abandoned City.

The two did not immediately go to see Qin Qing. Instead, they first went to the top of a small hill within the city.

Mo Luo carefully took a metal sphere the size of a soccer ball from a vacuum-sealed bag in his backpack and placed it on the ground.

The next moment, the sphere dismantled itself, quickly transforming into a device that resembled a solar panel.

"The time to witness a miracle has arrived," the voice of You Ming drifted from the device. "Within an hour, you will personally witness a highly developed technological empire revert to a primitive state!"

Mo Luo and Dizang looked at each other, befuddled. Dizang asked, "What are you planning to do?"

You Ming did not respond.

"Is he always like this?" Dizang asked Mo Luo.

The latter pursed his lips. "He doesn’t know you’re like this, either."

With that, he turned and started down the hill.

Dizang quickly hurried after him. "Hey, can’t you talk to me properly? With an attitude like that, you’ll lose me sooner or later."

Mo Luo’s eyes lit up. "Really?"

Dizang was speechless.

「Royal Palace of the Eternal Kingdom!」

King Lin Meng was having breakfast while watching the morning news. The long dining table was laden with delicacies, but he was the only one eating. His Guard Captain stood beside him.

Suddenly, the TV screen went black.

"What’s going on? Is there a power outage?" Lin Meng asked.

"Impossible," the Guard Captain said. "Your residence has a 24-hour power supply. Even if there’s a circuit problem, it automatically switches to the backup source. A power outage is impossible."

"Then why did the screen go black—" Before Lin Meng could finish, a blood-red skull appeared on the dark screen.

Lin Meng and the Guard Captain were completely baffled.

What is happening?

"Greetings, Your Majesty. Enjoy your breakfast!" the skull suddenly spoke, its jawbone moving rhythmically. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am You Ming, one of Huang Quan’s Thirteen Protecters..."

What?

The color drained from the faces of both Lin Meng and the Guard Captain.

"The technological level of the Eternal Kingdom far surpasses all other nations," Lin Meng asked, astonished. "We have our own independent satellites and formations to shield against external signals. How did you manage to invade the network system of the Royal Palace?"

"Don’t be surprised. For me, this is a trivial matter," the skull boasted. "Besides, I invaded Your Majesty’s network system to bring you some good news."

"What good news?" Lin Meng asked gravely.

The skull replied, "Within half an hour, all of the Eternal Kingdom’s satellites will be attacked by orbital cannons."

"The entire network of the Eternal Kingdom will be paralyzed. Operating systems for airplanes, ships, nuclear power plants, power stations, missile launch systems, and so on will all be destroyed."

"In short, the Eternal Kingdom is about to return to an era of traveling by foot, cooking with firewood, lighting with candles, and communicating by word of mouth and by letter."

After listening, Lin Meng laughed. "That is the most ridiculous joke I’ve ever heard. International law prohibits any country from deploying orbital nuclear weapons. What do you plan to use to shoot down our satellites?"

The skull replied, "Your Majesty, what international law dares restrain Huang Quan? I’ve said all I need to. Now, please join me in witnessing the Eternal Kingdom’s darkest hour."

CLICK.

The bloody skull vanished from the TV screen.

Seeing this, Lin Meng shot to his feet and ordered, "Quickly, notify the satellite department! And inform all the other departments You Ming mentioned. Hurry, move!"

"Your Majesty, surely you don’t take a madman’s words seriously?" the Guard Captain said dismissively.

"Better to be safe than sorry! Hurry up!" Lin Meng urged.

"Oh, right!" The Guard Captain quickly pulled out his phone, only to stare at it, bewildered. "Your Majesty, my phone has no signal."

"What?" Lin Meng grabbed his own phone and found it had no signal either. He immediately panicked. "Send men to check everywhere! Also, contact the three major Judicator Families! Quickly!"

"Yes!" The Guard Captain, now realizing the gravity of the situation, immediately left to carry out the orders.

Lin Meng paced back and forth anxiously.

Near noon, the Guard Captain returned, his face ashen.

"What’s the situation?" Lin Meng asked.

The Guard Captain’s face was deathly pale. "Throughout the entire Royal City, everything that uses electricity or the internet has been fried by a sudden, massive voltage surge. The electric meters in all companies and residential areas, the city’s power lines, airport and airplane operating systems, shipping company systems, and every vessel—they’ve all been destroyed. Afterward, the power company and every single power station exploded.

"This is only what I could confirm in a short time. The situation in the other cities and on the other islands, not to mention the satellites, is still unknown. I fear the worst.

"The only good news is that this all happened before business hours, so there have been no reported casualties."