Chapter Thirteen: Heaven’s Favored

After Tao Lu graduated, Gong Kui had once told Xia Yan about her condition, but in a very vague way. She only said that her bloodline purity was extremely high, and that her brain-domain development was advancing very quickly.

Gong Kui had deliberately concealed some things.

To put it plainly, Tao Lu’s brain-domain development was not merely fast; it was astonishingly fast.

One must know that when Tao Lu first entered the institution as a transfer student, her brain-domain development had only just reached fifteen percent. It was only after she awakened an ability that Mr. Tao had reluctantly allowed his daughter to enter the institution.

Yet less than a year had passed since Tao Lu graduated, and in that short span, the growth of her brain-domain development had been terrifyingly high, advancing far faster than Xia Yan’s by who knew how many times.

It was no exaggeration to say that in the entire Ninth District, within the past twenty years, Tao Lu had been the one whose brain-domain development had advanced the fastest.

This girl, like a favored child of heaven, had her own pride and glory. She had her own ambition. The purpose of awakening her ability was to make herself stronger, and for that she was willing to pay any price—but she would never allow herself to be lost.

So the moment she realized her heart was no longer under her control, she left without the slightest hesitation. If she became a prisoner of emotion, then everything she had striven for until now would be meaningless.

From the standpoint of bloodline purity, Tao Lu was indeed fortunate.

She was not a pureblood, but among any given race there were only two or three purebloods. Take the Winged People, for example—they had only two in all. Beneath them were the Winged People whose bloodline purity fell only slightly short of the purebloods, and there were barely a dozen of those. Tao Lu was one of them.

Even if Tao Lu could not raise her brain-domain development to one hundred percent, she could still push it to a level infinitely close to that mark. Strangely enough, in the entire Earth Federation, how many absolute developers were there? At least among the Winged People, none at all.

Because she had earned the favor of a certain pureblood, Tao Lu’s pace of development was astonishingly fast. Though still young, she was already only one step away from becoming a five-star ability user.

This girl had always been so full of confidence. Her smile seemed able to command everything, and perhaps that was exactly why the pureblood had taken a liking to her.

This Winged People operation was led by Tao Lu. Their goal was to bid for the Chain of Purity, and for that, they were willing to pay any price.

She lifted the laser pistol in her hand and casually tossed the suitcase to one of the Winged People. Let Miss Tao Lu carry this heavy box full of diamond currency herself? Wouldn’t that be rather unfair?

“This operation is under my command. You must obey every order I give. Otherwise, bear the consequences yourselves!” Tao Lu said, looking at the four Winged People before her. Each of them was older than she was, at least twice her age, yet none of them dared to disobey her orders.

Whether because of strength, or bloodline purity.

A long time ago, there had been no Free Zone in the Earth Federation.

The Free Zone came into being because of deserters from the various major powers. Every faction had internal conflicts, and some of those conflicts could even lead to bloodshed and irreversible consequences.

To avoid death, some people could only flee their original strongholds. As more and more of these people gathered together, they united, resisted the pursuit of their former factions, and built small bases.

Under such circumstances, the humanoid mutant tribes came to them and discussed cooperation that would benefit both sides.

And thus, the Free Zone was born.

In other regions, mutants were beings that threatened everyone’s lives. But in the Free Zone, even mindless mutants would not attack any human. They were the guardian gods of the Free Zone.

It was ironic, yet it was the truth.

Mutants had always been a very special force within the Earth Federation.

By now, the Free Zone’s population had exceeded ten million and was growing more prosperous by the day. Many ability users were willing to settle there, and even ability users who were free agents were considering joining the Free Zone.

After Xia Yan and Banner entered the Free Zone, they produced the relevant documents and were allowed through without any strict inspection.

Inside the Free Zone, things were no different from an ordinary city. Ordinary people lived ordinary lives, and ability users lived the lives of ability users.

After the inquiries related to the Free Zone were over, Banner’s attitude toward Xia Yan was extremely cold, so cold that Xia Yan felt she probably would not say a single word to him before the mission ended.

Still, after entering the Free Zone, her attitude seemed to soften somewhat. At the very least, there was the faintest trace of a smile on her stiff face.

After checking into the hotel, the auction would take place three days later. During this three-day interval, Xia Yan was free to move about. Emilia’s only request was that he act together with Banner.

They were staying in a large suite, so there was no need to worry about room arrangements. After washing away the grime left by the long journey, Banner found Xia Yan and prepared to have a proper talk with him.

Her first words were these:

“Xia Yan, I want to ask you something. Have you met Lady Emilia?”

Whenever this girl spoke of Emilia, her eyes filled with admiration and reverence, something approaching blind devotion.

Xia Yan could see it very clearly in her eyes: the meaning behind Emilia’s promise that she would not be betrayed.

Should he understand that she had already been brainwashed beyond hope, even if she had willingly accepted it?

Xia Yan did not even know how to answer that question. Although he had not spoken much with Emilia, because they lived in the same villa, they saw each other at least five times a day.

This was clearly a very baffling question. If they were living under the same roof, how could they not have met?

So Xia Yan nodded.

A shadow passed through Banner’s eyes, but she forced down her anger. “Xia Yan, I want to ask you how many diamond coins the Lady gave you.”

“Let me count... one hundred and fifty,” Xia Yan answered honestly.

“So many?” Banner said, so stunned that she could hardly speak. She understood the value of the Chain of Purity, but that value would absolutely not exceed twenty diamond coins.

Because diamond coins were so rare and so valuable, there were only so many in the whole world; they were not a currency that could be mass-produced.

No one had the right to openly carry around one hundred and fifty diamond coins, whether that person was someone as insignificant as Xia Yan, or Banner herself.

Banner understood that neither of them was worth that price, not even close. But the Lady had given Xia Yan one hundred and fifty diamond coins, which showed just how much importance she attached to this operation.

Banner still could not understand what right Xia Yan had to such trust, and why he was trusted.

Although she felt she herself was not qualified to hold one hundred and fifty diamond coins either, she believed that at the very least, she was more qualified than Xia Yan. This humble human simply did not deserve such trust.