162: Chapter 162 The Seventh Key

After finishing his meal, Jiang Feng put down his chopsticks.

Liu Cuilan cleared the bowls into the kitchen, still nagging.

"That old hospital has been half-demolished. Why go there in the middle of the night? Can't you go during the day?"

Jiang Feng stood up.

"It'll be quick."

Jiang Jianguo also stood up.

"I'm going with you."

Liu Cuilan looked back at him.

"Are you going just to get in the way?"

Jiang Jianguo was silent for two seconds before picking up that old jacket from the corner.

"That signature... I was the one who signed it."

The room fell silent instantly.

The Dragon Girl, holding her bowl, whispered as she raised her hand.

"Grandpa, I want to go too. I can bite through the paper."

Jiang Jianguo glanced at her.

"Don't bite the paper yet."

Jiang Feng's gaze swept over his father's face.

"Dad, it's not your fault."

Jiang Jianguo shook his head.

"Whether it's my fault or not, I have to see for myself."

He didn't speak loudly.

But there was a stubborn strength in his voice.

Jiang Feng nodded.

"Alright."

The next second.

The living room lights flickered slightly.

The three of them vanished from where they stood.

...

Dongjiang City Old People's Hospital.

Outside the abandoned delivery room, weeds had grown up to the windowsills.

Large patches of paint were peeling off the walls, and the door sign hung crookedly.

A broken light hung at the end of the hallway; the bulb flickered twice, casting a cold, pale white light.

Xiao Zhenjiang, Li Yan, and Zhang Changlin had already led people to cordon off the perimeter.

Seeing Jiang Feng appear, Li Yan immediately came forward to meet him.

"There's something inside."

Jiang Feng asked, "Has everyone been evacuated?"

Xiao Zhenjiang nodded.

"Everything within a three-kilometer radius has been cleared."

Li Yan lowered his voice.

"But we can't get in. There's a line of text at the door."

Jiang Feng looked at the delivery room door.

On the rusted iron door, a row of blue characters floated.

[Father's Signature Area. Outsiders, halt.]

When Jiang Jianguo saw this line of text, his expression darkened instantly.

"Outsiders?"

He took a step forward.

The blue text lit up.

[Signatory detected: Jiang Jianguo.]

[Please enter to confirm paternity ownership.]

Li Yan cursed on the spot.

"This piece of junk sure knows how to put on airs."

Jiang Feng lifted his foot to enter.

A blue light immediately blocked him.

[Children may not interfere with the father's procedures.]

Jiang Feng looked at those words.

"Procedures?"

He raised his hand and pressed it against the iron door.

[Warning: It is forbidden to violate the hospital's archival rules.]

Jiang Feng's fingers tightened.

"I hate it most when someone tries to stamp their authority on my family matters."

Crack.

The blue text on the iron door shattered directly.

A System prompt popped up.

[Paternity procedure rules encountered.]

[Plunderable.]

Jiang Feng said indifferently, "Plunder."

[Plunder successful.]

[Gained all attributes: 6 Ji.]

[Current basic six-dimensional attributes: 239 Ji.]

The iron door opened.

Zero Seven stood behind him, her face already numb.

Li Yan glanced at her.

"Why aren't you shocked anymore?"

Zero Seven's face remained expressionless.

"I'm tired of being shocked."

These words were very sincere.

She no longer wanted to ask why Jiang Feng could tear apart rules.

If she asked, the answer would just be ridiculous.

If she asked again, her Dao Heart would have to work overtime.

Inside the delivery room, the air was freezing.

An old delivery bed sat in the center.

The filing cabinet next to it was half-open.

A yellowed birth certificate hung in mid-air.

On the paper, the name Jiang Jianguo was bleeding.

At the very bottom, there was another line of tiny text.

[Self-confirmation: Willing to use paternity as collateral to lend this child for eighteen years.]

Jiang Jianguo stared fixedly at that line.

His hands slowly clenched into fists.

"I never saw this sentence."

The paper quivered slightly.

The voice of a nurse echoed in the delivery room.

"Mr. Jiang, you signed it yourself back then."

From a corner of the delivery room, a woman in white walked out.

She had no facial features.

Her name tag bore four words.

[Delivery Record.]

She held a pen in her hand.

"Eighteen years ago, you signed, and only then could the child be born."

"Now that the term has expired, please sign the return procedures."

Jiang Jianguo looked at her.

"I signed a birth certificate back then."

The woman in white nodded.

"A birth certificate is also a promissory note."

Jiang Jianguo's voice dropped.

"You lied to me?"

The woman in white replied flatly.

"The procedures are valid."

Jiang Jianguo suddenly chuckled.

He rarely laughed like this.

This laugh even startled Li Yan.

"Tricking a man whose wife is dying of pain in the delivery room into signing something—and you call that 'valid procedures'?"

The woman in white raised the pen.

"The father's emotions do not affect the contract."

Jiang Jianguo took a step forward.

"Then listen well."

"I, Jiang Jianguo, haven't had much schooling."

"But I know one thing."

He stared at the paper and said word by word:

"My son is not something borrowed."

Blue light emanated from the tip of the pen in the white-clothed woman's hand.

[Signatory refuses to fulfill the contract.]

[Initiating mandatory confirmation.]

On the delivery bed, a scene from eighteen years ago suddenly appeared.

A young Jiang Jianguo stood outside the delivery room, drenched in sweat.

A nurse handed him a piece of paper.

"Sign here."

From the delivery room came Liu Cuilan's uncontrollable cries of pain.

Young Jiang Jianguo's hands were shaking.

He couldn't even see what was written on the paper before he signed his name.

The image froze.

The woman in white's voice was cold.

"The evidence is complete."

Jiang Jianguo looked at his younger self, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He had indeed signed it.

At that moment, only one thing was on his mind.

The safety of his wife and child.

He never would have imagined that something would use that as a weapon.

Jiang Feng walked to his side.

"Dad."

Jiang Jianguo raised his hand to stop him.

"I'll do it."

Jiang Feng stopped.

The woman in white handed the pen to Jiang Jianguo.

"Please sign the supplement."

At the bottom of the paper, a blank line appeared.

[Confirmation of Return.]

Jiang Jianguo took the pen.

Li Yan grew anxious.

"Uncle Jiang!"

Xiao Zhenjiang also frowned.

Jiang Feng didn't move.

He knew his father.

Jiang Jianguo was not someone who would bow his head.

Jiang Jianguo held the pen and looked at the birth certificate.

The woman in white's voice was steady.

"Sign it, and Jiang Feng will belong to the First Blue Star."

Jiang Jianguo nodded.

"Fine."

He set the pen to paper.

A stiff smile split the corners of the white-clothed woman's mouth.

But in the next second.

Her smile froze.

Jiang Jianguo didn't sign his name.

In that blank space, he wrote four large characters.

[Bullshit.]

The entire delivery room fell silent for a second.

Li Yan's mouth hung open.

Zhang Changlin was silent for two seconds before squeezing out a sentence.

"Uncle Jiang may not be highly educated, but his delivery is quite powerful."

The Dragon Girl's eyes lit up.

"Grandpa is so amazing!"

The white-clothed woman's body began to twist.

[Signature format error.]

[Please re-confirm.]

Jiang Jianguo snapped the pen.

"I've finished confirming."

The woman in white began to shriek.

All around the delivery room, dense blue handprints lit up.

[Paternity promissory note in effect.]

[Forcibly seizing the father's fate.]

Dozens of blue lines drilled toward Jiang Jianguo's chest.

Jiang Feng raised his hand.

But Jiang Jianguo erupted first.

A dark golden phantom of a Divine Monkey expanded behind him.

He smashed down with a staff.

"My own son—since when is it your turn to seize him?"

Boom!

The floor of the delivery room collapsed.

Half of the blue lines were smashed apart.

But the remaining blue lines bypassed the staff's shadow and continued to entwine around Jiang Jianguo's fate.

Zero Seven shouted a warning:

"This is a signature binding; brute force isn't enough!"

Jiang Feng's eyes turned cold.

"Then we'll change the rules."

He reached out and grabbed the birth certificate.

The paper struggled frantically.

[Warning: Paternity archives cannot be tampered with.]

Jiang Feng pressed five earth keys directly onto the paper.

"Who said I was going to tamper with it?"

"I'm going to void the file."

A System prompt exploded.

[Paternity promissory note core detected.]

[Plunderable.]

[Execute Pangu Plunder?]

Jiang Feng said, "Execute."

The birth certificate burned fiercely.

From the flames, the voices of countless men emerged.

"What did I sign?"

"Where is the child?"

"Why doesn't my son recognize me?"

"Give me back my name!"

Li Yan's expression changed.

"It's not just Uncle Jiang?"

Zero Seven's voice was tight.

"The First Blue Star used this method to borrow many family relationships."

She looked at the burning paper, a chill running down her spine.

The so-called paternity promissory note was never just a single contract.

It was a ledger of debt.

A debt ledger secretly written using the anxiety, ignorance, and love of countless fathers.

Jiang Feng looked at the burning paper.

"Then we might as well clear it all together."

His fingers tightened.

The paper exploded.

A blue fragment flew out from the ashes.

[blue star earth key fragment: 6/9.]

[Thirteenth Transition prerequisite progress increased.]

[Gained increase to all attributes: 30 Ji.]

[Current basic six-dimensional attributes: 269 Ji.]

It wasn't over yet.

The voices of the fathers locked within the paper turned into streaks of light, rushing out of the old hospital and flying to all parts of Dongjiang City.

A middle-aged man woke up startled in the night, sitting by the bed for a long time without moving.

An old man holding a yellowed photo album suddenly burst into tears.

A father-son fate line that had long been severed flickered back to life in the darkness.

Xiao Zhenjiang took off his military cap and said softly:

"This isn't just a piece of paper."

Jiang Feng put away the sixth earth key.

"It's a debt ledger."

The woman in white knelt on the ground, her body beginning to crumble.

She stared at Jiang Jianguo, her voice turning shrill.

"You are just a Mortal father."

"What right do you have to change the procedures of the First Blue Star?"

Jiang Jianguo picked up the broken pen from the ground and threw it into the trash can.

"Because my son's surname is Jiang."

The woman in white exploded completely.

The System prompt popped up again.

[Plundered residual authority of the Delivery Record.]

[Gained all attributes: 8 Ji.]

[Current basic six-dimensional attributes: 277 Ji.]

The Dragon Girl stood nearby, seriously counting on her fingers.

"Master's power has increased a lot again."

Li Yan said in a low voice:

"This trip to the hospital wasn't for nothing."

Jiang Feng glanced at him.

"You think we're here for an appointment?"

Li Yan grinned.

"Then it's a specialist appointment."

The delivery room returned to silence.

But in the next second, an iron box slid out from deep within the filing cabinet.

There was a seal on the iron box.

[Umbilical Cord Blood Sample.]

[Maternal Record.]

The three characters Liu Cuilan were slowly turning red on the seal.

Zero Seven's face went pale.

"The Seventh Key..."

Jiang Feng looked at the iron box.

The iron box opened a crack on its own.

The sound of a baby crying came from inside.

Then, a woman's voice rang out from deep within the iron box.

"Father's signature abolished."

"Initiating maternal original record."

"Liu Cuilan, do you admit that what you gave birth to back then... was a human?"