I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

Gu Yan stood under the warm yellow light of the flower shop, holding the bouquet of sunflowers. The old woman's words, "No one else is in my sight, you are all around me," still echoed in her ears.

His breathing became slightly rapid.

She wasn't just picking a random bouquet of flowers; she was sending him a message she'd kept hidden for many years.

The glass door was pushed open, and a copper bell rang softly.

Pei Youyi walked out of the alley, a few grains of sand blown by the night wind clinging to her plain white trench coat, her phone already back in her pocket.

Her gaze fell on the bunch of golden sunflowers in his arms, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

Do you like it?

Gu Yan nodded.

Seeing that he didn't press her about the meaning of the flowers, she simply smiled and didn't say anything more.

The two walked out of the flower shop and slowly walked back along the alley covered with bougainvillea petals.

The streetlights cast long shadows of the two people. They walked in silence, but the sound of their footsteps in the night breeze was strangely harmonious.

That evening, military transport planes took off from the Middle East theater, traversed the entire Eurasian continent, and flew into the night towards the core fortress of the fourth line of defense in East Asia, the western part of the Sakura Kingdom.

The engine hummed low and continuous, and outside the window were thick, bottomless clouds.

Pei Youyi sat by the window, with a bunch of sunflowers wrapped in transparent protective film beside her.

She had changed out of her trench coat and cheongsam and was now wearing a dark blue outfit that allowed for easy movement. Her hair was still loosely tied back with the jade hairpin.

The transport plane landed in the early hours of the morning.

The moment the hatch opened, Gu Yan sensed an extremely ominous fluctuation of spiritual energy. It didn't come from the distant rift, but from nearby, inside the fortress.

The alarm blared through the night sky.

It wasn't coming from a loudspeaker; it was the sharp buzzing of all the rune sensing arrays in the entire fortress exploding simultaneously.

The ground trembled violently as a dark red beam of light pierced through the middle of the alloy walls surrounding the fortress.

A scaled-down version of the Titan, only one-third the size of the original, but faster, and its shell can also absorb most energy attacks.

Two S-class skeletal dragons followed behind it, their bony wings, which blotted out the sky, gleaming eerily under the searchlights.

They didn't enter through external cracks, but bypassed the outer defenses and appeared inside the core fortress of the fourth defense line.

This is an assassination, not an attack.

The target is the high-ranking commander who has just landed here.

One tank after another rushed out of the underground bunker, their turrets rotating to aim at the SS-class Titan.

Shells rained down on it, sparks flew into the sky, and when the smoke cleared, there wasn't even a crack on the armor.

A skeletal dragon swooped down, its breath engulfing an entire row of tanks. The turrets twisted and deformed in the intense heat, and the crew inside were burned alive.

Another giant dragon landed in the center of the fortress square, its bone wings sweeping across and slicing several heavy mechs that were being prepared in half.

Soldiers surged in from all directions, firing rifles and grenades at the behemoth, the bullets hitting the keel without even leaving a hole.

The dragon's breath engulfed the entire square.

Those young faces that are still running.

The sappers who were playing cards with their comrades in the barracks yesterday, the communications soldiers who haven't had time to open the letters sent from their hometowns, and the riflemen who have just received their new military boots and are still breaking them in.

It turned into charred remains in the dark red flames.

Titan lifted his foot and stepped on the fountain in the center of the square.

The fountain exploded, spraying water, stone chips, and blood mist into the air.

Then a wall of wind rose from the ground.

A pale blue wind barrier spread outwards from Pei Youyi's feet, forcefully blocking the Titan's second beam attack in front of Gu Yan.

The wind wall remained motionless. She stood in front of the wind wall, turned her head and said something to Gu Yan.

Chiyomiya Hanyu arrived from the east side of the fortress.

Her pheasant dagger sheath was still wrapped with the cloth strip she had tied around her waist when she set off; before she could even untie the cloth strip, she had already drawn her dagger.

With a single slash, the dragon's breath was severed from the skeletal dragon's waist, and the white kimono fluttered in the shockwave.

Lin Jinyu rushed over from the west side of the fortress.

Before she even landed, golden flames crashed down from mid-air, burning a huge hole in the bone wings of another skeletal dragon.

Combat boots trod on the edge of the plaza ruins, long golden hair danced in the sea of ​​fire.

"Weren't you supposed to be back tomorrow?!"

She yelled in Gu Yan's direction.

Because they were too far apart and the smoke was too thick, she hadn't had a chance to see Pei Youyi standing beside Gu Yan, shielding him from the Titan's attack.

Gu Yan didn't have time to answer; a seven-colored light was silently emanating from the depths of his pupils.

He took a step forward and stretched out his hand.

The power of the Mirror Flower Seal transformed into three extremely fine, seven-colored threads, which precisely pierced the core of the Three-Headed Calamity.

The two S-class skeletal dragons roared simultaneously, their blood-red flames flickering violently before turning into a rainbow of colors.

They lowered their heads, turned around, and bit the arms of the SS-class Titan, one on each side.

The Titan was held firmly in the jaws of its own kind, its carapace cracking with countless fine lines under the crushing force of the dragon's teeth.

In that instant, Yuzuru's blade struck Titan's knee joint, and dark red runes spread from the blade, locking its leg movement.

Lin Jinyu descended from the sky, golden flames condensing into a flaming spear longer than a tank, piercing through Titan's head, chest, and abdomen.

Titan's chest exploded, black blood sprayed into the air, and his massive body crashed forward.

The surviving soldiers in the square saw the once invincible SS-class Titan being bitten by its own comrade and pierced by both blades and flames. They also saw the young man standing in the center of the ruins, surrounded by a seven-colored light, with an S-class Titan bowing its head with every movement of its finger.

Before the cheers could even erupt, the communications soldier had bled to death, lying motionless in the rubble, his fingers still in a gesture that could never be fulfilled.

The square was littered with charred remains and burning mech wreckage, and the air was thick with the smell of roasted meat and burnt hair.

Those young soldiers who died in this sudden assassination will never hear the cheers again.

Chiyomiya Hanyu sheathed his pheasant sword and walked towards him through the ruins.

She walked up to him and stopped, gently brushing away a speck of ash from his collar, then wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest.

"You came back a day earlier than expected. Next time, let me know in advance."

I'll pick you up from the airport.

Lin Jinyu rushed over from the other side.

Her long golden hair was still wreathed in the embers of the flames that hadn't completely dissipated. She grabbed Gu Yan's wrist and pulled him out of Yu Sheng's arms, then hugged him tightly from the side.

She was still covered in the golden embers left from when the Titan's chest cavity had been burned through, but the flames went out on their own when she touched him.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt? That Titan was too close to you just now."

"I saw it all. You got into this situation right after you got off the plane."

"I should have known better than to let you go to the Middle East."