[One and a Half Hours Before the Opening of Jing Liuli's New Year's Eve Concert]
As night fell, the dome of the Sea Concert Hall, the Aurora Aria, suddenly illuminated.
Seven-colored lights intertwined into a flowing curtain of light, sketching a magnificent, aurora-like scene across the sky.
The name 'Aurora' was thus fittingly earned.
Outside the concert hall's ticket gates, a huge crowd of Jing Liuli fans had already formed long queues.
They either held high light signs emblazoned with 'Liuli Little Fairy' or wore special support headwear, allowing the pink light to converge into a sea of stars. Even the pale-red mist unique to Scarlet Mist City was dyed pink, making the scene as lively as a grand festival celebration.
Atop the Aurora Aria, faint glimmers of quantum data streams flashed rapidly in Caroline's green eyes as she swiftly verified the identities of these tens of thousands of 'fans.'
In a moment, Caroline, this 'human-shaped quantum computer,' had her results.
"Three people at the three o'clock direction, stable aura, Star Energy fluctuations intentionally suppressed."
"Five people at the six o'clock direction, with frost-pattern tattoos on their necks, a mark of the Star Frost Faction."
Caroline picked up her tactical tablet and brought up a heat map of the crowd below.
Several red dots, whose auras were distinctly out of sync with the surrounding fans, clearly appeared on her tablet and were specially marked.
Tendo leaned against the railing, spinning a silver coin on his fingertip, his gaze sweeping over the Star Frost Faction members mixed into the crowd, a faint smile on his lips.
"No rush. Just knowing who has shown up is enough. Now is not the time to make a move."
"Mhm."
Caroline nodded, indicating she was aware of the situation.
The Star Frost Faction's intended sabotage of Jing Liuli was not merely to prevent her breakthrough ritual.
Instead, they wanted to steer Jing Liuli's breakthrough in a direction favorable to them.
For example, ensuring the permanent existence of the Frost God's phantom within Jing Liuli's 'True Dream' after her breakthrough.
If they could achieve this, then every one of Jing Liuli's subsequent concerts would become a silent propagation of the Frost God's faith.
And this was the Star Frost Faction's true goal.
They neither wanted Jing Liuli's breakthrough to succeed nor to fail completely.
A moment later, Tendo tossed the coin, caught it, and turned to walk towards the backstage entrance.
"Those below are obvious targets; there's no need to clear them out yet. You keep an eye on the stage, and intervene as necessary. The rest... I'll handle."
"Mhm."
Caroline nodded, her gaze returning to the sea of lights below, her pair of mechanical cat ears twitching lightly, capturing every unusual ripple of Star Energy in the air.
After a brief farewell, Tendo arrived at the core area of the Aurora Aria.
This was directly beneath the concert stage.
Here, a massive Dreamstone of Stars was suspended in mid-air.
Although there was a smaller Dreamstone of Stars directly above the stage, Tendo knew well that the upper one was merely a blind spot—the genuine Dreamstone of Stars was the one he was guarding.
Calculating the time, he still had a full two hours before his opponent's arrival, allowing for a short rest.
With this thought, Tendo somehow managed to drag over a rattan lounge chair, and without even bothering to take off his coat, he lay down comfortably.
His leisurely appearance made him look like an old man sunbathing in a park.
The dimension viewers couldn't help but mock him.
'Yo, Grandpa Tendo, here for a stroll?'
'It has to be Old Tendo; this damned sense of relaxation.'
'If I didn't know the Star Frost Faction was going to cause trouble, I'd think this was a regular concert backstage vlog!'
'If it wasn't for Old Tendo, I would almost think this was just a normal concert.'
In contrast to Tendo's relaxation, the situation with Chen Kong was undeniably much tenser.
Chen Kong held his data terminal, the screen displaying the location coordinates Tendo had previously sent him.
Behind him were Liu Ma and Vivian.
The trio arrived at a derelict factory and, after confirming the location information was correct, they slipped directly into a hidden passage within the factory.
Above the passage, on a dilapidated water tower, Danica put away her child-sized binoculars and turned to the person next to her.
"Sister Chen Xing, Brother Chen Kong and the others went in!"
Chen Xing leaned against the water tower railing, her fingertips gently caressing the hilt of the demonic blade at her waist. Though her cold, beautiful face showed no expression, her gaze was fixed tightly on the entrance to the passage.
Previously, she hadn't understood why Tendo had asked her to spend time locating the Star Frost Faction's stronghold.
But now she understood.
Tendo must have seen what was happening here beforehand using hisStar Eclipse Heavenly Eyes, and therefore had her come over a step ahead of time.
After an unknown period, a fierce Star Energy fluctuation suddenly erupted from beneath the abandoned factory.
First was the pale-white halo of Chen Kong's 'Mark of Void' exploding, followed by Liu Ma's characteristic wild Star Energy.
Finally... an extremely cold, frigid Star Energy aura, cold enough to seemingly freeze the very air.
This Star Energy aura felt both familiar and alien to Chen Kong.
"Let's go, Danica. It's our turn to make an entrance."
"Yes."
[In the Underground Base of the Abandoned Factory]
Due to the 'unexpected' intrusion of Chen Kong and the others, red lights began flashing crazily throughout the underground base, and the continuous alarm was sharp and piercing.
Chen Kong and his team quickly raced toward where Isabel was being held.
However, just as they were about to reach the prison area, a lanky man with a perm and a manga in his hand blocked their path.
Seeing his appearance, Chen Kong and Liu Ma seemed to realize something and slowly came to a halt.
Vivian frowned immediately upon seeing their reaction.
"What's wrong with you two?"
Hearing her, Chen Kong gave a bitter smile: "Vivian, things... are complicated."
"Complicated?"
Vivian first glanced at Jeremiah nearby, her data analysis revealing he was only a Tier 3 Star Emissary.
Unless he was an old master disguised as a Tier 3, like 'Frost Silence Ice,' how could an ordinary Tier 3 Star Emissary make these two look like this? Unless...
"It's been a long time, Kong, Liu Ma."
Hearing Jeremiah's words, the suspicion in Vivian's mind was completely confirmed.
That's right, this guy was indeed a 'Stars Child' as well.
And judging by the reactions of Chen Kong and Liu Ma, this guy's ranking among the Stars children back then must have been quite high.
Ignoring the tense expressions of Chen Kong and the others, Jeremiah closed his manga and slowly stood up.
Instantly, the originally spacious corridor seemed to shrink as he straightened his two-and-a-half-meter-tall body.
It wasn't that the corridor was too short; it was that Jeremiah was simply too tall.
Chen Kong stood in front of Liu Ma and Vivian, saying with a serious expression, "So, Jeremiah, you joined the Star Frost Faction after leaving the base?"
Jeremiah didn't answer the question directly.
He looked down at the trio and said in surprise, "Strange, Liuli didn't recognize me when she first saw me. How did you two figure it out immediately?"
Hearing this, Liu Ma, the straightforward one, blurted out, "Among the entire base, your hair was the only one that looked like instant noodles. Who could ever forget that?"
Jeremiah paused for a moment, then burst into self-deprecating laughter.
"True. I suppose I forgot myself."
With that, Jeremiah touched his curly hair, stretched lazily with a smile, his bones making a soft crack sound.
The next second, his tone suddenly became flat.
"Alright, you stop here. You can't go any further down this path."
Chen Kong and Liu Ma exchanged a look and began mobilizing the Star Energy within their bodies.
Silence spoke volumes.
Noticing their movements, Jeremiah couldn't help but mock them.
"Kong, Liu Ma, it seems like after all this time, you've forgotten how our rankings in the base were determined."
"It was through talent."
As he spoke, an extremely cold ice mist suddenly spread out from Jeremiah.
The mist was not ordinary white, but a pale-blue crystallization of ice.
Wherever the ice mist passed, thick layers of ice formed on the metal walls of the corridor, and the red light of the emergency lamps twisted continuously within the ice mist, as if they were shivering from the cold.
The expressions of the three immediately changed, and they swiftly retreated, barely managing to avoid the ice mist's invasion and preventing themselves from being instantly frozen into ice sculptures.
Looking at the scrambling Chen Kong and the others, there was no emotion in Jeremiah's eyes, only a ruthless clarity.
"Kong, Liu Ma, you lower-ranked Stars children should know clearly that effort is the cheapest and most useless thing in the base, because—"
As he spoke, Jeremiah raised his hand, and an ice pick condensed at his fingertip. The chill from the ice pick caused the surrounding air to turn frosty white.
The ice pick shot out, grazing past Chen Kong's ear in his startled gaze, and fiercely slamming into the wall behind him, where it burst into a shower of ice flowers.
Looking at the startled Chen Kong, Jeremiah said calmly: "...the chasm named talent is something you can never cross, no matter how hard you try."
With just a simple move, Jeremiah demonstrated the gap in power between himself and Chen Kong's group.
Chen Kong hadn't even seen how he made the move, let alone thought about defeating him.
This was the Stars child ranking.
A ranking that looked like a simple list of names, but was in fact laden with cruel reality.
At the same time, this also made the dimension viewers on Platform 13 subconsciously think of a certain 'silver-haired guy' who was still slacking off.
After all, if even Jeremiah, who was merely NO. 7, was this powerful, then to what extent must Tendo, as NO. 1, be strong?
Since all of adult Tendo's battles so far had been crushing victories, with one-sided results, even if Tendo claimed he was serious, outsiders would never truly believe it.
This also made the dimension viewers curious.
Curious about what kind of standard the Doctor had used back then to rank the 36 Stars children.
One would assume the dimensions of measurement were definitely far more complex than they could imagine.
-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------
I handpick only the finest and most captivating novels for you. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon HongMengZi