[Volume 2] Chapter 17: Xiao Yan Apprehended

“The Spacetime Administration Bureau?” Xiao Yan stared at them in shock.

He had never imagined such an organization could actually exist. And the man who had slapped him was claiming to be its director!

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. What kind of bizarre organization is the Spacetime Administration Bureau?” Xiao Yan continued to deny everything.

“There’s no need to pretend, Xiao Yan.” Finn stared coldly at him. “You’re a transmigrator from Earth, aren’t you?”

At the mention of Earth—a familiar name he had not heard in more than a decade—Xiao Yan finally realized that these men knew everything about him.

The Xiao Clan elders, Nalan Yanran, Ge Ye, and Xiao Xun’er exchanged bewildered looks. None of them understood what Xiao Yan and these strangers were talking about.

Xiao Yan let out a long, heavy breath before admitting, “That’s right. I’m a transmigrator. So what? What gives you the right to interfere?”

“The Spacetime Administration Bureau exists specifically to deal with transmigrators like you!” Chen-Awelon declared righteously. “Criminal scum like you must be punished severely!”

“What did I do? What law have I broken?” Veins throbbed at Xiao Yan’s temples.

He was still underage and had not even obtained his cheat ability yet, so he had neither begun murdering people for their treasures nor raped Medusa.

He had kept his nose clean for more than a decade. As far as he was concerned, he had never broken any law.

“And you still dare deny it?” Chen-Awelon gave him another resounding slap. “You real-life

 lolicon! You’re suspected of molesting a little girl. You’re coming with us!”

Clutching his cheek, now marked with yet another handprint, Xiao Yan protested, “That’s slander! You have no evidence. What makes you think I molested anyone?”

Chen-Awelon pointed at Xiao Xun’er, his expression icy.

“The victim is standing right here, and you still deny it? Since you want evidence, we’ll confront you with her testimony right now!”

Xiao Xun’er gasped when Chen-Awelon suddenly pointed at her. Covering her mouth, she had no idea what to do.

Chen-Awelon looked directly at her.

“Xiao Xun’er, when you were between four and six years old, did Xiao Yan sneak into your room every night and run his hands all over you?”

“Huh?” Xiao Xun’er’s bright eyes darted helplessly between Xiao Yan and Chen-Awelon.

“That’s a lie! Xun’er, don’t believe them!” Xiao Yan shouted, forcing himself to sound confident.

He knew exactly what he had done back then. All he could do now was hope Xiao Xun’er would keep quiet.

Chen-Awelon seized Xiao Yan and produced a gleaming pair of silver handcuffs. With a crisp click, he locked them around Xiao Yan’s wrists.

He then gave Xiao Xun’er an encouraging smile.

“Don’t be afraid, Xiao Xun’er. We have the culprit under control. He can’t hurt you anymore. You can tell us everything he did. If you’re willing to testify about what Xiao Yan did, we’ll have him chemically castrated so he can never prey on another child!”

“What? Chemical castration?!” Xiao Yan began struggling in terror.

He had not built his harem yet! He had not even gotten to enjoy the glorious life this other world had to offer: killing people for treasure, leveling up, fighting monsters, and moving from one map to the next!

How could he let himself be castrated now?

Chen-Awelon slapped him to the floor, then shackled his ankles with another pair of cuffs.

Xiao Xun’er did not understand most of what Chen-Awelon had said, but she understood the word “castration.” Seeing Xiao Yan in such a miserable state, she gritted her teeth and declared, “Xiao Yan is innocent! He never ran his hands all over me!”

Xiao Yan was overjoyed. He had thought he was doomed, but Xiao Xun’er had stepped forward to defend him. He could see hope again!

Finn frowned. He had not expected the victim to defend her abuser.

Had Xiao Yan’s groping somehow given her Stockholm syndrome? Did she have some kind of masochistic streak?

Seizing the opportunity to fight back, Xiao Yan shouted, “You heard her! I never molested Xiao Xun’er! This is nothing but slander!”

Finn shook his head and opened a floating display.

“This is surveillance footage we recorded in Xiao Xun’er’s room when she was five.”

Before traveling to the point in time when Nalan Yanran broke off the engagement, Finn had first gone back to when Xiao Xun’er was five, anticipating that Xiao Yan might deny his crimes.

Inside her room, Finn had deployed nanobots from the Spacetime Destruction Bureau and recorded the entire incident.

The display showed a dimly lit room at night. A child of about six or seven slipped into Xiao Xun’er’s room, moving with a furtive, lecherous air.

When the angle shifted, everyone could clearly see that the child was a young Xiao Yan.

He crept toward the sleeping Xiao Xun’er, lifted her small blanket …

“After seeing this, what excuse could you possibly have left, Xiao Yan?” Chen-Awelon stared coldly at him. “You real-life lolicon.”

“I’m not a lolicon!” Xiao Yan shouted as he struggled. “I was just a child! I didn’t understand anything! We were only playing around!”

By then, Xiao Zhan had also managed to sit up with the servants’ help. Although all four of his limbs had been broken, he had recovered some strength after gulping down two bottles’ worth of healing pills. He now sat slumped in a wooden chair.

No one else present spoke up for Xiao Yan. Only his father, Xiao Zhan, pleaded desperately on his behalf.

“Esteemed masters, please spare my son! You saw it yourselves—Xiao Yan was only a child at the time. He knew nothing of the proper boundaries between boys and girls. He was merely fooling around with Xun’er!”

Bound hand and foot, Xiao Yan felt a surge of warmth when he heard his father defend him.

During the three years he had been considered worthless, everyone had mocked and looked down on him. Only his father had stood by him. Now that everyone else was too intimidated by the Spacetime Administration Bureau to intervene, it was his father who stepped forward once again.

Xiao Yan silently vowed that if he survived this ordeal, he would devote himself to cultivation. Once he rose to greatness, he would repay his father with everything he had.

“Xiao Yan was only a child? Hahahaha!”

Chen-Awelon threw back his head and laughed. His harsh laughter rang out like a cracked gong, shaking heaven and earth, as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

His expression abruptly turned cold.

“Xiao Zhan, let me tell you the truth. The moment your son Xiao Yan was born, his body was taken over by an outsider! The soul occupying your son’s body is an evil fiend from another world!”

Xiao Zhan froze. “Master... is that true?”

Jyan-Tyenhaw stepped forward. “You don’t have to take my word for it. I’ll extract your son’s soul right now and let everyone see exactly what has taken over his body.”

Xiao Yan went pale with terror. “No!”

Jyan-Tyenhaw struck him on the forehead and cast a soul-separation spell, forcibly ripping a pale blue soul from Xiao Yan’s body.

His soulless body crumpled to the floor.

Jyan-Tyenhaw held the struggling soul firmly in one hand and displayed it to everyone present.

“Do you all see it now? This is the soul of a grown man, yet Xiao Yan himself is still underage, isn’t he?”

The soul was clearly that of an adult man, while Xiao Yan’s body belonged to a boy who had not yet come of age. No one with working eyes could miss the difference.

The Xiao Clan elders, Xiao Xun’er, Nalan Yanran, Ge Ye, and Xiao Zhan were all stunned.

None of them had imagined that the Xiao Yan they knew had long ago been possessed by an otherworldly fiend.

Xiao Zhan was hit hardest of all. His face turned deathly pale.

The person he had painstakingly raised all these years had never truly been his son at all!

In an instant, he seemed to age hundreds of years. He sagged in his chair, utterly devastated, muttering over and over again.

“My son... my son... my son...”