Jill Young's appointment as Vice Chairman was a seismic shock for many. The most affected, of course, were the Queen's Faction—her loyal fans—who watched their idol transform from a mere figurehead into a true power player. At this point, even the actual European royals probably had less clout than she did. Suddenly, "Queen" didn’t just sound like a nickname—it felt real.
But the person most deeply rattled was Xu Peng, the captain of the Chinese Chosen Ones. Three days after Jill’s press conference, she summoned Xu Peng. And by "summoned," I mean the old-school kind—sending someone to deliver the message, making him drop everything and rush over from some far-flung corner of the world. When he arrived, Jill was overseeing reconstruction at the Hong Kong Base, standing hands clasped behind her back amidst the ruins.
Xu Peng was already fuming. The nerve of this woman, acting all high and mighty—she really got under his skin.
But the moment he actually saw Jill, just her silhouette in the sunlight was enough to give off an indescribable pressure. He’d felt it the last time they met, but now it was even stronger. All his complaints died in his throat.
Without turning around, Jill tossed him a hard drive.
"What's this...?" Xu Peng was confused at first, but then he had a hunch. "Is this technical data?"
"Almost everything you’d ever want to know about the fifth-generation mecha is on there. Consider it a joint gift from me and Jingzhe. Even though I can’t stand you..."—and when she said those words, Xu Peng felt the pressure ratchet up another notch, making him frown—"I’m still Chinese, so I’ll give it to you. Jingzhe asked me to tell you he doesn’t want any reward. As for me, I only want one thing."
Still facing away, Jill raised one finger: "I want the complete text of Vajra Dragon Elephant Power—full internal cultivation method included."
"Uh..." Getting the thing he’d dreamed of, Xu Peng was obviously thrilled. But when he heard Jill’s request, he hesitated, trying to bargain: "The fifth-gen mecha tech is worth a lot, but it’s not exactly..."
"Cut the crap." Jill wasn’t having any of it, cutting him off: "I’ve weighed the value. Your technique is worth exactly this much. I’ve named my price, so you’d better give me what I want."
"But the government only knows the first four layers—King Kong never revealed the whole technique!"
"That’s your problem. I want the complete set—every last move—on my desk in three days."
Xu Peng’s eyes flickered, clearly scheming, but Jill added, "Don’t do anything stupid. In this world, all I have to do is say the word and you’re done for." She turned her head just enough to glance at him out of the corner of her eye, her voice cool: "Do you believe me?"
Xu Peng’s expression changed. The truth was, she had nothing to fear from him—this world was basically her turf now. Public support, connections, status—she had it all in spades. Like some web novel cliché, when it came to "leveraging power," she’d left the rest of them eating her dust! Nobody knew how strong she really was, but he figured she wasn’t someone to mess with head-on.
"Fine." After a moment’s calculation, Xu Peng finally nodded. "You’ll get what you want. But sixth-generation mecha intel shouldn’t be hard for you to get, right?"
Come on, she’s Vice Chairman and the Hunter Organization’s chief auditor—basically the boss of bosses. Technically, all the fifth, sixth, and future mecha tech belongs to her anyway. But Jill just shrugged: "If I wanted it, sure, it’d be easy. Whether I give it to you, though, depends on my mood. So far, I haven’t liked you or your crew."
A flash of anger crossed Xu Peng’s face, but he swallowed it down. After a pause, he said, "Alright, I get it. By the way, I need a favor. Swallow’s gone missing. She was working with Blue Wolf, but after the Hong Kong battle, she disappeared. I suspect one of the other Chosen Ones is involved. You’ve got the widest network—could you look into it, for a fellow countryman?"
"I’m on it—I’ll keep an eye out." Thanks to the Magician’s memories, Jill knew there was still someone out there in Europe and America with the codename Sting, plus another ally even the Magician couldn’t identify. Neither of them showed up during the Antarctic chase, and their current whereabouts were unknown. All signs pointed to that mysterious ally being the one who’d framed Teacher Yang, while Sting was the real culprit behind the assassinations—including Mark Long’s.
"Alright, I’ll leave it to you." Xu Peng’s words were polite, but his face was cold as he turned to leave.
But Jill suddenly called after him: "Captain Xu, one last thing—don’t stir up trouble. Take care of yourself."
"Huh?" Xu Peng spun around. "What do you mean?"
"You know perfectly well what I mean. That’s all I’ll say—goodbye." Jill never once looked back at him. Xu Peng’s eyes flickered, clearly scheming, but in the end, he left silently.
After Xu Peng left, Jill remained where she was—she still had another person to summon.
A little over ten minutes later, another person approached. He was a white man in his thirties, slightly overweight, with sunken eyes and pale cheeks but a round belly. Jill turned to size him up for a long moment. The man looked back, then suddenly raised his hands in surrender and called out, "Nice to meet you! I’m Dr. Octopus. I know you probably just had a run-in with some Europeans, but I’m not with them—I’m just a freelancer!"
This was the famous Dr. Octopus—today was the first time they’d actually met. After observing him up close for a moment, Jill confirmed he was just an ordinary person, without any special mental powers. On the surface, he seemed like a typical tech geek.
"Is that so?" Jill raised an eyebrow, noncommittal.
"Of course! I swear, I don’t care about the mecha in this world—I just want to use the metallurgy tech here to make better prosthetic arms. You know, a lone wanderer like me doesn’t need all that other stuff." Dr. Octopus grinned harmlessly. "I don’t know or care if you’re carrying some big mission, but whatever you want, I’m sure you’ve already got it. I just like tinkering with my own gadgets—I won’t get in your way. How about we each do our own thing and leave each other alone?"
Jill smirked. "Honestly, the safest way would be to just take you out—then you definitely wouldn’t get in my way."
"Uh..." Dr. Octopus quickly forced a smile. "We’re all adults here—let’s not go for that kind of cringey, juvenile drama..."
"Oh, you actually know the word 'chuunibyou'?"
"Actually, I’ve lived in Asia for ages—came here using Tokyo’s time capsule. Go easy on me, alright? We don’t really have any beef, do we?"
Jill gave Dr. Octopus a once-over, then finally nodded. "Alright, we’ll each mind our own business." Dr. Octopus was overjoyed, but Jill added with a hint of warning, "I just hope we really can keep to ourselves."
Dr. Octopus left, thanking her profusely, but Jill’s gaze was deep and thoughtful. This whole display was meant to shake things up—if she could intimidate the tigers, great; if not, she’d done her best. If some fool tiger insisted on sticking its paw in, well, she wouldn’t hold back.
Three days later, Xu Peng really did deliver the Dragon Elephant Wisdom Art. Who knows how he managed to communicate with that gorilla, but the document neatly laid out all thirteen levels. Jill lounged with her legs crossed, munching on sunflower seeds as she read, laughing at the countless errors and ridiculous problems in the text.
Up to the fourth level, it was still a normal, watered-down version. From the fifth level on, strange things started popping up. Past the eighth, it was utter nonsense; levels eleven to thirteen made no sense at all. Compared to the version passed down by Grandmaster Gold, this one was just too warped. Even though Jill had never practiced inner strength, she could tell: following this manual would make breakthroughs nearly impossible—and the higher you went, the worse it’d get. By the eighth level, you’d be lucky to survive.
"Hmph, this manual is garbage." Still, Jill could tell from the writing that the Diamond Sect really did have a watered-down Dragon Elephant Wisdom Art, not the original Dragon Elephant Art or Prajna Sutra. That was enough—she didn’t bother worrying about whether the errors were original or tampered with, or who might’ve done it and why. Those questions spun around in her mind for a moment, then she let them go.
Sometimes, the simplest solution is the best way to cut through a tangled mess.
"Let’s take a look at this inner strength manual. It’s basically nonsense, but I’ll treat it like light reading." She snacked with her left hand and picked up the manual with her right, but after a while, she lost interest. Jill had never studied inner strength—she couldn’t make heads or tails of it, couldn’t even enjoy the spectacle. The whole thing was full of mysterious jargon, each word familiar but the meaning elusive. It wasn’t long before she started nodding off.
"Inner strength—looks like I’ll need an expert to teach me from scratch." With Grandmaster Gold’s example right there, who’d dare practice blindly? Jill suddenly thought of Grace Kwok, wondering how that young woman was doing. Had she found Gabriel Yang? Had she raised an army to help her father? Then she thought of Max Easton, Xiao Di, Night Loli, Chun Jie Jun, and the Fox Sisters, wondering how they were all getting by.
Jill rested her chin in her palm, lost in thought. "Suddenly, I really want to go back and see everyone… wonder if I’ll ever get the chance."