Max Level Return—I'll Protect That Fragile One

”What exactly is your relationship with Zhang Zhiyi?”

Facing the aggressive Xu Xingguang, Huo Xin realized it was hard to gloss over things anymore, so she looked at Huo Wen’an and explained, ”Four years ago, when I had just returned to Cangshan Town, I went to pay respects to my mother and also visited our home. Coincidentally, Zhang Zhiyi had returned to Building 219 to sort out the belongings of her deceased teacher.”

Huo Xin raised her eyes to Xu Xingguang and said, ”That day, she was hiding in your house, crying bitterly. I heard her and, driven by curiosity, went to your house. That’s how we met.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Xingguang felt skeptical. ”So you’re saying you and my senior sister are just purely friends?”

Huo Xin smiled playfully and replied, ”What else? If not purely friends, what other kind of friends could we be? My sexual orientation is normal; I’m not interested in women.”

”Huo Xin.” Huo Xin’s evasive attitude completely enraged Xu Xingguang.

With a fierce resolve, Xu Xingguang decided to deliver a harsh dose. ”Actually, Huo Wei lied to you; your brother didn’t serve time in jail after committing murder. Do you know where he went?”

Huo Xin was taken aback; she looked at Huo Wen’an and frowned, saying, ”After escaping from Huo Wei’s control, I went to Cangshan Town to find you. Seeing the house overgrown with weeds, I realized that for revenge, you ended up committing a crime and went to prison.”

”I visited your prison, but they said you weren’t there. I found out later that in the fourth year after your crime, the Old Captain Huo took you back to the Divine Concealment Island.”

”Little Sin, where did you go during those three missing years?”

Huo Wen’an tightened his lips, unwilling to disclose his three years as a Combat Doll.

Huo Xin already felt guilty towards him; knowing his experiences in the Divine Martial Realm would only break her heart further.

”Brother A Zui, tell her.” Xu Xingguang forcefully insisted, ”Can’t you see? She’s deceiving us; she won’t reveal the true relationship between her and Zhang Zhiyi. Without clear disclosure, she doesn’t understand how powerful our enemies are.”

Hearing this, Huo Wen’an regained some clarity.

”It was Huo Wei who took me away.” Huo Wen’an told Huo Xin, ”He sold me to a very strange place where I was treated as a Combat Doll, imprisoned like a beast.”

”They only fed us at fixed times, and those who managed to grab food got to eat. Those who didn’t, faced death.”

”They took pleasure in watching us fight over food.”

After finishing, Huo Wen’an turned around and faced away from Huo Xin.

He lifted his clothes, exposing the ’slave’ mark on his back to the air. ”This is the mark they gave me.”

Seeing clearly the mark on Huo Wen’an’s back, Huo Xin was shocked, her eyes widening in anger as she yelled, ”How could they do this to you!”

At this point, Xu Xingguang stepped forward to help Huo Wen’an lower his clothes.

Turning around, when Xu Xingguang saw the tears in Huo Xin’s eyes, he knew Huo Xin must be experiencing an emotional upheaval.

When Xu Xingguang initially saw the slave tattoo on Huo Wen’an’s back, his heart was also in turmoil.

”Sister Xin, the ’Divine’ known to Huo Wei is a group of powerful figures living in the Divine Martial Realm. The world we live on is merely a space they designed for us.”

”Have you watched Truman’s World? We are like the people living on Peach Blossom Island, unaware of it; they call us the Mortal World, we are commoners, mere mortal trash.”

”And they are considered a superior race, possessing ’Divine Bone.’ Do you know what we found in the underground world?”

Huo Wen’an cooperated with Xu Xingguang by opening his phone, showing what he had previously captured to Huo Xin.

Huo Xin hesitantly took the phone.

She flipped through the images one by one.

The more she looked, the more solemn her expression became.

In the end, her charming face turned a deathly pale.

”Mortal World Cleansing Plan...” Huo Xin then realized the terrifying existence backing Huo Wei, the ’Divine.’

”These test subjects in the underground world are failed defective products. But not long ago, I discovered a type of parasitic mutant organism in Xiahou Huai Gui’s body skilled at hiding and lurking.”

”I suspect their research project has made significant progress.”

”Soon, the things they’re developing might silently infiltrate our mortal flesh, turning us into beasts, fulfilling their purpose of ’cleansing trash.’”

”Sister Xin.” Xu Xingguang looked at Huo Xin with serious eyes and told her, ”The Divine Martial Realm can no longer accommodate us. If we want to survive, we must unite and fight them to the end!”

”Will you still refuse to tell us the true relationship between you and Zhang Zhiyi?”

Huo Xin realized she could no longer hide the truth from them.

This wasn’t small skirmish; this was a global human crisis battle.

Returning the phone to Huo Wen’an, Huo Xin sighed deeply and said, ”I met her ten years ago when I just escaped Huo Wei’s control and was at my lowest point when she found me.”

”Why did she find you?”

Huo Xin frowned and said, ”She made a deal with me. She wanted me to go somewhere with her and undergo a thorough examination. In return, she would give me a new identity and introduce me to a very skilled doctor.”

”I agreed, she took me for an examination, but I suppose she didn’t find what she wanted in me, so she let me go.”

”Later, I started working with that doctor. I might have inherited Huo Wei’s medical genes; somehow, I have quite a talent in medicine.”

”Within a few years, I went from a small assistant to being the only disciple of that doctor. This afternoon Zhang Zhiyi visited me with the purpose of asking about the teacher’s situation.”

Xu Xingguang asked Huo Xin, ”What’s your teacher’s name?” Curious about who Zhang Zhiyi cared so much about.

Huo Xin said, ”Ying Ziyao.”

”What?” Hearing the unexpected name, Xu Xingguang and Huo Wen’an were taken aback.

”You’re talking about Doctor Ying Ziyao from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hall?”

”It’s him.” Huo Xin said, ”My teacher is a general practitioner, proficient in both traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine. But he’s very reclusive, strange, unsympathetic to anyone, even somewhat antisocial.”

”However, he seems to have a good relationship with Zhang Zhiyi; he agreed to take me as a disciple only after Zhang Zhiyi’s recommendation. I was invited to attend the Old Madam Ying’s birthday banquet as a substitute for my teacher.”

Now it’s clear.

”But how did Zhang Zhiyi come to know Ying Ziyao?” Huo Wen’an couldn’t figure it out.

Suddenly, darkness filled Xu Xingguang’s eyes as he coldly stated, ”You forgot, Doctor Ying and my mother were both adopted children of my grandfather, and he adored my mother.”

”Zhang Zhiyi was my mother’s student; after my mother’s death, it was Zhang Zhiyi who helped manage the aftermath.”

”It’s not surprising that Zhang Zhiyi came to know Doctor Ying.”

Xu Xingguang couldn’t help but suspect that Zhang Zhiyi’s approach to his mother had been a meticulously plotted scheme all along.

Could it be that Zhang Zhiyi’s true intention was not to approach Mo Yinshu, but rather to get close to Ying Ziyao, the one taught by the grandfather who excelled at the Ying Family’s Hundred Medicines Conference, ranking in the top three, and had developed in the Medicine King Tower?