Ling Xiao charged forward, gripping the short sword with both hands and swung it forcefully, the flame blade at the tip solidly chopping onto the shoulder of the clay soldier.

A sizzling sound came forth, the shoulder of the clay soldier on the side hit rapidly turned black, followed by a large area of cracked lines appearing.

Before Ling Xiao could swing the sword a second time, the soldier's shoulder exploded with a bang, a heavy arm crashing to the ground, producing a deafening noise.

The commotion even drew the attention of two field agents guarding the outside—they rushed in holding their weapons, then looked baffled as they saw Ling Xiao detach the other arm of the clay soldier as well.

"… Is this mysterious creature out of control?" one field agent asked.

"Idiot, it's obvious this clay soldier is serving as a sparring partner for that boy, can't you see it?" The other field agent elbowed his colleague with some disdain, "But the sword the boy is holding... could it be Deceitful Equipment?"

Another horizontal slash, the one-legged clay soldier could no longer support the weight of its body and collapsed with a boom.

Ling Xiao gasped deeply... Once that inexplicable power faded away, an irresistible weariness overcame him instantly, and he staggered back two steps, luckily one of the field agents reacted quickly to support him, preventing him from collapsing to the ground.

Even the flames on the blade had disappeared, and now it looked indistinguishable from an ordinary cold weapon.

Even the inferior replicas sold in antique markets had better craftsmanship and decoration than this short sword—it was just sharp, otherwise it seemed like a practice piece hammered out of scrap metal by a blacksmith's apprentice.

"Wow, you've stumbled upon a treasure!" The field agent looked at Ling Xiao, then at the short sword in his hand, "Anyone can become a Deceitful Equipment adept... this luck is unbelievable!"

"By the way, is this short sword a mysterious object from the underground palace?" The other field agent showed a trace of confusion, "I've checked these clay soldiers and those scattered mysterious objects on the ground... I remember there wasn't such a short sword among them?"

"Maybe you missed it?" his colleague said, "There are thousands of mysterious objects here in the underground palace, you can't possibly remember the appearance of each one, can you?"

"No, I don't..." The questioning field agent scratched his head, "Honestly, I'm quite envious of him... If only I could also become a Deceitful Equipment adept..."

"Then I suggest you go home, clean up, and sleep after tonight's shift. You might be able to dream about it," the colleague couldn't help but tease.

In their view, the probability of finding a Deceitful Equipment with matching synchronization is even lower than randomly buying a lottery ticket and winning big... which is actually true.

Sun Hang watched the two argue, but was too lazy to break it up—the two field agents had served in the Celestial City Mysterious Creature Research Institute for several years, one of the few veterans remaining in the Field Operations Department, Sun Hang had no plans to recruit them into the "new unit" he was preparing to build.

Compared to recruiting from other departments, Sun Hang still felt that developing newcomers from scratch was more reliable.

"By the way, this sword doesn't have a name, do you want to give it one?" Sun Hang asked Ling Xiao.

Ling Xiao looked up at Sun Hang, clearly leaving the right to name it to him.

"Don't look at me, I'm terrible at naming things." Sun Hang jumped down from the bone throne, "The names I randomly came up with are either so corny they're embarrassing or excessively pretentious, so let's forget it."

"I have a suggestion." One of the field agents said.

"Let's hear it." Sun Hang said, "If it's creative enough, I'll ask Mr. Yang to give you a raise."

"Ruler... how about that?" the field agent suggested, "The length of this short sword is just about the same as the radial bone of an adult, we could make a soft sheath for it, normally it could be strapped to the forearm, covered by a sleeve, and it can be drawn directly when needed, convenient and covert!"

"Ruler..." Ling Xiao repeated the name, then looked at Sun Hang, "Is this name good?"

"It's fine if you like it, you're its adept after all." Sun Hang said, "Anyway, I don't think it's bad."

"Let's call it Ruler then." Ling Xiao nodded.

It was evident that he seemed to really like the Ruler Sword.

Sun Hang surveyed Ling Xiao's expression... Liking might actually be one of the most common human emotions.

It seemed Ling Xiao's emotions were indeed recovering gradually.

Sun Hang didn't really know whether this counted as a good or a bad thing.

Just then, Sun Hang's phone suddenly rang.

He looked at the phone, it was a call from Yang Lian.

"Hello? What's up?"

"Is Ling Xiao with you right now?" As soon as the call connected, Yang Lian asked directly.

Sun Hang glanced at Ling Xiao and replied, "Yes, what's up, are you looking for him?"

"No... you might want to walk away a bit, this matter concerns him, but he shouldn't hear it yet."

"Alright." After signaling Ling Xiao and the two field agents not to follow, Sun Hang walked out of the underground palace with his phone, finding an empty spot in the tunnel, "Okay, go ahead."

"Just got news from the refugee settlement camp, Ling Xiao's biological father, Ling Qiang, after being in a coma for nearly a month, was pronounced brain dead thirty minutes ago..."

"I believe Yang Qi should have contacted over there, asking them to prioritize medical resources as much as possible..."

Although Sun Hang knew from Ling Xiao's memories that his father wasn't a good person... considering Ling Xiao had so many younger siblings, Sun Hang still rather hoped this man could wake up.

After all, he was only bad to Ling Xiao, he was quite good to the other children.

And the reason for being bad to Ling Xiao was merely because he suspected Ling Xiao was the product of his wife's infidelity...

Sun Hang was too lazy to bother with such melodramatic and trivial matters, his thoughts were simple—there were already enough orphans in the world, if there could be fewer, let there be fewer.

"The doctors did their best." Yang Lian said softly, "But Ling Xiao's father's injuries were too severe... even if the most expensive medical equipment was used, it would only delay things by a few days."

"What about the children?"

"My sister plans to send them to welfare institutions in other regions, the director has approved... they should be adopted by kind families later on..." Yang Lian said, "At least they can leave Shuzhou."

"Alright, I understand."

"This matter... are you going to tell Ling Xiao?" Yang Lian couldn't help but ask, "Though I always feel like he doesn't seem to care about these things."

"I have to tell him, this kind of thing can't be hidden, and there's no need to hide it." Sun Hang said.

Ling Xiao isn't indifferent to these things, rather he is indifferent to everything.

It's just unknown what he will become once his emotions slowly restore.

"You... better tell him in a gentler manner, after all, he's still a kid." Yang Lian's tone revealed a hint of hesitation.

"Tsk, didn't expect you to actually care about other people's feelings?" Sun Hang let out a small laugh, "I thought you would read it to him like a verdict, 'Your dad is dead.'... or something."

"If you have opinions about me, you can bring them up face to face." Yang Lian's tone suddenly became stiff, "This joke isn't funny at all."

"Alright, then I'll trouble you to speak with a smile, a gentle tone... can you do that?"

"...There's another thing."

"What?"

"Jiang Yu woke up, she wants to see you."