Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

There was a moment of silence in the air.

Yu Xiangwan's expression almost crumbled. He clenched the calluses on his hands and said coldly, "Yu Zhuo, what do you mean?"

Alphas are inherently strong and do not tolerate being challenged, and Yu Zhuo's actions are tantamount to a direct provocation.

After speaking, Yu Zhuo sensed something was amiss. Having been away from this world for so long, many things seemed unfamiliar to him. Coupled with the deep influence of his previous hosts, his words were entirely subconscious.

Seeing this, Yu Yuanshan quickly stepped in to smooth things over, saying, "This is not the time to argue, Yu Zhuo. You are young and don't understand. We were completely innocent victims this time..."

The Yuzhuo tribe resides in the Hermia region, near the deep sea. The entire ocean area, including the nearby continents, is now ruled by the sea-dwelling mermaids—the Qi Rui Miluo tribe.

The Yuzhuo clan is not good at swimming and is ultimately just an appendage of the merfolk.

Mermaids have lifespans of thousands of years. The previous leader was severely injured five hundred years ago and has been in a coma ever since. The merfolk then elected a new leader, but this new king is incompetent and tyrannical, frequently invading the territories of other races and causing countless rebellions.

The merman royal family immediately felt resentful. Words, seemingly from nowhere, circulated that if the former king were still alive, he would never have been as useless as the current one.

Surprisingly, the current king did not get angry when he heard these words. He was used to being absurd and actually went along with the rumors.

He wanted to hold a grand resurrection ceremony for the late king—a so-called ghost marriage—to awaken the king who had been in a deep sleep.

As is widely known, the former Mermaid King had already married five hundred years ago. After losing her husband, the former king was also severely injured and fell into a deep slumber beneath the abyss.

Five hundred years have passed, and his body is now stiff as iron. Although he is alive, tests show that his mental consciousness is so weak as to be almost non-existent; he is clearly a living dead.

Now they are actually going to choose a suitable Alpha from other races to marry the former king.

The so-called resurrection ritual is nothing more than injecting the pheromones of the remaining Alphas into his glands, activating the cells through rejection and pain, and stimulating the nerves to awaken him.

Temporary marking is barely acceptable, but permanent marking... is tantamount to necrophilia.

Yu Xiangwan was the unlucky one chosen by the Qi Rui Miluo royal family.

He had only been in military school for two years, but his outstanding performance and extremely high rank made him an unsurprising first choice for the royal family.

Yu Zhuo listened from the side, his hand gripping the water glass tightly, silently tightening his grip on the rim: "The former king of the Merfolk... Zhou Yanshu?"

"You know about this?" Yu Yuanshan was somewhat surprised. Five hundred years ago was too far removed from their lives, and he hadn't expected Yu Zhuo to know anything about it.

He sighed and said, "It's him. Your great-grandfather even had a photograph of the late king a long time ago."

Their lifespan is ultimately less than that of the mermaids, lasting less than a hundred years. In five hundred years, they have already gone through four or five generations.

Yu Zhuo's breath hitched, and he almost dropped the water glass in his hand, feeling the warm water inside was so hot that it nearly burned his skin.

"No!" Yu Zhuo suddenly stood up, his eyes flashing as he fixed his gaze on Yu Xiangwan's face. "You can't go."

Yu Xiangwan glanced at him: "It's not like you can't just say it's not possible."

Yu Zhuo silently bit the soft flesh of his mouth. He was silent for a moment, then quickly sorted out his chaotic thoughts: "Brother, you will have to go to military school to continue your studies. Once you enter the sea, you will never be able to come out again."

He frowned and said with difficulty, "I'll go in your place."

A flicker of surprise crossed Yu Xiangwan's eyes, and he hesitated before asking, "...You'll go in my place?"

“You and I are brothers, I’m going in your place willingly.” Yu Zhuo said one sentence after another, “I won’t expose you.”

Yu Xiangwan paused for a moment. He looked at Yu Zhuo, his gaze slowly sweeping over his parents' faces: "But you and I look nothing alike."

He deliberately emphasized certain words, causing the two elders sitting in front of him to change their expressions slightly.

Yu Zhuo not only looks different from Yu Xiangwan, but he also looks completely different from Yu Yuanshan and his wife. From a thousand years ago to the present, the most distinctive feature of their clan is silver hair and blue eyes, and even if mutations occur, the color will not change too much.

But Yu Zhuo, this oddball, had a head of white hair. Not only was his hair different, but his eyes were also pure gold, making him seem completely unlike any other race.

Yu Zhuo didn't catch the implication in Yu Xiangwan's tone. His mind was elsewhere, and he simply said, "I can disguise myself, and I've learned makeup techniques."

Yu Xiangwan: "What about the ranking?"

“Just falsify the test data. Once we’re inside, they won’t investigate too much.” Yu Zhu lowered his eyelashes. “That new king is just playing around. Even if you have 3S, you can’t mark the former king.”

Yu Xiangwan frowned and remained silent.

He knew, of course, that the new king was just playing around, and that Zhou Yanshu was a living dead man. The new king's actions were undoubtedly an insult to everyone.

Seeing that Yu Xiangwan's attitude had softened, Yu Zhuo turned to Yu Yuanshan and his wife and said, "Dad, Mom, what do you think? I'll go in my brother's place."

“But…” Yu Yuanshan hesitated. Just as he opened his mouth, the woman next to him gave his arm a suggestive pinch.

Yu Yuanshan sighed, looked at Yu Zhuo, and after a long while said, "Then you must be careful."

Yu Zhuo nodded: "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The conversation that evening didn't last long; Yu Zhuo was physically weak and couldn't stay up late for long. After exchanging a few words with Yu Yuanshan, Yu Zhuo went upstairs.

He stopped at the top of the stairs and leaned over the carved railing to look down. The incandescent lights below were off, and the surroundings were silent except for the occasional sound of footsteps.

Yu Yuanshan arrived at the stairwell a few minutes later. Upon seeing Yu Zhuo, he instinctively took a step back: "What's wrong, Xiao Zhuo? Is there something else?"

Yu Zhu hummed in agreement and then asked, "Dad, you mentioned before that our great-grandfather once collected photos of the late king. Could I see them?"

After he finished speaking, seeing the doubt on Yu Yuanshan's face, he added, "I'm going there in a few days, and I want to see what Zhou Yanshu looks like beforehand. I've never seen him before, and I'm afraid I'll be scared."

Yu Yuanshan rubbed Yu Zhuo's head and said, "I've kept your great-grandfather's belongings. They're in my room. Do you want them now?"

Yu Zhuo smiled and said, "Mm."

Yu Yuanshan didn't say anything more. He went back to his room and rummaged around for a while, and soon took out a photo album.

“They’re all in there, but there’s only one photo; the rest are pictures of your great-grandfather.”

Yu Zhuo reached out and took it. He pressed his fingertips against the thick velvet cover of the album and could already feel its weight.

"Thank you, Dad." Yu Zhuo picked up the photo album, turned around, and went back to his room.