Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 284 - 203: Anomalies

Chapter 284: Chapter 203: Anomalies

This was not a good omen.

The director’s entourage fell into infighting first, spontaneously forming organizations to attack those traitors. They saw it as a just punishment, yet Duan Mingyuan and Jiuyue, for attending last night’s banquet, had turned the Blue Star’s delegation into targets as well.

Worse news came when the "traitors" learned of their colleagues being attacked and established corresponding resistance organizations, beginning to launch planned counterattacks.

A serious summit was on the verge of devolving into a farce of mutual attacks and even assassinations.

Jiuyue arrived early at the restaurant of the Gear Hotel and caught three members of the director’s entourage trying to poison the ingredients. The results of the poison tests weighed heavily on Earth Wolf Twelve’s heart—the detected doses of poison were all enough to kill someone instantly, meaning these people were no longer just venting anger, but had resorted to assassination.

It seemed as though overnight, these elite representatives selected from various planets had become extremists, casting aside negotiations and strategies, with only primal violence and killing as their means to address grievances.

Mingyuan was also attacked in his room at noon.

The attacker was a fox demon with nine tails, who leapt at him from around the corner as he entered the room, licking and nuzzling him. Mingyuan couldn’t dodge in time and ended up with his cheeks sopping wet.

This was the third time that day Jiuyue had taken on the form of a nine-tailed fox.

Compared to her previous coy approach of acting coquettish and pitiful, Jiuyue’s "aggression" had increased significantly. The nature of her emotions had not changed, but her fox demon’s instincts were increasingly on display.

As a scholar of fox demon studies, no one understood the differences between an auspicious and a troublesome fox’s "attacks" better than Duan Mingyuan.

He managed to restrain Jiuyue, who kept trying to pounce on him, and had to rethink the situation.

With the director’s entourage as a cautionary tale, could Jiuyue’s changes be influenced by some unknown force as well?

He felt that Earth Wolf Twelve’s initial conjecture was not without reason. Those who could participate in the summit were elites selected from various planets, most with extensive experience in interstellar conferences. Even if they harbored thoughts of "making traitors pay," they would conceal them without any indication of their intent.

If they truly intended to take action, they would exploit loopholes in the rules, rather than, like hot-blooded youths in their twenties, simply donning masks and wielding iron rods to beat people up.

Such impulsive individuals would never qualify to attend the summit.

While Duan Mingyuan was pondering, Jiuyue, who had lain down on the bed, embraced his arm, kissing and biting it, and left a row of fine teeth marks. Her red pupils stared intently at him, blatantly expressing her desire to pounce on him.

"Why not just give in for once, it’s not like you’d lose a piece of flesh," she said.

This seemed to have become Jiuyue’s recent obsession.

"What has turned you into this?" Duan Mingyuan asked, puzzled, but he vaguely grasped the essence of these changes.

Some invisible force was intensifying the thoughts in people’s hearts, driving them to put them into action. Even an old hand like Jiuyue, who had achieved a high professional title, was not immune to its influence.

"It’s love!" Jiuyue declared, completely unaware of her own strangeness, her eyes shining brightly, answering without hesitation.

Although the Auspicious Fox Cultivation Manual mentioned that everything should be done gradually and that humans are usually a subtle and conservative group, with too direct expressions potentially frightening them, Jiuyue decided to set aside these intricacies for the time being. Adopting the fox demon’s approach might also have its unique charm.

Her hands gripping Duan Mingyuan’s arm tightened further.

Jiuyue cajoled and tempted him, "Mr. Mingyuan, don’t be too conservative. You should try something new occasionally!"

At that moment, Duan Mingyuan suddenly understood another accusation against the troublesome fox in the Fox Demon Chronicles.

The author labelled the troublesome fox as extremely dangerous, with rumors persisting from ancient times that such demons would drain humans of their life energy. Once liked by a troublesome fox, they would focus all their attention on you. Given the fox demon’s jealous nature, they would often resort to unconventional methods just to keep you by their side.

Translated into the modern internet lingo, that would mean Fox Demons mostly have the "yandere" trait.

Jiuyue’s yandere side is gradually surfacing due to some influence, and Duan Mingyuan couldn’t help but suspect that once she achieved her goal of "pouncing," she would add more "binding" and "blindfolding" type of play.

In her words, these were all novel experiences.

However, these novel experiences did not align with the current positive trend, so Duan Mingyuan had to prevent the little fox from going astray.

He placed his palm on Jiuyue’s forehead, and the gentle Life Energy slowly transferred into her body.

The red light in her eyes gradually dissipated, and the tails behind her also faded one by one; the entire process lasted about a minute. During this, Jiuyue involuntarily squinted her eyes, and when she opened them again, her eyes had regained their clarity.

She seemed a bit dazed, staring blankly at Duan Mingyuan for a moment, then looked around and realized she was sitting on the bed in a kneeling position, and it all came back to her at once.

"Mr. Mingyuan, you shouldn’t be so hasty, you might tear the clothes."

She began to lift up the hem of her dress.

"You’ve totally misunderstood."

Duan Mingyuan had to stop Jiuyue once again; what he had just changed was the nature of Jiuyue’s Fox Demon, helping her to return to her normal state, but it did not alter her thoughts and ideas.

This proved that the little fox had always harbored certain unspeakable thoughts in her mind.

"Oh."

Jiuyue stopped her actions in disappointment; she vaguely remembered catching a criminal who tried to poison the lunch. She thought Mr. Mingyuan was looking for her during his lunch break to reward her.

It seemed that she hadn’t caught enough bad guys.

To identify the source of the influence, Duan Mingyuan and Earth Wolf Twelve agreed to meet in a cafe.

The Interstellar Cowboy looked haggard; in his words, he hadn’t slept all night, and with all the mess that happened this morning, even a body made of steel couldn’t withstand it.

He didn’t elaborate on the reason for his sleeplessness.

"I knew it, how could I possibly make a wrong guess?"

After hearing Duan Mingyuan’s analysis, he slapped his thigh forcefully.

It turned out the villain was indeed the Chamber of Commerce; it made much more sense now. They had used some Ability or device to affect people at the conference, thereby instigating infighting among the council’s entourage.

"How ironic, all those discourses about peaceful development were just a facade."

Earth Wolf Twelve also looked at the news released by the media yesterday; the report glorified the current head of the Silver Lotus Family, claiming he discussed the future peace and trade prosperity of the universe with the summit’s executives.

But in reality, they merely wanted to incite division from within, aiming to dissolve the Sixteen Star Summit internally.

This was his fault.

Earth Wolf Twelve engaged in self-critique and reflection; he could hardly believe there was a moment when he was truly deceived by the Chamber of Commerce’s wickedness, thinking that the Shan Clan People this time intended to take a step back and get through this conference peacefully.

"The anomaly started after the Shan Clan People’s flagship arrived; if they used some kind of device, it’s mostly likely installed on their flagship."

Earth Wolf Twelve said, "The question is, how do we board their flagship?"