Before he could react, he heard a crisp ‘phiak' and what followed after was a sharp pain on his left cheek.

“F*ck, who just hit me?” He immediately sprang up while holding his left cheek. To his surprise, he could actually open his eyes in the underworld.

What first entered his vision was the guilty faces of his comrades. When he saw them, his eyes turned wide open and his jaws dropped to the floor. He couldn't believe his eyes so he rubbed his eyes in panic.

“Boss, what's wrong with you? We kept calling you but you wouldn't wake up.” One of his comrades spoke as he surrept.i.tiously put his right hand behind his back.

“D-Didn't I just die?” The black cloaked man stuttered in shock. However, after turning his head to check the room he was in, it didn't seem like the underworld. Where were the fires? Where were the demons?

“Boss, did you have a nightmare? What do you mean about dying?”

“Wait!” Suddenly, his normally quiet comrade shouted out loud. His expression was somewhat uncanny as he seemed to have discovered something.

“Did you notice anything strange with me?” The black cloaked man looked towards his comrades with a serious look.

“Nothing. We only saw you suddenly falling asleep. We thought it was because you were too tired from maintaining this stakeout.”

“You suddenly falling asleep like that is already strange.”

The black cloaked man looked up towards the sunlight seeping through the tree and sighed. “We just lost. We aren't strong enough. What else can we say?”

His comrades, who now understood what had happened, could only look at each other with a pained smile. Even if they were to go against someone like that head on, they probably wouldn't be able to get out alive.

“You know how to write the report when you return, right?” reminded the black cloaked man.

“We didn't see anything and we didn't find anything.” After all, they were all wizened members of the military so they immediately knew what their boss meant by his words. Their boss loved to save face. If it was known to other black ops teams that they were taken out silently… they would be in a bad spot.

He still didn't forget the feeling he had before he died in his dream. He didn't want himself to regret anything before his death, so he decided to not partic.i.p.ate in capturing Ling Lan.

After rus.h.i.+ng out from the district where all the general's manors were, Ling Lan suddenly felt a gaze on her so she turned around to see where the gaze came from. However, not long after, she frowned, shook her head slightly and left.

Although the gaze on her made her feel uneasy and gave her an impulse to go see where it was from, she was still more worried about Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang in the commercial district. She deliberately took in the strongest domain realm master among the four in her Profound Insight's Domain to obtain more information about the internal workings of the military headquarters. She learned that the Federation's military headquarters' research inst.i.tute had already developed a tool to detect domain concept energies. There was no doubt that it was going to be a problem for them. She was now most worried that this tool had appeared where Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang had been staying. Once that tool was used in their vicinity, Li Lanfeng and Luo Lang's location would be exposed.

At that moment, the direction where the gaze was from had a man in a black windbreaker standing on top of a tall tree.

“It seems those four aren't enough to stop Ling Lan,” said the man in the windbreaker plainly as he watched Ling Lan leave. “However, it won't be that easy for him to leave.”

Right as he was about to go and stop Ling Lan, he suddenly saw his world turning dark.

“Who is it?” said the man in the black windbreaker cautiously.

“It has been a long time since we last met. You've gotten much stronger,” said a familiar sounding voice. Immediately after, a silhouette appeared out of thin air and walked towards him. He wore a general's uniform and he had a bright smile on his face. It looked like it should have been a warm smile, but for some reason, it seemed cold and even somewhat demonic.

“Who are you?” The black cloaked man's fingers tightly clenched his fist. His fingers had even dug into the flesh of his palm.

“What? You don't even recognize your own superior now?” Ling Xiao laughed jokingly.

The man didn't respond to his jest. It was as if he was scared of something.

“Cang Lang, I know it's you just from your movements.” Ling Xiao didn't care whether Cang Lang responded to him or not and just spoke his mind.

“Why?” After his ident.i.ty was revealed, Cang Lang lifted his hood and showed a slender yet handsome face. Compared to Ling Xiao and Ling Xiao's current body, Ren Feiyu, Cang Lang seemed to have had a rough life.

“Why what?” Ling Xiao raised his eyebrows.

“You've let the Flying Dragon Special Forces run free for 20 years. Why did you suddenly give out so many orders in the past few days?” Cang Lang looked at Ling Xiao suspiciously. “And before all that, you went to the Twilight Empire's battlefield… This makes me suspect that General Ling Xiao's death has something to do with you.”

“General Ling Xiao is a general of the Federation and is also the Federation's prodigy. As the chief of the Flying Dragon Special Forces, how could I do anything that would harm him? You are overa.n.a.lyzing,” Ling Xiao replied calmly. Of course, he was saying that now. As for the previous owner of the body, since he died, the dues he owed in the past had been paid already.

“As for my actions yesterday… Don't you think it's because you did such a poor job until I can't simply turn a blind eye to it?” Ling Xiao looked at Cang Lang with a half-smile. This Cang Lang wasn't a simple character. Although he and Cang Lang's relations.h.i.+p was on good terms and that they could be considered friends, the two of them still walked on very different paths. In the past 20 years, they had already slowly drifted apart from each other. It was only because the two of them didn't have any direct disputes that their relations.h.i.+p didn't worsen until they were enemies.

Cang Lang narrowed his eyes, “General Ren, are you preparing to clean house?”

“Yes, but not really. I don't like people who aren't obedient, especially if it's my deputy. Brigade Leader Cang Lang.” The reason Ling Xiao allowed Cang Lang to do as he pleased was because he wanted to use him to inform his daughter of the newly invented detector. He wanted her to be cautious about it. Otherwise, she might be caught off guard by the detector in one of her trips in the Federation.

“I'm disobedient? Chief Ren, I'm hurt hearing you say such things.” Cang Lang's face had a look of disdain. “It's actually just that I feel without General Ling Xiao, there would be no one to threaten you. With no one there to stop, you don't need to conceal your true intentions anymore.”

“Cang Lang, I have to say that you know me very well. If you were to lower your ambitions, perhaps we can be very good partners.” Ling Xiao didn't disagree with Cang Lang. In reality, he did indeed want political power. The more the better. That way, he would be able to make the three marshals pay for what they have done and be able to finally truly protect his daughter from everything.

“But, can you tolerate my existence?” Cang Lang scoffed. Ren Feiyu was a narrowed-minded man. In the past few years, Ren Feiyu had tried his best to distance Cang Lang from everyone. How could Cang Lang not hate him?

“Why can't I tolerate it? You want the Flying Dragon Special Forces? I'll give it to you,” smiled Ling Xiao. “Of course, that's only when I become a marshal. The only one.”

“The only marshal?!” Cang Lang's eyes narrowed greatly. He had always known that Ren Feiyu had great ambitions to the extent of being one of the marshals. But, he didn't expect his appet.i.te to be so huge. He didn't want to be one of the three marshals. He wanted to become the only marshal in the Federation.