The young man’s actions startled everyone present, including the viewers in the livestream room.
But what shocked them even more was that the bone spikes gathered around the silver-haired sovereign suddenly seemed to lose all their sharp hostility the moment Wen Yuzhi approached.
All that remained was the gentlest, most careful side of them. Countless pale bones curled and wound around him, their movements light and expectant, completely different from the violent, overbearing appearance they had shown at first.
In the eyes of outsiders, those cautious bone spikes were almost little by little enclosing the approaching young man within their protective circle.
Like a powerful beast opening its embrace toward its child.
And Wen Yuzhi’s response to this was to run even faster.
By the end, he was practically sprinting as he threw himself into the silver-haired sovereign’s arms.
Because of the height difference, even with both arms spread open, Wen Yuzhi could only wrap them around Mansendis’s waist. The young man pressed his cheek against his father’s chest, like a fledgling bird returning home after being away for many days, clingy and affectionate as he tried to tuck himself back beneath his father’s wings.
“Dad!”
At the same time, Wen Yuzhi could no longer suppress the excitement in his heart and finally called out the title he had missed for so long.
That single “Dad” instantly threw StarNet into chaos.
【Dad?! Did I hear that right?! That’s cub’s dad?!】
【You didn’t hear wrong... AHHHH cub’s dad is so handsome! He looks so young too! If cub hadn’t called him Dad, I would’ve believed he was his older brother!】
【Looking closely, cub and his dad really do look alike. Cub’s face is basically a smaller version of his dad’s, just even more delicate and prettier. The father and son are both stunning, just in different styles...】
【Cub must be really close with his dad. Running over for hugs the second they meet... Cub only acts like a little kid at times like this.】
【No, am I the only one who thinks cub’s dad has an insane presence? He doesn’t feel like an ordinary person at all...】
【With what he just did, how could he possibly be ordinary? Didn’t you notice? Silver hair and golden eyes! And those vertical pupils! The traits are already obvious enough!】
【No way? That’s impossible! Those people are all mon—... Anyway, absolutely impossible!】
【W-Wait... Are you talking about that group of lunatics?!】
【What do you mean lunatics? Cub and his dad are both so gorgeous, and even that other guy who seems related to cub is super handsome too. Their whole family has insane visuals. Could they be Laila race like Qiqi?】
The viewers’ speculation was not without basis.
Like elves and merfolk, the Laila race was famous partly because of their beauty. Their ears also resembled a pair of wings, making them look similar to angels from legends.
And right now, Wen Yuzhi looked exactly like a little angel in everyone’s eyes.
So the most popular theory on StarNet regarding his race had always been that he was Laila race.
Mixed into that discussion, however, were some viewers who had already vaguely guessed Wen Yuzhi and Mansendis’s identities because of the silver hair and golden eyes. They were trapped in utter disbelief.
But before the suspicions and speculation on StarNet could continue fermenting, Haisena’s arrival also brought the answer everyone was most curious about.
After Bai Yi withdrew his mental energy, the energy barrier was no longer an obstacle.
Mansendis had entered first, and Haisena, who came right behind him, quickly followed after.
She was only one step slower than Mansendis.
By the time Haisena arrived, Dan was already dead, and Wen Yuzhi had already thrown himself into Mansendis’s arms.
Haisena looked at the warmly embracing father and son, at the young man’s obedient, soft “Dad,” sweet enough to practically overflow with sugar, and then looked at her own foolish younger sister standing there blankly, completely oblivious to her presence...
...She lost.
That was Haisena’s first thought.
What followed was endless desolation.
Maybe she should just get a new sister.
That was what she thought.
She did not ask for one this obedient. Even one ten-thousandth as good as the Saint Clan little highness would be enough.
Perhaps it was instinct warning her that danger was approaching, or perhaps the faint connection between blood relatives finally kicked in. In any case, Lottie finally noticed her sister’s existence.
But contrary to what Haisena expected, she did not obediently step forward to apologize, nor did she give her sister a hug.
Instead, Lottie curiously pointed at Mansendis and asked Haisena, “Big Sis, that person is...?”
“The Saint Clan sovereign,” Haisena replied expressionlessly.
Lottie nodded repeatedly. “Oh, so that’s the Saint Clan sovereign. Then if little cutie just called him Dad, doesn’t that mea— ...Huh?! Sis, what did you just say?!”
—What did you say his identity was?!
Lottie’s pupils widened.
“Haha... Staying on land too long really is bad... Even my instincts have gotten dull.”
Seeing her like this, Haisena let out a cold laugh and mercilessly shattered the last bit of hope she had.
“Mansendis Salileno. And the little cutie you’ve been calling all this time is his only child, the little highness the Saint Clan currently treasures like a precious jewel.”
“And you even wanted to lure him back into the sea. If you had really succeeded, before tomorrow arrived, the Saint Clan would probably have overturned the ocean itself.”
Haisena kept a stern face and conveniently omitted the fact that she herself had once entertained the same thought.
Of course, after guessing the young man’s relationship with the Saint Clan, all her thoughts immediately disappeared. She had even spent the entire journey nervously watching Lottie flirt with the cub, terrified the Saint Clan might sharpen their knives and start slaughtering merfolk at any second.
Being scolded by her older sister, Lottie looked utterly miserable.
“...I-I know now, okay? QAQ...”
She had imagined all sorts of possibilities for Wen Yuzhi’s identity.
But never in her wildest dreams had she imagined Saint Clan.
And not just any Saint Clan member, but the child of that tyrannical Saint Clan sovereign.
How was that even possible?!
Lottie’s thoughts were practically the exact same as countless viewers’.
Anyone who had watched Wen Yuzhi’s livestream found it impossible to connect the adorable cub and beautiful little sweetheart on screen with the terrifying, violent Saint Clan.
This was Saint Clan?!
You’re telling me such an adorable cub is actually Saint Clan?!
The livestream viewers were obviously stunned senseless by the news.
Unfortunately for them, the very next second after learning this, the livestream room that had already been mass-reported was finally shut down.
The viewers were still in shock when they suddenly found themselves staring at a black screen, the disabled comment function, and the message:
“Dear user, the livestream you are viewing has been taken down due to violent and prohibited content.”
The urge to curse exploded in everyone’s hearts.
...Damn it! Of all times, why shut it down now?!
But how could the Alliance possibly allow the livestream to continue?
The moment they realized the account could be banned, they immediately shut the room down. No matter how loud the public demand became afterward, the Alliance never reopened the livestream.
The furious netizens could only vent on StarNet instead.
Naturally, alongside the trending news about the end of the Hide-and-Seek game, tags concerning the Saint Clan sovereign and the Saint Clan little highness also shot to the top.
There were even exaggerated, attention-grabbing headlines like:
“Shocking! So This Is What the Saint Clan Tyrant Looks Like!”
“Saint Clan Royal-Blood Father and Son’s Heavenly Beauty!”
A portion of netizens who had not really followed Wen Yuzhi’s livestream:
“.......”
What the hell???
Didn’t the game just end? Why is the entire internet suddenly talking about the Saint Clan?!
Wen Yuzhi himself had no idea that Haisena’s words had already triggered a massive uproar across StarNet.
Right now, he was simply overjoyed to see his father here.
And when Wen Yuzhi threw himself over, Mansendis directly picked up the cub who had wandered outside for days.
This raised Wen Yuzhi’s line of sight. Hooking his arms around Mansendis’s neck, he leaned against his father’s broad, powerful embrace exactly like he had when he was little.
The entire scene made him look like an overly affectionate koala, practically hanging off the silver-haired sovereign.
“Dad...!”
Wen Yuzhi called out again.
There was still a faint uncertainty in his tone.
Mansendis answered with a low hum. The lingering fury in his eyes gradually calmed after the cub returned to his arms.
“Dad, did you come here to find me?”
At this moment, Wen Yuzhi looked just like a baby bird that had finally returned to its nest. Back beside his family, he regained his lively, cheerful energy. Pressed beneath his father’s wings, he chirped nonstop.
Mansendis did not find him noisy in the slightest.
Or rather, during the days the cub had been gone, he had already grown sick of the silence around him.
Now, hearing Wen Yuzhi talk again, the silver-haired sovereign patiently replied, “Mm. I came to bring you home.”
“And us too.”
Mond, Alvin, Selet, and the other Saint Clan members also appeared before Wen Yuzhi.
Seeing them, Wen Yuzhi’s eyes immediately reddened.
“I’m sorry, Dad... I made all of you worry...”
While he had been trapped here, his father and the others outside must have been terribly worried about him...
Thinking this, Wen Yuzhi was just about to tell Mansendis about everything that had happened over the past few days when the silver-haired sovereign suddenly spoke first, as though he already knew what Wen Yuzhi wanted to say.
“I already know,” Mansendis said.
Already knew?
Knew what?
The tears of emotion froze in Wen Yuzhi’s eyes, and his expression turned blank with confusion.
At that moment, a heart-rending scream suddenly came from the merfolk side.
“What?! There was a livestream?!”
Lottie was dumbfounded.
Haisena replied gloomily, “Yes. Every survivor had a livestream room. The entire StarNet could watch it. Full high-definition broadcast. No matter what you did, everyone saw it.”
And what had Lottie done?
Thinking about the elegant, refined princess image she had always maintained in public, then remembering the scene of herself tearing Fire Lizards apart with her bare hands...
Lottie instantly wilted.
It was over. Would she ever be able to trick handsome beauties into returning to the sea with her again?
Haisena... honestly felt much better after seeing this little menace finally get punished.
Thinking about it positively, the livestreams were not entirely bad.
Without them, they would never have known what had happened inside, nor learned about the research institute’s crimes.
As for the survivors who had committed murder, theft, and atrocities during those days, the livestreams had become ironclad evidence of their crimes. The Alliance was already hunting those people down.
As for Wen Yuzhi and the others, the Alliance was still having headaches figuring out how to handle them.
But none of that affected Wen Yuzhi right now.
The moment he heard there had been livestreams, he was just as shocked as Lottie. At the same time, an extremely ominous feeling rose in his heart.
Both stunned and horrified, he asked, “Dad, y-you all weren’t watching the whole time... were you?”
The cub did not finish his sentence, but everyone knew exactly what he meant.
Alvin said with a smiling expression, “Little highness, His Majesty and all of us were paying close attention to you the entire time. Oh, right, your livestream was also the most popular one. Tons of viewers were watching.”
So...
His sneaky cake-eating and threatening people with a hammer had all been seen by Dad and the entire StarNet too?
Zhizhi shocked.jpg.
At that moment, Wen Yuzhi finally understood what social death felt like.
He lowered his head and buried his entire face into his father’s chest, refusing to move, clearly unwilling to face anyone anymore.
If Wen Yuzhi were currently in beast form, the fluffy little cub probably would have already tried digging a hole and burying himself in it.
Too embarrassing.
Wen Yuzhi did not even dare imagine everyone else’s reactions anymore.
Just facing Mansendis alone, he already had no idea how to explain secretly eating cake behind everyone’s backs.
And threatening stray beasts and other people with a hammer too...
After stammering for half a day, Wen Yuzhi only managed to squeeze out one dry sentence.
“Zhizhi isn’t a bad baby.”
The young man’s voice sounded muffled.
When he made mistakes in the past, the cub would also quietly defend himself like this.
Even though Wen Yuzhi constantly insisted he had already grown up, whenever he got into trouble, he still instinctively tried to muddle through things the same way as before.
Under normal circumstances, Mansendis might have held him accountable for secretly sneaking around outside with Mond and stuffing himself with food behind his back.
But the things the young man had said to the livestream camera earlier had already completely dispelled all of Mansendis’s anger.
And now, faced with the cub’s spoiled, clingy behavior, the silver-haired sovereign said with extraordinary generosity and tolerance:
“Of course Zhizhi isn’t. Zhizhi is a good child.”
Mond added from the side, “His Majesty also said that recently, you can receive an extra slice of cake as a special reward every day.”
Invisible beast ears instantly perked straight up.
Wen Yuzhi opened his mouth in disbelief.
“Really?”
“Really.”
This time, Mansendis personally answered.
“You did very well.”
He had protected himself.
And he had also saved others.
Mansendis did not care about the latter. What he cared about was Wen Yuzhi’s safety.
As long as the cub was unharmed, he could never become angry over such things.
After receiving praise from Mansendis, the wilted cub immediately revived at full health, looking like even his tail wanted to lift proudly into the air.
“Dad, um...”
After clinging affectionately to the family that had come to pick him up for a while, Wen Yuzhi finally remembered there were still other people present.
And they were all watching him.
Thinking about how clingy and spoiled he had just acted toward his father...
Wen Yuzhi’s cheeks could not help heating up slightly.
He quickly jumped down from Mansendis’s arms and pretended nothing had happened. Holding the silver-haired sovereign’s hand, he wanted to introduce everyone else.
Especially Bai Yi and Xi Heyan.
The former was Saint Clan royal-blood.
The latter was the good friend he had known for a long time.
But just as Wen Yuzhi took one step forward, Mansendis pulled the cub back to his side.
“Hm?”
Dragged back again, Wen Yuzhi looked confused.
But Mansendis simply said, “We’re leaving first.”
“But...”
Wen Yuzhi still wanted to say something, but Mansendis had already turned around with him.
Mond also bent slightly and said, “Your Highness, we will handle the remaining matters. Please return with His Majesty first.”
As he spoke, Mond slowly walked over to Bai Yi.
The latter remained motionless, only watching the cub’s gradually departing figure.
“Please come with us as well.”
Mond’s attitude was gentle.
No matter what Bai Yi’s origins truly were, as long as he was Saint Clan, Mond would treat him as one of their people.
Yet Bai Yi gave no response.
Not receiving an answer, Mond did not grow annoyed. Instead, he changed tactics.
“Little highness also hopes you’ll come.”
“Little highness...?”
This time, Bai Yi finally reacted.
Using a hoarse voice, he softly repeated Mond’s words.
Mond nodded.
“Yes. Little highness is our king’s child, one of the Saint Clan’s only two royal-blood. But starting today... I believe the Saint Clan should have three royal-blood now.”
Bai Yi naturally understood what Mond meant.
But he lowered his eyes, making it impossible for anyone to tell what he was feeling.
Just when Mond thought his persuasion had failed, Bai Yi suddenly spoke.
“I’ll go with you.”
If Bai Yi was going to the Saint Clan, then Fenrir would naturally follow as well.
As for Spider Woman, she had already repaid her debt. And through Wen Yuzhi’s popularity, she had exposed the truth about the events from back then.
The livestream’s popularity across StarNet had been too massive, and everything had happened too suddenly. The people who had secretly participated in those illegal modification deals had no way to suppress the information anymore.
Once the netizens dug deeper and the Alliance launched investigations, those people would eventually receive the punishment they deserved.
So Spider Woman had no intention of staying behind either. She needed to flee before the Alliance reacted.
After all, strictly speaking, her own identity would not survive careful investigation either.
Bai Yi and Fenrir left with Mond. Spider Woman also departed. Lottie got dragged onto the warship by her older sister.
The enormous rooftop suddenly seemed to be left with only Xi Heyan and Fatty.
Mansendis’s arrival had also been an enormous shock to Xi Heyan.
This was the first time he had seen the “Dad” the young man always talked about.
His biological father.
Before Xi Heyan could fully recover from the shock, Wen Yuzhi had already been taken away by Mansendis.
From beginning to end, the silver-haired sovereign had never once glanced in his direction.
But the moment he appeared, he took away all of the young man’s attention.
The clingy, spoiled Wen Yuzhi nestled in his father’s arms was something Xi Heyan had never seen before.
And it made Xi Heyan realize that only when the young man stood beside that Saint Clan sovereign was he truly completely relaxed.
That was the sense of security Wen Yuzhi received from his family.
And it was something Xi Heyan could not currently provide.
Xi Heyan could not quite describe how he felt.
But for some reason, a dull heaviness and disappointment rose inside him.
Just then, one of the Saint Clan members returned.
Xi Heyan remembered him.
He was one of the bodyguards who had accompanied the young man. His name seemed to be Yiluo.
Yiluo wasted no words upon seeing Xi Heyan. With a cold face, the Ged royal guard stiffly said:
“Little highness said you may come find him anytime if you’re free.”
Those short words instantly reignited the light in Xi Heyan’s eyes.
“Please pass along a message too,” he said. “Tell him... I’m currently staying at Wemm Hotel.”
Yiluo nodded and left.
Xi Heyan’s mood no longer felt as terrible as before.
And now, only Xi Heyan and Fatty truly remained on the rooftop.
Fatty Eugene stared in the direction the Saint Clan had departed and sighed emotionally.
“So that little young master was actually the Saint Clan little highness!”
Xi Heyan also had never imagined Wen Yuzhi would be Saint Clan.
And not just Saint Clan, but Saint Clan royal-blood.
Which meant the father the young man always described as “very, very good to him” was the infamous Saint Clan tyrant known throughout the interstellar world.
And the Mond, Alvin, and Selet he had mentioned... were all top-level figures among the Saint Clan’s upper ranks.
Many small clues from the past resurfaced in Xi Heyan’s mind at this moment.
For example, the young man would often complain happily during conversations that he had many family members.
How could there not be many? The Saint Clan’s upper and lower bloodline members together made for quite a large population.
For example, the young man had once said his home was very big.
It truly was big.
About the size of an entire star domain.
For example, the young man had said he was rich.
Well, of course he was rich. He was the little prince treasured in the palms of an entire race.
For example, the young man had said his family suffered from mental energy disorders.
And everyone knew the Saint Clan was famous not only for their overwhelming power, but also for the congenital mental sea instability they were born with.
And the young man had often said outsiders seemed to misunderstand his family somewhat, believing they were fierce and terrifying.
Xi Heyan thought about the Saint Clan’s reputation across the stars.
Mm... Calling them fierce and terrifying did not really count as a misunderstanding.
And then there were the silver hair and golden eyes the young man had displayed on Blackrock Star.
All those clues fit the Saint Clan almost perfectly, yet somehow not perfectly at all.
Because in the young man’s descriptions, the Saint Clan figures capable of shaking the entire galaxy merely by appearing were all family members who doted on him dearly.
“They’re all very nice, very gentle, and very kind.”
That was what Wen Yuzhi had said.
And when he said it, he had genuinely believed it from the bottom of his heart.
Which was exactly why Xi Heyan had never once connected the young man’s identity to the Saint Clan.
After all, who in the world would associate those words with the Saint Clan?
Probably only Wen Yuzhi, who had been carefully protected by the Saint Clan all this time.
Thinking about how the young man had once even said he wanted to introduce him to his father, Xi Heyan:
“.......”
He sighed softly, his expression turning somewhat heavy.
“What’s wrong?” Fatty asked curiously.
Xi Heyan shook his head.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Fatty: “???”
How did he not understand?
Xi Heyan did not explain.
But inside his heart, a sudden sense of urgency quietly rose.
Because if the gap in status and background was too large... he might not even possess the qualifications to stand in front of the young man’s father.
