Chapter 161: List

keleton Artisan, a specialized branch of craftsman well known by the people, who uses bones of a variety to build all sorts of parts for mechs.

Yes mech parts… That did not include engine parts!

Building a skeleton engine was never something that came across in Ye Chong mind. This was simply because it required to alter the attributes of bones entirely, which could be said in simpler terms – it had gone beyond the artisan fields. To Ye Chong, a skeleton artisan would be one who maximize the strength of bones alone. And the current solution to his problem was already against his belief since it involved permanently altering the bones’ characteristics. They were of two ends of the tangents, not even close in theories. He succumbed to the alteration however since he did not see the flow without modifying the bones.

He ordered a bunch of bones from Wei Xi. He did have his own set of quality bones in possession, like mountains of them, but Ye Chong was not foolish enough to use them over a silly assessment. Those were his blood and sweat! In addition, Ye Chong also specially requested an advanced alchemy analyzing machine from Wei Xi. The machine was much more avant-garde than Lunatic Guan’s mechanism and it also had a more intellectualized control.

As there was a variety of bones in the field while also being very different in nature, Ye Chong was forced to test them out one by one.

Ye Chong picked a few bone-types with excellent physical attributes and placed them into the analyzing machine. He would then launch the mechanism through the processor.

The very first step was intensely time-consuming, since there were simply too many types of bones in the field. The number remained vast even after the first round of selection, which caused Wei Xi’s massive delivery to his room. It was fully occupied with bones. There were some rare bones but Ye Chong did not care any longer. Who the heck cares about “using a rarer ingredient would affect your appraisal blah blah blah”? It would already be a miracle if I could build a full skeleton engine!

He finally finished the first stage after spending the whole month. Not only he had acquired the possible formula for all kinds of bones, he also had obtained something else. But he got to admit that the credits went to Shang, who got out of the passive role and was able to speak after zipping his mouth for so long. He suggested Ye Chong to take this chance to collect the data of bones in various aspects. Ye Chong approved the idea… well it made sense. We were going to analyze them anyway, we might as well do a full detailed analysis. These information could come in handy some point in the future. Of course, the information collecting was naturally Shang’s duty since the enormous databank of Mu Shang had too many spaces to fill.

Ye Chong could not help but to mutter, this Shang actually could give constructive suggestion sometimes.

Certainly, the mutter was clearly heard by the person mentioned and a barrel of counterarguments and rage were fired.

So, not only Ye Chong got the possible formula for the bones, he also got the full detailed information regarding the bones’ attributes from all aspects through the analyzing machine.

The power of Guan’s automatic analyzing mechanism was once again demonstrated. Ye Chong had actually obtained about 300 sets of formula. When Shang passed him the list along with the figure he almost fell from his chair!

300 sets? There’s more? Th-This is horrifying! Ye Chong only expected pessimistically about 30 sets as the outcome but the machine managed to formulate an digit extra to the the figure. The number was a little scary!

Wei Xi was absolutely troubled at the moment, since she had to invest a portion of time daily to run errands for Ye Chong, while Ye Chong’s room had already transformed into some kind of graveyard. Wei Xi might have undergone stern trainings to get her position but standing among skeletons of different shapes and colors was pressuring her. She could not inhibit her fear sometimes. Regrettably due to her duty, she could not leave on her will. By then she only begged the assessment to end quicker and she could return to the Sanctuary, carry on with her studies and be away from these nonsense.

This young Mr. Ye was not an easy master to serve. That list he nonchalantly passed to her before was a nightmare fuel, a fainting spell to her mind. The length of the list almost could knock her out on spot. She ran to the storage and mentioned the bones listed. The storage keeper stated that most of the bones listed were missing in the storage and claimed that the Sanctuary had redirected batches of them on an emergency back then, which caused the list impossible to be fulfilled.

Wei Xi’s eyes went wide like saucers. Of course she was well-aware of what the whole emergency redirection was about, “We sent everything to that Mr. Ye to get the parts!” She got to compromise… and she gave in to pleading Master Fan, the host for the Level 4 Trial this time. “Hmm…” Pondered Master Fan. He then performed a direct order to the 7 combat squads to head to the nearest base to transport the missing bones on the list as soon as possible, which gave the second shock to Wei Xi. “Did master just sent 7 combat squads just to transport bones for a mere man?”

This is too much! Wei Xi who witnessed Master Fan giving his orders via the communicator was in her aftershock.

And then Ye Chong asked an analyzer from her. The third shock came like a blow to her head. She was also an alchemist, of course learning the basic theories of reagent production was the bread and butter for her title. Nothing was foreign, except for the fact that Ye Chong demanded an analyzing machine specialized for alchemist. Was he actually an alchemist too?

Wei Xi was very bewildered. She grew skeptical and spent the remaining time watching Ye Chong. But during the entire month, all Ye Chong did was dumping the bones into the machine to generate data. What in the Nine Gates he’s doing? Wei Xi, unaware of Ye Chong’s assessment, was very confused by his action. The only thing she could do was to report all these to the elder and the elder ordered her to keep her eyes on him.

Ye Chong and Shang had already noticed the strange behavior by Wei Xi. So the automatic mechanism was used only when Wei Xi was not by his side. The program was also set to be permanently destroyed at anytime. They could not let the Sanctuary have it, if they ever have it, then it would be terrible!

300 sets of formula… with easily more than 10 raw materials and reagents required each… There were some that required more than 100 materials with most of the names being alien to Ye Chong.

And then Shang gave him a new item list, “Ye, this is the compiled list of everything you’ll need to produce these formula.”

It was a much shorter list compared to the list of bones but it was as dazzling, especially with the additional list of necessary apparatuses and flasks.

“There.” Indifferently Ye Chong passed the list to Wei Xi and headed back to work, “Are these…” Wei Xi was petrified by the length the fourth time during her service, it took her half a minute to finish her line in agony, “Are these what you need? Mr. Ye.”

Ye Chong gave a few nods. “Poor lassie… Ye, you gave her a heart attack,” sympathized Shang in his mind.

Although getting this list done would be the worst task for a guide in the history of humanity, Wei Xi at least could confirm something – this young Mr. Ye was not only a skillful skeleton artisan, but also an expert in alchemy. She could not tell if Ye Chong’s expertise in crafting skeletons being masterly, but regarding alchemy, judging by the list, she was 200% sure that he had to be an excellent alchemist.

Maybe, “excellent” was no longer befitting to his knowledge. The list had exposed too much of him… the number of raw materials for reagents involved was nearly uncountable while some of them being really uncommon in the field. There were also a few apparatuses only handled by the experts.

Wei Xi did not hand the list to Master Fan straight away, instead she passed it to the elder and shared her insights regarding the issue. The face of the elder grew grimmer as he checked the list out while listening to Wei Xi’s observation. He turned on the communicator on the table and instructed something softly.

A middle-aged man walked into the room very quickly later. “Mr. Had!” Wei Xi was astonished as she boomed.

This man named Had was Wei Xi’s teacher in alchemy. He was handsome and always well mannered. He was the foundation to the fandom of girls going crazed in the Sanctuary.

Heard the shriek, the man turned and smiled at her. He then turned back to the elder and bowed, “Yes, my elder, how may I assist you today?”

“Had, I want you to look at this list.” The elder’s hoarse voice rang in the room. He tapped the processor on the table afterwards.

Ye Chong’s list was projected on the hologram floating before Had.

Had knotted his brows upon seeing the first few apparatuses listed. He seemed intrigued at first, till he saw the following items he lost his interest and in exchange, worries shrouded his expression.

“Did you see something? This is one list of request from a candidate of the Level 4 Trial this year. And we did not have any information of his background in alchemy. I think you should be able to discern something from the list. Most importantly, are you able to estimate his standards in the field? This is very essential for us. A skeleton artisan who knew alchemy like the back of his hands, how could we let go of a talent like this?” The elder’s voice trailed off…

Had pondered for a while and he stated, “Judging by the list alone, the candidate could wield quite a high level of skills in alchemy. For example, there’s this Ever-brightening Powder in the list, it is an extremely familiar material that even most of our alchemists in the Sanctuary would be foreign of. Ever-brightening Powder needs to be combined with Falts reagent. That was a hidden law that it would not be surprising for an experienced alchemist to never hear of it. I was also one of them till one day I spotted it on one note by a master alchemist by chance. And the note was right. I discovered Falts reagent very soon after. Other than this, the list also has included a certain number of materials from plants, ores and non-extracting reagents, which was undeniably heading backwards from the current trend in alchemy. Yes, I suspect, he could be a kind of chemist from the ancient faction.”

“Oh?” The elder’s eyes lustered, intrigued, “Chemist from an ancient faction? Very interesting. Anything unique about them?”

Wei Xi raised her ears, she would not want to miss any parts of this juicy and precious information of ancient lost myths.

Had hesitated for a moment… “Um… the ancient faction held a total different ideology than the modern chemist. They worshipped the nature and they were exceptionally low-profiled. They were in the dark, not known to people. Only an official family member could be the successor of such artistry. Since they had existed beyond the records, the depth of their research in the alchemy was much greater than the current chemists in the field. They had their own specialization and somehow they have a kind of rapport between the branches. Mhm, I’m sorry I do not know anything else about this faction. I only knew this much after reading between the lines in the master alchemist’s note.”

“If he is in fact an alchemist from the ancient faction, and we were able to bring him into our Sanctuary, how would you judge his value?” The elder stated briefly.

“Ah!” exclaimed Had. “That would be invaluable! Absolutely invaluable! We knew nothing about the ancient faction techniques! And they possessed a totally different theoretical framework than modern alchemy! They also only passed their expertise to their children. There were too many mysteries in their clan! If we could know all these! I believe the standards of our alchemists in the Sanctuary would be brought into an age of rapid development! And we could easily overtake those Black Covers and MPAs, we could even toss them at far end! This is absolutely, significantly bringing us benefits! My elder, you can’t let this man go!” Had’s face reddened out of agitation.

Wei Xi was stupefied upon seeing a docile person like Mr. Had was going wild over a mere man.

“Mhm, very well! He actually exposed his identity to us, that he could be an alchemist of the ancient faction! Then we should not have a reason to let him go. Those fools from our Sanctuary could barely make the simplest skeleton parts, even after analyzing the parts. Yes, yes, yes, if we kept him, this could be solved, since you know, skeleton parts are great parts.” The aged eyes of the elder were glossing in eagerness.

“Yes, sir,” excused Wei Xi herself, back to the outside of the room. She could not stay calm. She never foresaw all these. That young Mr. Ye being so highly regarded by the elder and Mr. Had. Wei Xi’s heart ran cold however… upon recalling the fate of this genius in that dark room just now. And obviously he was not the one in command of his own fate.

Sigh, a mere pawn like her could barely do a thing. Plus, the elder made his decision for the Sanctuary’s own good. Maybe his stay at the Sanctuary would be far more beneficial to him.

She comforted herself and tried mustering her last few bits of happy-go-lucky nature, even though that hint of grief kept haunting back.

The order she received from the elder was to fully assist Mr. Ye while reporting her observation from time to time.

She went to Master Fan and passed him the list.

The face when Master Fan got the list from Wei Xi was certainly priceless. That popping eyes of his and that never-before-seen epic wriggling of his face was amusing to Wei Xi.

Ye Chong soon received all the listed reagents and apparatuses.

If it was not the supreme advancement of these apparatuses, running through about 300 formula could kill Ye Chong simply at mixing stage alone. In spite of that, mixing all 300 formula still took 3 days. That was not annoying. Wei Xi, was however. Ye Chong was puzzled as Wei Xi no longer spent a portion of her time with him. She literally stayed with him 24/7 ever since.

The only saving grace though, was that Shang no longer expressed his flaring passion of terror towards Wei Xi. So his ears were spared. His inner peace was bestowed.

Wei Xi was watching every move of his and no doubt the cautious chemist had noticed everything. He sneered as he found her action rather ridiculous. Considering the complexity of the formula, even one with amazing memory like Ye Chong could not digest and remember everything at once facing the table minutes to minutes. That aside, he was performing metal transmutation to the bones – a very new concept in the field. There were tons of gimmicks inside the technique, without any proper instruction, people would not have the slightest idea on what he was doing, not even for one with alchemy background like Wei Xi.

So the possibility of learning by peeking was heading towards zero to infinity.

As he predicted, Wei Xi gave up her meaningless action not too long later, as these formula were utterly god-written. She tried her very best to memorize one simplest formulae once and passed it to Mr. Had, hoping to hear some insights from her favorite teacher. “What is this?” Mr. Had seemed to be at the bewilder camp as well. He did not understand the working on the list.

And there she was impressed again, by the fact that Mr. Ye, one with similar age as hers, was already running through formulation that her teacher did not understand.

Sadly, eventually, such a brilliance, his fate shall…

Chapter 162: Mu Fei

e Chong’s spacious room was now a glorious sight. It was filled with rows of neatly arranged bottles of chemical reagents in all colors, in which many types of skeletons were immersed in. Under the illumination of the room’s lighting, his room looked like a world of crystals.

In the room were also many high precision apparatus used specifically by alchemists. This made Ye Chong’s room looked more like a laboratory.

Ye Chong carefully observed the skeletons in the various chemical reagents. Today was the day he would test the skeletons for their properties. As for how many of them could be valuable, Ye Chong had no idea, and could only leave that to fate.

He removed the skeletons from the reagent bottles one by one. Most of the skeletons had already undergone drastic transformations, looking vastly different from when they were first immersed in the chemicals. It must be due to the immersion process.

How many of them were useful? Ye Chong had to experiment on each of them to find out.

Master Fan sat vexedly before his desk. He had just received orders from the Elder to stop the young skeleton carver from passing the Level Five Trial. This has happened every year, and Master Fan was not entirely surprised. There were many ways to stop the young skeleton carver to pass the Level Five Trial, the easiest way being to modify the trial. If the trial was made very difficult, then it would almost impossible for the candidate to pass.

These modifications were among the easiest to make before the Level Five Trial. Since the trials before Level Five were judged by only one Master, he would only need to assign a compliant Master to judge Ye Chong’s test to ensure his failure. Level Five Trials were, however, judged by a panel of seven Masters. With him among them, and another Master under his control, he could only control two of the seven, and thus, would be unable to control the final result.

The Elder’s instructions were for Ye Chong to fail his trial after Level Four. This was extremely troublesome for Master Fan. Master Xiao, who was in charge of Ye Chong, had always been at odds with him, and was a man with a temper. Men like him were all their own masters, basically unmoved by other people’s opinions. When it came to their profession, they were all serious about it, and would not accept such interference.

Master Fan knew that, if not for the Sanctuary’s control over the Level Five Trials, he would not have become a Master. With his true abilities, he was not on par with the standard requirements, and was one of the least capable of all the Masters. This had always put him in a difficult position – the other Masters were often condescending towards him and isolated him.

He did not even have influence over the other Masters. Those who reached this position by their own strength were often dedicated to their jobs, and found these unfair and manipulative methods repulsive. On the contrary, they mixed well among themselves, and Master Fan often felt that he was boycotted by them. Then came a day when he found blackmail material for one of the Masters, and after some persuasion and threatening, he had him under his control. However, the others quickly noticed that something was wrong. Very soon, both he and the other Master were isolated. On the other hand, these Masters were all honored guests of the Sanctuary. Not only could he not display any hostility towards them, he must also protect them against danger. This was a depressing situation for Master Fan.

All of a sudden, he found himself out of ideas, and could only hope that Ye Chong was incapable of passing the final two Trials. If not, his mission this time would only end in failure.

It was for the Heavens to decide!

Up till now, the Sanctuary could not completely control the five Trials. This was one of the reasons the Masters agreed to manage the Trials in the first place. The Sanctuary’s Trials were first proposed by a Master who agreed to work for the Sanctuary. This suggestion was later supported by the other Masters, as they believed that the Orbits should offer a way for outsiders to leave this place. On the one hand, the Sanctuary was under pressure from the Masters, and on the other, they believed it was a good way to discover new talent. In the end, the Sanctuary agreed.

The Masters’ professional attitude caused the Trials to be as difficult as they were.

“Huu …” Ye Chong let out a breath in relief. There were three skeletons with satisfying results after immersion. What excited him the most was the skeleton from an animal called Dopodo. The Dodopo’s skeleton had the best results among the three immersed skeletons. Besides, Dopodo skeletons were quite common, unlike the other two rare skeletons. This meant that it could have wide applications!

“Shang, have you recorded the results for the Dopodo skeleton?” Ye Chong asked.

“Of course, how can I make those kind of mistakes that only you would?” Shang mocked.

Acknowledging Shang’s words, Ye Chong put pressure into his hands and pressed on the Dopodo skeleton. The bones turned to dust in the blink of an eye, and fell to the ground from between Ye Chong’s fingers. Ye Chong heard footsteps approaching him. He was very familiar with them by now, since Wei Xi came to visit every day, and Ye Chong could identify them easily by now.

Ye Chong shook his hands a little, and the skeleton dust came off his hands, spreading into the air like a mist. His hands were now clean.

Wei Xi pushed through the door right then. Ye Chong turned back to face her casually, but was startled!

Why was there another person with her?

Ye Chong immediately went into high alert. He had clearly heard only Wei Xi’s footsteps earlier, but now there were two people entering his room. The other person’s footsteps had obviously escaped him! On the trash planet, Ye Chong had developed good hearing. After some meditation training, he found his hearing improved even further, even though he did not gain anything in terms of mental abilities.

This was the first time he met someone who could approach him so closely without him hearing his footsteps!

Looking at the man with long hair standing beside Wei Xi, Ye Chong looked calm on the surface, but inside his emotions rolled like a tsunami!

What a terrifying man!

The other party’s physique was well balanced, without any particularly bulging muscles, but Ye Chong did not underestimate him just because of this. From what he knew, among the mentalists in the Sanctuary, only the unpopular students would have obvious bulging muscles. The stronger one was, the more inconspicuous they seem from the outside. This man’s eyes were calm and steady, and Ye Chong was sure that the man before him was already at a very high level in terms of his mental attainments, unlike what he could achieve with some simple meditations. Ye Chong could only just sense his breathing. If not for his eyes looking at the man before him, Ye Chong definitely could not have otherwise sense the man’s presence!

Could the Sanctuary produce men of such caliber on a normal basis? The thought was terrifying!

“Ye, be careful, this guy’s good!” Shang seemed to noticed as well that the man was unusual.

Wei Xi smiled to Ye Chong and said, “Mr Ye, how are your experiments going? Do you have anything new? Oh, right, almost forgot to introduce you two!” Wei Xi stuck her tongue out in a cute way, and continued, “This is Sir Mu Fei, he will replace me as your guide. Sigh, I really hoped to learn more from you, but I have other tasks to attend to, so Sir Mu Fei will act as your guide, I hope you and him will get along together!”

Ye Chong started to think. With the man as guide, would that not mean that he would be nearby every day? Sir? It seemed that he had a high status! Ye Chong’s expression did not change as he acknowledged, “Okay,” and nodded at Mu Fei.

“Glad to be of service. I heard you have quite astonishing achievements in skeletons, please take care of me!” Mu Fei’s delicate profile lacked the usual masculine roughness, and he smiled enigmatically as Wei Xi watched from aside, charmed.

“It’s nothing.” Ye Chong waved in polite dismissal.

Wei Xi noticed the two skeletons in Ye Chong’s hands and asked curiously, “Mr Ye, are those skeletons from your successful experiment results?”

“Yes, only two of them barely make the cut!” Ye Chong affected a regretful expression.

Wei Xi quickly consoled him. “It’s alright, even so, they are still Mr Ye’s astonishing breakthroughs!”

Fei Mu suddenly approached from the side. “These must be the skeletons from the Rohin primate and the Blitzwing!”

Could he also be well versed with skeletons? Ye Chong was again startled, but he managed to take a casual glance at Mu Fei and asked in a calm but slightly surprised voice, “Is Mr Mu also experienced with skeletons?”

Mu Fei smiled modestly and said, “I don’t know much about skeletons, but I’ve encountered with these two mutants before!”

Ye Chong was surprised once again. He knew these two life forms. The Rohin primate was alright, but the Blitzwing was terribly ferocious and aggressive. They always appeared in pairs, and their claws were sharp, capable of damaging mech armor. They moved agilely and were cunning creatures, difficult opponents to fight against! Mu Fei may have said that he encountered them before, and Ye Chong believed that it must not be some friendly encounter. It seemed that Mu Fei must be very strong!

Why did the Sanctuary assign Mu Fei to him? Ye Chong was perplexed.

However, Ye Chong quickly grew absorbed in his work for the Trial. No matter the circumstances, passing the Trial was still his utmost priority. What made Ye Chong uncomfortable was that Mu Fei never seemed to leave him alone. No matter what he was doing, the man would observe with interest from the side, and that made Ye Chong grew suspicious of him.

Nonetheless, there was not much time left. Ye Chong was too busy to mind having Mu Fei around him. He began to work in earnest towards building a full skeleton mech engine. Ye Chong, careful as he was, had thought it through. Since Master Xiao had said that any engine model would do, Ye Chong chose the simplest mech engine he knew of – the Raven model engine, which was the engine for the eponymous mech that Ye Chong was very familiar with.

Even so, the work took a lot of effort from Ye Chong, since this was his first time building such a thing, and he had no experience to draw from. Fortunately, however, Ye Chong finally completed his work within the designated time frame, building the world’s first full skeleton mech engine!

Chapter 163: Encounter I

It’s wonderful! Ye, I didn’t think you could really do it, it’s really astonishing!” Master Xiao caressed the full-skeleton Raven engine, praising in deep fervor! Beside him were a few other Masters, invited along by Master Xiao! They too had the expression of a child getting his favorite toy, standing around the world’s first full-skeleton mech engine, watching in awe.

Mu Fei wore a thin and gentle smile on his face as he watched the elderlies’ excitement. He had witnessed the birth of this full-skeleton mech engine first hand, but these Masters’ excitement had far exceeded his expectations. “Perhaps I should reconsider the value of this engine,” he thought as his eyes brightened momentarily before resuming his usual inconspicuousness.

Of course, Ye Chong passed his Level Four Trial without incident!

Ye Chong was observing Mu Fei discreetly, and Mu Fei’s minute change in expression did not escape his eyes. “Hmph, whatever you’re playing at, I won’t make it easy!” Ye Chong smiled coldly inside.

“Mr Ye, this way please!” Mu Fei stretched his hand out courteously.

Ye Chong drew in a deep breath upon seeing the starship before him. He was finally leaving the Orbits! For a moment, he was overwhelmed with emotions!

Since the Level Four Trial with the full-skeleton engine, Ye Chong already guessed that the Level Five Trial would involve building a full-skeleton mech. Fortunately, he was ready for that. Ye Chong only built a Raven mech, since he did not want to truly benefit the Sanctuary. However, even with just a Raven, a beginner level mech, its performance was still enough to impress all the Masters. Of course, the success was also partly due to his previous work on the full-skeleton Raven engine.

As expected by Ye Chong, once the full-skeleton Raven was built successfully, it was taken in by the Sanctuary.

News of the year’s first candidate to pass the Level Five Trial spread like wildfire across the city of Nine Gates! For the detainees in Nine Gates, their strongest wish was to leave the Orbits and return to the Five Galaxies. No one had passed the Level Five Trial in recent years, but there was finally one person who managed to do so. This brought life back to the slowly numbing lives of the detainees in Nine Gates, their grim hearts finally catching a glimpse of hope!

Soon, details of this candidate began to make their way into all corners of the city. He was apparently young but very talented! He was also a mysterious skeleton carver, and those trendy skeleton parts earlier were all his work. Additionally, he was also rumored to be an excellent alchemist.

Heavens, who was this guy? Everyone was amazed!

With his daily vigilance against Mu Fei, Ye Chong did not know that news of him passing the Level Five Trial had already reached the entirety of the Orbits, and that skeleton carving as an occupation was brought to everyone’s attention for the first time ever.

Ye Chong was more focused on his current situation. He and Shang agreed that the Sanctuary would not make any move against him here, even if they wanted to stop him from leaving. If they forcefully make him stay, no one might dare to take the Trials again in the future.

As for whatever tricks the Sanctuary intended to pull, they would probably take place during Ye Chong’s journey leaving the Orbits. However, hehe …

Unexpectedly, what Ye Chong found on the starship was the man who was always beside him as his guide, Mu Fei.

“Is your job as a guide not finished yet?” Ye Chong affected an innocent surprise.

“Yes, it’s finished!” Mu Fei smiled warmly. “However, the Sanctuary considered my familiarity with your lifestyle, and thought it proper to assign me here to make sure you are well taken care of! Pleased to be of service!”

“I see!” Ye Chong nodded in fake casualness.

The Sanctuary had prepared a grand escort team for him, which consisted of four standard combat squads. Such a strong combat fleet was more than enough to keep him safe. However, it was also enough to keep him under their control. This must be how they saw it!

Ye Chong observed all this in detached coolness.

Mu Fei held a high status apparently, as Ye Chong noticed the mech pilots behaving respectfully towards him. What caught his attention was that their respect toward Mu Fei seemed to be sincere! Ye Chong understood that this kind of respect could only be borne towards a truly capable person! Mu Fei’s words held great authority here, and even the starship’s captain would take his advice seriously.

It seemed that Mu Fei was no ordinary person!

The ship flew steadily onwards, and Ye Chong would occasionally receive a call from one the Masters asking after him. Whenever this happened, the captain would report the starship’s current location to the Masters in detail.

Within the Orbits, the starship did not encounter any security checks, and the journey was surprisingly smooth.

Soon, starship Glinton left the Orbits, its destination being a planet very close to the Orbits, called McCann. According to them, Ye Chong would transit to another long distance interstellar passenger starship to anywhere he pleased.

Once Ye Chong left McCann and reached a place he deemed safe, he would reach out to the Masters via a special communication device they gifted him to confirm his safe exit from the Orbits. It seemed that even the Masters did not trust the Sanctuary.

It was still possible, however, for the Sanctuary to make their move once he ended his communication with the Masters.

McCann was a transfer station, hosting many long distance interstellar passenger starships that would later travel to many different planets. It was also an important entrepot. There were three more days until they reach McCann. Once they left the Orbits, Ye Chong could sense that everyone onboard the Glinton, besides himself, turning more vigilant. It seemed that the Sanctuary did not entirely control this area!

Was it due to the Sanctuary’s lack of power? Or were there other reasons? Ye Chong could not help but guess.

Ye Chong passed each day leisurely. Mu Fei no longer stuck around him every day like he did during the Trials, and Ye Chong found time to contemplate on his own problems. Fortunately, there were many problems that required Ye Chong’s attention, and no matter which field it was, they would take him considerable time to go through!

In the captain’s quarters onboard Glinton, a massive holographic screen in the center was displaying the starry skies outside. Without the atmosphere’s interference, the stars sparkled like diamonds embedded on a boundless dark veil. The colorful nebulae were like an aristocrat lady’s velvety skin covered with gorgeous satin, obscured but elegant.

Mu Fei was unmoved by the mesmerizing sight before him. He opened his eyes a little and found the target of his surveillance still in a daze, and closed his eyes to resume his meditation.

Suddenly, a panicky voice broke the silence in the captain’s quarters!

“Captain! We have a situation!”

In the blink of an eye, everyone in the captain’s quarters looked towards the voice. Mu Fei’s eyes sprung open, his gleaming pupils surprising Ye Chong, who was keeping a discreet eye on him. However, Mu Fei immediately realized his error and quickly resumed his usual calmness. The transformation was so quick that, if Ye Chong was not so confident with his eyesight, he might have thought he saw wrong.

“Speak!” The captain wore a steady expression, unruffled due to his mental fortitude and rich experience. Glinton’s captain always had looked serious, with an expressionless face. He would only ever soften a little when speaking with Mu Fei. His sharp profile was masculine, and his demeanor spoke of vigor and great determination.

Mu Fei’s attention was also drawn towards the captain, and did not notice that Ye Chong’s mouth had momentarily curved upwards into a cold smile!

“26 degrees from the radius vector, there’s an unidentified starship!” The crew member reported without delay in a clear cut manner.

“An unidentified starship?” The captain furrowed his brows slightly.

“Yes, our holographic scanners were ineffective against it!”

A flash of uncertainty swept past the captain’s face as he looked towards Mu Fei, and Mu Fei replied with a slight nod. This moment was captured clearly by Ye Chong. Mu Fe was indeed someone important!

The captain immediately activated his communication device and spoke resolutely, “Lower the speed to Mach 4, all combatants prepare for battle! All non-combatants please go to the safety room!”

Shortly after, a sharp alarm began to ring, a shrill that reached a person’s terrified heart. Everyone onboard the starship froze for a moment before quickly returning to their stations. The entire crew began to move in a frenzy. Of course, Ye Chong himself did not.

The opponent’s starship was obviously slowing down too, but showed no signs of avoiding as it slowly approached the Glinton.

Mu Fei muttered to himself, “Our starship’s scanning system is only ineffective against starships from Black Cove and the MPA. Who will it be this time?”

Upon hearing Mu Fei’s words, the captain frowned deeper and asked carefully, “Sir, you think …”

Mu Fei smiled. His usually warm smile was now, however, filled with great confidence, and even Ye Chong felt that his usually soft expression was now filled with determination and strength.

“We move straight ahead!” Mu Fei spoke with unassailable confidence.

The crew inside the captain’s quarters grew excited, affected by Mu Fei’s charisma. Truly, what was there to fear? Even if the other party was the MPA or Black Cove, what was that to them? Their four standard combat squads would be enough to tear the enemy apart! Apart from that, Sir Mu Fei was with them!

While both parties lowered their flight speed, they still inched closer and closer towards each other.

As the distance between them grew shorter, the holographic scanner turned effective. On the holographic screen, the other party’s starship gradually grew larger and clearer.

Everyone stared unblinkingly at the other party’s starship on the holographic screen.

The starship was as black as night, with not even a glimpse of metallic luster. It moved silently like a ghost across the dark space of the universe.

Mu Fei kept his eyes on the screen, as a blurry leaf shaped emblem on the other party’s starship began to take shape!

Mu Fei was relieved. “It’s alright, it’s Black Cove!” As he finished, everyone relaxed a little. They feared that it would be the MPA’s starship. Since the MPA and the Sanctuary had just met in a conflict, an encounter with the MPA’s ship would probably lead to war!

The Sanctuary and Black Cove had always been careful with each other, and were sometimes even on friendly terms.

The long, thin leaf shaped emblem looked like a half lidded eye, staring expressionlessly ahead.

Chapter 164: Encounter II

Send out the exchange transmission!” The captain sounded more relieved.

Exchange transmissions were signals sent between starships upon encounter to exchange information and as an act of friendliness. Ships would send out information on their identities in plain code. In the vast universe, the probability of encountering another starship was very low, even in densely traveled flight paths. However, when two starships encountered each other, experienced captains would send out an exchange transmission!

After the exchange transmission was sent out, the captain was obviously relieved, apparently believing that nothing could go wrong from now on. He had sent out the exchange transmission to prevent any unwanted conflict with Black Cove, since they had a guest on the ship that absolutely cannot be harmed. The captain recalled the situation clearly when he received his orders from the Elder, who spoke with severity and placed great importance on his current mission. He was surprised, but quickly realized the importance of the guest.

On the other hand, an open war with Black Cove was undesirable in all respects. As for the relationship and situation between the Sanctuary, Black Cove and the MPA, none of the Sanctuary’s members were oblivious to them. If he caused an open war between the Sanctuary and Black Cove, the captain could never bear the consequences! Fortunately, there was Sir Mu on the ship, a great relief for the captain!

Mu Fei’s expression was less tense now. Usually, both parties would pass by each other with great restraint. However, even if they were to engage in battle, Mu Fei was not worried, since the ship had four standard combat squads onboard, a powerful combat force. Besides, he was there himself. There should be no problems.

Nonetheless, this was not a good time for war. He did not wish for the young talent that the Sanctuary highly desired to be involved in any accident. During his time as his guide, he understood better than anyone the extent of the young man’s abilities! Furthermore, the young man must be hiding his true strength! Mu Fei’s instinct told him that Ye Chong’s full-skeleton Raven was not his best work yet. He fully supported the Sanctuary’s decision to keep Ye Chong with them at all costs. To prevent any accidents, Mu Fei had even volunteered for this mission.

Everyone on the ship relaxed. They believed that it was ultimately nothing to worry about, and some even teased the officer who reported the other starship earlier, saying that he was only trying to get on their nerves.

A dark sense of humor seemed to flash past in Ye Chong’s half lidded eyes, and his eyes smiled momentarily like the thin leaf emblem on the front of the Black Cove ship.

“Ah!” The officer who reported the starship just now suddenly gasped!

“Hah, Ah Da, are you still trying to scare us?”

“Yeah, Ah Da, you’re too bold! Look at my weak heart, it’s still thumping non-stop from your trick earlier …”

The round of laughter drowned away any sound from the office.

Mu Fei closed his eyes, thinking it comedic.

“Look, guys! I’m not lying! Look!” That officer tried hard to explain, his face red. When the crowd recognized the fear in his words, they immediately realized that something was not right. All the officers on the ship had good discipline, and would not joke on such matters.

Mu Fei felt the change, and opened his eyes wide.

Tens of black mechs in standard battle formation were closing in on them. The captain’s expression twisted as the photon processor returned a mech count of 50. They were all Cosmic Flares, Black Cove’s war mechs. Mu Fei was very familiar with them. Johansson, who died in Ye Chong’s hands, also used a Cosmic Flare.

50 Cosmic Flares! Why would Black Cove send out such a strong force? Mu Fei was baffled.

“We received the other party’s reply!” One of the ship officers reported.

“Forward it here!” The captain spoke chillingly. Since the other party had showed hostility, he had no need to hold back. While he was cautious against Black Cove, he was not afraid of them. The other members of the Sanctuary shared the same attitude as their captain!

“We suspect your ship has one of our members, please open your hatch for our inspection!” The words were direct, and typical of Black Cove.

For a moment, with the exception of Ye Chong, everyone in the captain’s quarters were enraged! The other party’s high and mighty tone was a blow to the pride of the Sanctuary’s members! Even the usually calm and collected Mu Fei felt his facial muscles twitch!

What an insult! Since when would the Sanctuary allow such humiliation?

The other party had approached fully armed, and a few laser beams were already shooting their starship. If they do not retaliate soon, the situation would turn dangerous for them!

While they knew that this was the time for retaliation, it was potentially a move that would lead to an open war with Black Cove. This long term consequence was what made the captain hesitate!

“Attack!” Mu Fei shouted. He understood better than the captain that if the enemy kept closing in, they would be severely disadvantaged! While he did now know why the other party would choose such an irrational action, the situation did not allow for further contemplation!

The Sanctuary’s honour must not be trampled upon!

Mu Fei’s orders had the same effect as the captain’s. None of the mech pilots objected to his words, not even hesitating at them! The four standard combat squads moved out swiftly to meet the enemy!

Thus, a full scale battle between the Sanctuary and Black Cove began!

Everyone found their eyes glued to the live feed on the holographic screen, including Ye Chong. Ye Chong had seen the Cosmic Flare, but Johansson had not managed to attack him before dying from his ambush attack. Hence, Ye Chong was very curious about this mech model!

Close range battle with Black Cove mechs was a foolish act! The Sanctuary and the MPA both agreed on this!

Hence, as the Black Cove Cosmic Flares came into range, all the Dawns immediately opened fire!

Numerous laser beams were shot from both sides across the space between them! However, in a long range battle, Black Cove was definitely at a disadvantage!

Unlike the MPA’s accurate shooting, the Sanctuary fought with their unique group battle strategy. Usually a few Dawns would focus on attacking the same Cosmic Flare, but the way they weaved around each other and cooperate was an astonishing sight to Ye Chong. The laser beams from the Dawns were directed towards the few potential defensive positions for the other mech!

Ye Chong was equally amazed by Black Cove’s evasion skills! Ye Chong’s most familiar Non-orderly Wave Leap was used throughout the battlefield, alongside other stranger, varied and unexpected evasion techniques! Ye Chong watched in suspense, his eyes shining brightly!

At the same time, Shang reported to Ye Chong on important details of the battle!

The Sanctuary’s battle strategy had delivered a heavy blow to Black Cove. In the span of less than half a minute, 15 Cosmic Flares were destroyed, the result of the Sanctuary’s effective strategy.

However, Mu Fei did not look happy at all, since he knew that the real battle was only just beginning!

Cosmic Flares were small mechs, and this significantly reduced the probability of being hit! While 15 Cosmic Flares were destroyed, the remaining 35 Cosmic Flares had managed to close in on the Dawn mechs!

The Dawns suddenly broke formation, and gathered in groups of three before they charged ahead fearlessly.

Once approached by Black Cove mechs, the nightmare began! This was another fact proven by the Sanctuary!

The Cosmic Flares showed their fangs for the first time before Ye Chong!

Black Cove mech pilots expertly flew, their wild and bloody techniques made Ye Chong realize the true horrifying potential from these Black Cove war mechs!

As three Dawn mechs moved to cover each other, their excellent cooperation and battle skills still failed to prevent themselves from being smashed into pieces by this Black Cove model’s brute force impact!

Black Cove battle strategies were chilling to watch! They accelerated to high velocities and ran into the Dawn mechs with all the momentum they gathered, the barbs in their joints enough to inflict fatal damage to the Dawn mechs, while the curved blade on the outside of the right arm would amputate the Dawn mech into pieces! Blood sprayed out from the pilot inside, the red mist quickly crystallizing, suspended in space, no longer as vivid as before! Their long chains moved in unpredictable ways, strangling and wrapping around the enemy, or even lending momentum from their targets. The weapon was used well, and the chain itself was made with a very strong material!

The Sanctuary’s group strategy also caused Black Cove heavy casualties!

The battle between the two sides happened quickly, with no room to breathe! Both sides fought with excellent strategies, and fought cruelly. If one was hit, there was basically no chance for survival! Damaged mechs had no chance of leaving the battlefield, and would run straight into the enemy’s mech for a suicide attack!

The battle was fierce and merciless!

In the span of just under 10 minutes, only about 17 to 18 Cosmic Flares were left. The Dawn mechs were even fewer, with only 12 of them left! The situation was not against the Sanctuary, since close range battle was Black Cove’s specialty. Additionally, they were outnumbered. As the number of Dawn mechs decreased, the remaining Cosmic Flares survived without any damages.

As the battle reached this stage, with heavy casualties on both sides, none of the mechs backed down. The mech pilots from both sides were equally steadfast in battle!

However, the overall situation was slowly siding with Black Cove, as the remaining Dawn mechs continued to struggle!

Inside the captain’s quarters, all the crew members paled in fear. Even the hardened captain wore a terrible expression. This was the first time they had encountered such a terrifying battle!

Mu Fei could stand it any longer. He stood up abruptly and said, “I’m assisting them!” before turning to exit the captain’s quarters!

Upon hearing his words, everyone in there with the exception of Ye Chong felt invigorated. It seemed they were very confident in Mu Fei’s abilities!

Mu Fei exited the captain’s quarters. Behind him, the cabin door to the captain’s quarters automatically slid close, quick as usual.

He could never have imagined what happened next in the captain’s quarters!

Chapter 165: Hunter in the Darkness

ust as the cabin door to the captain’s quarters closed behind Mu Fei, the room was suddenly plunged into darkness, and astonished cries were heard! However, the cabin door was sound proof. Even with the short distance between them, Mu Fei could not sense anything amiss!

In the sudden darkness, everyone in the captain’s quarters were thrown into a state of terror!

Ye Chong quietly deployed Guardian in the darkness. He was now used to Guardian’s unique black and white vision, and 3D image sketched out by numerous white lines were familiar to him. Additionally, he already noted down everyone’s position in the room. Not to mention, Shang was with him!

Ye Chong moved lightly as a shadow, unnoticed in the darkness.

Ye Chong’s unreasonable strength, amplified by Guardian, resulted in terrifying efficiency. This also allowed Ye Chong to move faster. Ye Chong acted more efficiently than he could ever imagine with Guardian’s accurate scans!

The gasping voices were almost simultaneously cut off by the clear sound of broken bones!

Ye Chong landed softly before the cabin door. In the brief moment earlier, Ye Chong attacked a total of 16 times without missing even once, crushing their necks. Since Ye Chong moved very quickly, the sound of bones breaking almost all overlapped with each other! Without Guardian’s amplification effect, Ye Chong could not have achieved such a difficult feat. However, with Guardian’s assistance, Ye Chong easily managed this impossible task!

Just as Ye Chong landed, the cabin door opened without the slightest delay! Mu and Shang were never one for wasting time!

The truth was, just as Ye Chong boarded the starship, Shang had secretly gained control over the entire ship. While the starship was better in terms of armory and automotive power compared to his last experience with Nast, its anti hacking system was far inferior. Shang managed to hack in with his first try, and obtained the highest access rights for Glinton!

From that moment on, Ye Chong waited for the perfect moment, the moment to deliver the fatal blow to his enemy, so that he could escape the Sanctuary’s grasp! The one he was most cautious of was Mu Fei. As for the other mech pilots, Ye Chong believed that, given the environment they were in, Guardian was more effective than their mechs. Besides, he had Shang’s help!

Black Cove’s appearance was a surprise to Ye Chong, but he quickly realized that this was a golden opportunity! However, just as he noticed his improvement in strategizing and adapting, a detailed plan of action was already presented to him. He finally understood one thing – Shang’s evil nature made him a better choice than Mu to plan battle strategies!

The plan was comprised mainly of ambushing, faking and similarly cunning moves, almost as if they were made just for Ye Chong, the natural hunter!

The entire plan was truly insidious! Unexpectedly, the captain was unknowingly cooperative. As the exchange transmission was sent, Shang immediately made some appropriate changes to their plan! For Shang, who had the entire Glinton system under control, modifying the exchange transmission was a piece of cake! That was how a patronizing and insulting message was sent out by Shang instead!

The effect was marvelous! Black Cove’s commander in chief was obviously infuriated. Of course, it was partly because they were confident of their strength, since they had 50 Cosmic Flares!

They also did not expect the inconspicuous Glinton to harbor such a powerful combat force, and the result was a terrifying battle! Whether it was Black Cove or the Sanctuary, neither of them was the winner of the battle!

Shang’s plan extended even further! He had predicted that Black Cove would ultimately prevail, and that Mu Fei would head out by then! The entire plan depended on the time when Fei Mu left the captain’s quarters to the combat preparation room.

There were no more combatants in the captain’s quarters by then. Using the immediate darkness to his advantage, Ye Chong maneuvered Guardian and easily ended the bloodbath in the captain’s quarters! Gone were the dangerous threats before him!

What Ye Chong had to do now was stop Mu Fei before he reached the combat preparation room! Without entering the combat preparation room, Mu Fei could not deploy his mech! Without a mech’s protection, no matter how good Mu Fei was as a mentalist pilot, he would definitely not stand a chance against Guardian!

“Attack the enemy at his weakest when you are at your strongest!” Shang crowed, pleased with himself, and Ye Chong felt like hitting the mech in the face!

Guardian landed with slightly bent knees and pushed forward, and Ye Chong shot past the cabin door like a furious golden arrow!

Ye Chong’s legs were powerful, and made even more so through Guardian’s amplification! Ye Chong stepped onto the ground and pushed, and flew a dozen meters ahead, giving the illusion of Ye Chong running with a long stride!

Ye Chong was highly focused. He dared not be careless as he moved rapidly through the narrow corridors!

Mu Fei suddenly stopped in his tracks. He could hear a faint buzzing sound approaching him, and it was moving fast! He stood on alert and listened carefully. What speed! It must be above Mach 6! It if was outside, Mach 6 may not be particularly surprising, but if there was anything moving faster than Mach 6 in the ship, it was a terrifying prospect!

Mu Fei’s face turned grim!

Suddenly, Mu Fei’s vision turned into blackness, and entire corridor’s lights all went out!

Enemy ambush!

All of a sudden, he shouted loudly. His usually gentle eyes were now sharp as an unsheathed blade. He turned quickly and pushed to the side with both his hands while his waist bent unnaturally like a boneless muscle, effectively moving himself forcibly to the side by 30 centimetres!

His hands came into contact with something cold – it was metal! What was this thing? Mu Fei was shocked and furious! The airstream that came from the high velocity brushed painfully across Mu Fei’s face!

Mu Fei felt his hands burned.While he had deftly pushed away the unknown object, his hands were significantly wounded! However, if not for his perfectly timed movement, his hands would have been gone for good! Besides, he could still feel the ghost of a sharp fin of some sort from the unknown object barely grazing past his neck, the chilling danger spread goosebumps all over his body!

In the darkness, blind to his surroundings, Mu Fei waited in anticipation. At the moment, he could only rely on his ears and instinct!

Could someone have infiltrated the ship?

Before he could consider any further, he felt another gust coming towards him threateningly. The strong sense of danger came from deep within him, and almost reflexively, he evaded to the left! At the same time, his hands pushed downwards! No mentalist pilot would ignore his instincts, and Mu Fei as an excellent one himself strongly believed in his instincts!

Another chilling gust swept past his neck, the attack missing by millimeters! Mu Fei finally knew what was constantly threatening him with a beheading! With his rich experience, he immediately realized that it must be some kind of dagger-like weapon!

Before he could analyse any further, he heard a thump! His hands, pressing downwards, felt like they had came into contact with a mech charging straight at him!

“Ah!” He yelled from the unbearable pain! “It was metal!” This was the only thought that flashed in his mind before the pain came! Bones were exposed on his arms as the flesh came off! His hands did not seem to do anything to hinder the attack that came from beneath, because the opponent was too powerful! The other party’s attack had hit his abdomen!

He felt pain in the abdomen, and Mu Fei could not help but bend forward. His mind was empty, and he could no longer think! In the confusion that followed, Mu Fei, who had never experienced such a heavy blow, suddenly felt an irrational sense of joy!

Before he could recover from the confusion, he felt a chill in his nape and warm fluid spraying onto his legs. His vision grew darker!

With his body bent forward, Mu Fei fell to the ground!

The attack he received came from Ye Chong’s right knee!

In the darkness, Ye Chong could not help but be surprised. Mu Fei was truly a remarkable character. Given the dire situation, he still managed to react as he did. Without Guardian, he was probably not a match against this man! Ye Chong believed that he himself could not react against such an ambush!

The lights in the corridor suddenly came on! The corridors were illuminated brightly, with both ends of the corridor sealed shut!

Shang hasted Ye Chong, “Ye, quick, those guys can’t hang on much longer!”

Ye Chong quickly withdrew Guardian and ran to Mu Fei’s corpse. Mu Fei died with his body bent forward, his arms bloody, and his neck marked with the fatal wound 10 centimeters long from a dagger. Blood was still streaming out from the wound.

Ye Chong ignored the strong scent of blood as he crouched down and began to search Mu Fei’s body. Ye Chong moved quickly. In 12 seconds, he removed everything Mu Fei had on his body!

A string with a spindle-shaped pendant caught Ye Chong’s attention.

“Yes, that’s the one! Ye, quickly, to the combat prep room!” Shang spoke urgently, for time was crucial.

Ye Chong heard mechs approaching and threw all the other things in his bag without going through them. His hand grasped onto the pendant as he ran towards the combat preparation room. Up until this moment, everything was going as planned! Ye Chong was also confident toward Shang’s plan!

The combat preparation room was where mech pilots go to before combat. The area was spacious, and pilots can deploy their mechs here and slip into their mechs. There were also plenty of supplies at hand.

In the combat preparation room, Ye Chong held onto the spindle shaped pendant and studied it for a moment before pressing gently on its tip!

All mechs that utilized brainwave controlled dimension keystones had a unique feature – whenever their user was certified as brain dead, all previous information would be wiped clean, and the mech would become a white mech!

In that moment, a light green mech appeared before Ye Chong!

Chapter 166: Bluff

his mech was most definitely modelled after a bird. As for what kind of bird it was, Ye Chong had no idea! The murky green surface was covered with a layer of light green glimmer, the result of photon excitement. Only advanced level mechs with enough energy stored would have such an appearance, just like when Ye Chong saw a similar glimmer on Mu and Shang.

Its long and thin body shape was in contrast with the usual bulky build of average mechs, and this mech appeared to be as agile as a bird.

The Sanctuary’s mechs were different from the various mech models that Ye Chong was familiar with, so Ye Chong could not tell their performance, but he could still identify some features that mark the quality of a Sanctuary’s mech.

For example, their mechs were always on the same level as their owners. Another example would be that their advanced level mechs were usually modelled after birds. While Ye Chong did not recognize the various types of birds, he could still identify this similarity.

The mech before him was definitely an advanced level mech from the Sanctuary, because of its wings! Ye Chong had seen those wings before, on the purple mech that appeared when he was surrounded by the MPA.

Like the purple mech, this mech had a very lifelike pair of wings! Ye Chong was not sure if they were more like lateral wings or folding wings. Like wings on actual birds, they too had many feather-like small metallic plates. Ye Chong believed that this type of wings must offer some special moves. The strong defensive abilities of the purple mech’s wings from last time left a deep impression with Ye Chong!

Now that a mech like this had fallen into his hands, he would definitely have to study it closely! Ye Chong laughed to himself at the thought.

The only regrettable fact was that now was obviously not the time to study the mech! For the moment, every second was precious and must not be wasted!

Ye Chong slipped into the mech’s cabin quickly. To fly this mech, there was another issue that needed attention, and that was the initial configurations! Every white mech must undergo initial configuration before usage. It was not a step that could be skipped, or some functionalities would be barred from the user! Fortunately, this was not Ye Chong’s first time doing this. He hands moved across the controls effortlessly.

The name of this mech was Overwing. Of course, Shang could not help but sneer at the odd and plain name, mocking its lack of style!

His eyes swept across the controls, and Ye Chong got a rough overview of the mech’s available functions. He was very grateful, however, he had kill Mu Fei before the man himself could deploy his mech, or he might not have been able to finish him off.

Compared to other mechs, Overwing was similar to them in terms of basic maneuvering, so that would not be a problem.

The hatch that led outside opened, and Ye Chong took off with Overwing out and into space.

Just as Ye Chong left the ship, the Sanctuary had only four mechs left struggling to survive. However, none of them were retreating, a testimony to their discipline.

Overwing’s appearance, however, brought a change to the battlefield!

Overwing shone with a light green glimmer all over its surface, its shiny wings spread out at the back, an eye-catching sight in the darkness of space. As the remaining four Dawn mechs saw Overwing, they immediately felt encouraged, and managed to slightly recover their defenses against the enemy!

The Black Cove mechs saw Overwing as well, and as Ye Chong was troubling over how to deal with them, he was surprised to find the remaining 10 Black Cove mechs escaping, leaving the four heavily damaged Dawn mechs, retreating as though they had seen the Devil!

It was strange, too peculiar! Ye Chong stared at their retreating backs!

Ye Chong did not know the reputation that came with the mech he was flying, the Overwing, amongst the Three Forces! Mu Fei’s Overwing was one of the Sanctuary’s trump cards. Mu Fei was a modest person, and the most popular of the Sanctuary’s trump cards. He was equally known for his excellent combat skills, on par with the other trump cards!

Trump cards play a very important role amongst the Three Forces! Outstanding combat skills and powerful mechs were a combination that could often decide the outcome of a battle! The Three Forces spared no effort in promoting the strength of their trump cards. Besides making them role models for others, it was also an intimidation strategy for their enemies. Legends involving these trump cards were similarly spread far and wide.

As the 10 Black Cove mechs saw Overwing, they were immediately horrified. They did not expect to see a trump card on the ship, and this was not an opponent that average mechs could hope to defeat. To stop a trump card, only another trump card would do!

Black Cove’s commander in chief was also shocked with Overwing’s appereance, and immediately ordered his squad’s retreat. If not for his orders, they would never have escaped, an embodiment of Black Cove’s strong discipline!

What was this starship up to? The commander in chief was curious. With four of the Sanctuary’s standard combat squad and a trump card, he did not believe that they were only out on a routine flight! This was obviously beyond the Sanctuary’s borders, and usually they would not send such a strong battle force beyond the Orbits if not for some mission! He was also certain that they were not out for Black Cove, since his mission this time was definitely top secret. What baffled him was also the other party’s active provocation. With a trump card on their side, Mu Fei in particular, how could he have waited the near annihilation of his own forces before coming out? Word was that Mu Fei was always leading the charge, showing care for his subordinates and highly looked up upon! Were the stories only fiction?

For the moment, he was occupied with many questions, but he still gave the order he thought was best, which was to retreat the ship.

The remaining four Dawn mechs all looked to Overwing, but Overwing did not move, so they could only watch as the enemy escaped! However, they could not help but feel that if they were to pursue, the enemy would be vanquished! Nonetheless, the Sanctuary’s trump card had absolute authority over the mech pilots – there must be a reason for his decision! That was the conclusion of the four mech pilots.

Sir Mu Fei’s mech waved, a signal to return to their ship.

They paused. Why would Sir not used the comms? However, the signal was clear, and while they were confused, the four mech pilots still flew to Ye Chong’s side. They could never know that while the mech was Overwing, the pilot inside was not their respected Sir Mu Fei, but the seemingly weak young boy! It would be a crazy fact for them to take in!

The five mechs flew to the nearby ship, and as the hatch opened up, the five mechs drifted in one by one through the hatch!

The four Dawn mechs were heavily damaged, and as they landed, the pilots immediately slipped out. The battle was intense, and they were all strung up, but now they could finally relax. While they were all highly trained, all of them now wore a tired expression! Now out of their mechs, they waited for Sir Mu Fei to come out too.

After a while, Sir still did not come out.

The four men looked towards the Overwing in confusion. As they marveled at the elegance and might of Overwing, one question still bothered them – what’s with Sir?

They were still confused when four laser beams abruptly shot towards them.

On each of their foreheads was a thumb-sized hole of blood. Before the four pairs of confused and now dead eyes, Ye Chong leaped out of the pilot cabin. He stepped onto the deck as the four men fell backwards lifelessly!

At such a short distance, with so much time, even if Ye Chong’s shooting skills were deplorable, and Overwing’s auto shooting was far from the MPA’s level, those four shots still managed to accurately hit their targets. Ye Chong even imagined that it could be due to his improving shooting skills!

The final group of people who could be a threat to him was finally dealt with.

Ye Chong exhaled deeply in relief!

The most successful part of the plan was that no one onboard the ship had time to report to the Sanctuary of what had transpired. This meant that the Sanctuary knew nothing of what happened on Glinton! This was very important to Ye Chong, since if he next meet with the Sanctuary’s people, his skills as a skeleton carver could still be useful! However, he must first come up with a reasonable story of what happened!

While he believed it was unlikely for him to have anything to do with the Sanctuary in future, it was still best to prepare for it!

Glinton flew onwards in space.

In the large space of the captain’s quarters was Ye Chong, alone. Of course, Shang also came out for a breather. The room was large enough for him! Ye Chong had cleared out the bodies, and after days of internal cleansing, the scent of blood was no longer present.

The entire Glinton had only Ye Chong and Shang as its passengers. Shang controlled the entire starship, since if the ship was given to Ye Chong, he would not be able to fly it!

“What’s our next step?” Ye Chong asked.

“Look for Lu Caite’s teacher, cure your illness. However, we must find a planet quickly to access the virtual world, and find out where the teacher is! According to Lu Caite, his teacher seemed capable enough,” Shang replied.

Ye Chong disagreed. “No, we’re too close to the Orbits here, it’s going to be easy for the Sanctuary to sense us, then we’ll be in trouble!”

“Hmm, that’s true, it’s really troublesome! Looks like it’s better if we go as far as possible away from this place!” Shang agreed.

“That’s right! But Shang, do you have a star chart?” Ye Chong asked.

“I do, quite a few of them for beyond the Orbits!” Shang spoke proudly.

“Then we can do a warp jump?” Ye Chong asked with faint anticipation.

“Yes!” Shang replied briskly!

Chapter 167: A Slip of the Hand

Shang, have we arrived yet?” asked Ye Chong in his Captain’s seat.

According to what Lu Caite had stated, his teacher Mr. Wang Weixing could very likely be at a medical institute on Windstar. Based on the galactic layout stored inside Mu Shang’s databank, Windstar should be located in the galaxy of Csebesini and it was a planet well-known for its tourism. The globe mainly consisted of attractive and poetic sceneries, frequented with intergalactic tourists who adored and appreciated the unique view of its flora and fauna.

Hence, the final destination both Ye Chong and Shang had agreed on turned out to be outer space which was three days away from the Windstar. Ye Chong would leave and trigger the self-destruct system on the ship, just to make sure that no trace would remain to guide those fearsome ones from the Sanctuary there. The location of Windstar might be extremely distant from the Orbits, but Ye Chong did not intend to let his guard down yet, as he was very much aware of the strength of the Sanctuary, their armed forces, their psychic abilities. He might not be that vulnerable to their strike, still he felt that such kind of mistake was never necessary to begin with.

“Uh… Bad news, Ye. I’m sorry to inform you that…” Shang’s tone was blatantly awkward.

“What bad news? Are you going to say that the Sanctuary actually had made it here and they are just behind? No way! They can’t be finding me out this quickly! Don’t tell me my luck is so terrible that we bumped into one of their men in our course!” Ye Chong’s expression was spelling astonishment.

“Not… Not that bad, Ye.” Shang sounded like a shrinking violet, “It’s just that we met a tiny… issue.” Somehow the words kept clogging at his audio system.

“Tiny problem you mean?” Ye Chong raised his brows and asked in bewilderment. “What kind of problem was it?”

“Umm… Ye. So, my calculation was a little, a little off from the actuality. Just a little.” Shang sounded like a boy who tried covering up for his mistake in front of his mother after he accidentally spilled ice cream on his younger sister.

“Off? Mistake?” Ye Chong looked at Shang in disbelief, “Shang, you actually make mistakes? Stop pulling my leg!” Shang, an advanced Photon-Stimulated Intelligence, the lecturer of life, the computerized interrogator of torment, told me that he made a mistake? This is too much. Shang’s calculation might not be as powerful as Mu, but it was still quite groundbreaking for Ye Chong to hear from this robotic genius admitting, declaring his mistake.

“Ahem… Ye, stop looking at me like that… I’m feeling shy you know…” The bleeping mechanical eyes of Shang blinking in blue hues with that somehow eerie tone of his, was goosebumps-inducing to Ye Chong.

“So now what are we gonna do?” The outcome was always Ye Chong’s priority.

“We are currently at a course named the ‘Solrivia’,” stated Shang.

“How far is that from the Windstar?” This was more of his concern than the name of the orbit they were traveling on.

“Ummm…” Shang halted, “Not too far… But we can’t do a direct flight there, somehow.”

Ugh.

The veins bloated on Ye Chong’s forehead, tried his best inhibiting his fury, he asked, “Then how long are we going to take to the Windstar on this space-jump?”

“Uhh, Ye, the issue was not the duration, rather… well, the remaining energy on this ship was insufficient to perform the following space-jump.” Shang turned back to his usual self again, not the slightest shame was felt in his words, “The distance of the space-warp this time is a bit too far. Great amount of energy would be needed for consumption!”

The bloated veins on Ye Chong’s forehead pumped harshly a few times, “Shang…” Biting his teeth, “Have you ever considered confessing your so-called ‘mistake’ to me? Like sincerely apologetically?”

“Aw c’mon Ye, don’t be so grim. You can’t say no to Angela’s latest photo collection. Ye, let me clarify something for you… Angela’s body has got to be the best among all stars I had seen before. The curve was superb, mhmm, magnefique! Seniorita, you are the God’s gift I could ever have,” exclaimed Shang, like a poet by the beach, acted very much indulged in his joy, “I was calculating her figures, you know, the golden proportion of her ‘curves’ that makes her so flawless, so adorable, so alluring? Ye, do you know what I had gotten in the end?”

“Oh…” Ye Chong replied uninterestedly, “What you got?”

“Holy Matrimony, her body was the exact tangent and proportion of what the public considered as perfection, both theoretically and practically. It was too dramatic the moment I discovered this very truth of my life. It was shocking, as much as how the humanity reacted the moment they discovered space-travels.” Shang was worked up.

“More importantly, you mean you missed on the calculation of our space-jump course just because of how astounded you were over her figures?” inquired Ye Chong calmly.

“That aside! That aside! It’s just a tiny, little, minuscule problem. A very small issue,” Shang’s expression was lustrous to Ye Chong’s eyes somehow.

“If there’s a black hole here now, I would not hesitate to lob you there,” Ye Chong’s wrath erupted as he sprung from his seat and made a few violent kicks at Shang.

“Ouch… Aw… Ow… the pain. The agony.” Shang pulled off his cheap acting skills and whimpered along. But then he realized that would make him less assertive, “Ye, frankly speaking…” reminded Shang, “You lack an effective method of striking…”

“I … Ugh! Don’t! Ugh! Care! Ugh!” He exerted heavier force on his kick.

The weirdest moment in galactic history of a man messing with a mech ended eventually. Panting, he sat down, yes, technically, Ye Chong was the only panting one in the “fight”, Shang on the other hand had his face pretty much adorned by a new set of footprints and looked like a beggar at the street.

Despite all that, Ye Chong somehow felt as if he had turned the time back when he was still on Trash Planet-12, spending his days messing with Mu, having fun.

“Shang…” Catching his breath, Ye Chong further inquired, “What’s the nearest planet… now…”

“An isolated planet,” replied Shang, “It is uninhabited as what I see. There’s nothing on it, not even resources. So people were not even interested to develop the place.”

“So are you saying that we got to wait here for another spaceship passerby?” Ye Chong sounded dejected.

“Mhm, technically. But don’t worry, Ye. This course is very much populated. It has the greatest chance of encountering another spaceship. Moreover, this spaceship has a rich supply of food. So you don’t have to worry about being starved to death.” Ye Chong could feel his pupils rolling in the quantum singularity within his skull.

And he finally experienced what Shang meant by “very much populated” this time, by waiting… for 7 days… That was really populated, Shang. A ship was detected on the scanner, heading towards them.

Of course Ye Chong did not spend the past 7 days having a talk with Shang, the Master of Primal Philosophy. He was performing a thorough inspection on Overwing.

Ye Chong was not aware of the fact that Mu Fei was the ace of the Sanctuary and apparently he did not seem to recognize the actual standard of this mech called Overwing he was piloting on. Other than the wings that were giving him weird vibes, the mech was full of surprises.

Ye Chong had also been spending the week getting familiar with the execution. The Overwing was certainly an excellent mech from various aspects. Ye Chong was confident to state that this could be the best mech he had ever spotted thus far, other than Mu Shang and the Guardian. Not even the extraordinary craft of skeletons like Han Jia could compete with Overwing. It even started to make Ye Chong wonder if this was the greatest invention hidden inside the Sanctuary.

The design of Overwing appeared to be rather plain from different angles. However the design seemed to be as fit as a fiddle after a bit of deduction on the figures. Ye Chong with his sharp eyes could tell the amount of efforts, the bleeding sweat of the designer imbue within this craft.

Well, Ye Chong did not perform an ultimate analysis over every inch of the mech. He just took a glance at the hologram. Time was still the obstacle to kill his leisure of doing it. Overwing was also the kind of mech forbidden from being seen by the public. That would alert the Sanctuary for sure if they were ever noticed by the people around. Ye Chong shuddered as he imagined the swarm of psychic-armed pilots chasing after him if they knew what in the world had he done. As a result, in spite of the supreme quality of Overwing, Ye Chong could barely lay a finger on the steed. No doubt, it was torturing to a mech maniac like him. It would be a far better choice to do something else more meaningful than piloting Overwing on a big scale at the moment.

After the runaway, there remained 4 wounded Dawn mechs on the ship. Well, the saving grace was Glinton was well-supplied with tools to do pretty much anything on a mech. So Ye Chong began running his little workshop once more, repairing the 4 mechs since 7 days ago. The Dawn mechs could have been some cheapskate model after seeing Overwing the Empowered, but then a backup mech could still work very well as a backup mech. No waste, Ye Chong felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

The 4 Dawn mechs were glossing in the pink of health after Ye Chong’s skillful repair.

Ye Chong’s list of loots from his run did not end here. He had also acquired quite a number of precious-looking items from Mu Fei, like this strange plate for example – it was a name plate crafted with an unknown plant, filled with peculiar twirls and waves and was pierced with a silver thread. The plant must have undergone some kind of unusual finishing, as Ye Chong actually felt it warm and tender on touch! If it was not Shang who informed him that it was made out of a plant, Ye Chong would never believe that a plant could act in such odd texture, though Shang did not have any idea what kind of plant it was.

The next thing which caught his attention was a few tubes about breadth of his index finger. These tubes had one end sealed and the other opened. Some of them were packed with spherical pills, about 10 of them, while some were powder and … sticky liquids. These were like treasure to someone who had spent his or her days on Trash Planet like Ye Chong, as he knew their value and significance, especially when this was the master medication for the Sanctuary insiders.

He kept the 5 tubes carefully within him. The tubes could be the holy light to his survival! The name plates and the other pointless-looking things were stuffed into his waist bag instead.

The entire database of Glinton had been absorbed by Shang. The best part was the database actually contained a map of the Orbits. Although it defined a tiny scope of the Orbits, Shang treasured it as much as Ye Chong treasured the tubes, as he copied it happily into his system.

The detection system of Glinton was considered to be very developed, as the detection system specialized for the spaceship did not limit its capabilities on the size of the traveling items in the scope. Hence, it was way more powerful than the detection system on most mechs.

As stated by the outcome of the detection, a long-term intergalactic travel spaceship was heading towards them sluggishly. There was still a bit of a distance so far and the spaceship did not seem to have noticed Glinton in the dark.

“What a waste of Glinton, Ye. You know, this lassie could easily sell for a gorgeous price in whichever market,” Shang was remorseful as he muttered.

Ye Chong did not have the intention to comment on this money enslaved machinery though as he tapped the few switches by his side. The cabin was opened promptly. Towards the boundless space, Ye Chong, in his Han Jia, flew out. The self-destruct system had already been activated on Glinton. In 3 minutes, this spaceship would become debris scattered over the galaxy after a flare blinding the space. The Sanctuary shall never be able to find the remnants of their craft and they would never discover anything happened on it before.

The debris would be the wanderers, spreading witness of their demise!

Han Jia’s speed was high by nature, so the 3 minutes were a graceful ride of Ye Chong leaving the cabin, flying far away enough to avoid the explosion. As he travelled rapidly away from the spot, his eyes discerned the glaring light behind and he knew that Glinton had gone down. A stage increased on his velocity, Han Jia sped up once more. He would not want to be hit by the specks from the explosion.

Chapter 168: Ye Chong the Bumpkin

umpkin

“Captain! Look over there!” One of the crew members on S.S. Luminosity pointed at one portion of the interface as he boomed.

At one moment everyone’s sight conglomerated at that particular spot on the screen.

A cluster of flare bloomed like an enchanted lotus on fire, in the midst of darkness soundlessly.

“It’s an explosion… by a ship!”

“Yes sir!”

“Sigh, the members of that cruise are such a pity.”

The crew members rumbled in the Captain’s Room.

The captain was obviously not expecting an explosion by a spaceship on a course that had been secure the whole time. He flinched at first, but he snapped out of his astonishment quickly as he shouted, “What are all of you waiting for? Go and save the ship!” The crew members’ confusion was dispelled as they hurried outside, “Look out for those pieces!” the captain added briefly.

All spaceships like Luminosity were readied with escape pods, which their outside was layered with a special kind of reinforced metal that could repel almost all sorts of rays in the space while the inside contained 30-day supply of oxygen, energy refill and water. The escape pod also had an in-built signal transmitter, which would spread SOS signals to the surrounding at all times. The escape pods were to provide an emergency exit for crew members under severe conditions. The actual function turned out to be not as great as its psychological function though, other than the sense of security exerted by this extra pathway to the outside safely, every experienced crew member is very much aware of the vastness of the space, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime miracle if one could ever be found and rescued in the escape pod within 30 days.

Despite all that, the escape pod was still the essential facility on the space ship back then. And every spaceship crew who received the SOS signal nearby would initiate the rescue process proactively.

Within twinkling of eyes, few tens of mechs zoomed out of the cabin of Luminosity. None of those few tens mechs were combat models however.

Ye Chong had already noticed these mechs much earlier before. He avoided these mechs flawlessly. Well, Han Jia was certainly not the kind of mech that could be detected by these low-end detection system by some sailor mechs.

He came to one gate at the bottom of the ship. While standing by, Shang had already hacked into the control panel of Luminosity, since it was simply hacking elementary for Shang to get into a commercial computer system in a service ship. He did not perform anything dramatic in particular, he only unlocked the gate right before Ye Chong.

And that was how Ye Chong sneaked into Luminosity, without making a sound. Under Shang’s guidance, Ye Chong successfully dodged all the crew members on the ship and directly gained access to one of the resting rooms fro passengers with suave. Shang generated a new entry for Ye Chong on the passenger list in the processor of Luminosity. In a few seconds, Ye Chong had officially become the passenger on this intergalactic service craft. And Shang took a peek at their course, apparently Luminosity was not heading anywhere near Windstar. Hence, Ye Chong had to get off at a planet called Liche and took an alternate transit to Windstar.

Ye Chong found his room.

He slipped into the room instantly. Shut the door tight, he let off a sigh of relief and started taking a look around. The room was well-facilitated from both the aspects of entertainment and living. It was quite spacious too. There were even clothing for changing readily in the wardrobe. And Ye Chong picked and changed into one of them without hesitation. The fashion style in the Orbits was utterly bizarre by nature and he did not intend to be discriminated for appearing like a weirdo from some space jail or something.

The crew members returned to their mothership after they discovered no escape pod from the debris. Doubts lingered in the captain as he wondered why a spaceship would explode on its own without any forewarning. He could not find any sound reason to rationale it either. But well if there was not a single escape pod, he let go of that thought and decisively commanded to carry on their course.

It was dinner time a moment later. Although there was no concept that would define day and night in space of ever-darkness, the habit remained rooted among most of the people, where they would head out for meals during these periods.

Frankly speaking, the taste of the food on Glinton was something to be shunned away from. Since Glinton was mostly boarded with disciplined combat members in their trainings, they would only care about the calorie of the food, never the taste.

On the contrary, Luminosity, being a service flight, did cookery so much better than Glinton. Not only they served a variety of cuisines, the food generally tasted fine too, which was such a mouth-watering experience to Ye Chong who had been taking inhumane edibles in the past as he could not hold but to chomp the scrumptious food before him. Most of the passengers on-board would prefer having their meals at the restaurant, since an intergalactic travel was known to be distant and seemingly endless and helplessly people would feel alone at times, they would adore interactions with people, which justified the populated restaurant and bars. Those were the hit places for passengers.

Ye Chong occupied the entire table alone. Towards the people around, he was not as tensed as before. He at the moment had understood a lot of stuffs, for example the concept of the so-called “law” mentioned by people in the 5 major galaxies was apparently very effectively restrictive towards most of the folks. Unlike the Orbits, residents in the 5 major galaxies were more peace-loving. So it would be a rare sight to see something like a sudden raid or an offensive dispute between people.

Ye Chong had dipped himself in the delicious meals, showing no concern towards the people around.

His action caught the attention of the people in the surrounding. They had been having similar meals for past few weeks, even the best table of gourmet experience would feel like a stew in a canteen. And that was when they saw someone eating them in immense enjoyment. “So weird…,” whispered the people. But then, soon the people shifted their focus back onto their own table, as they carried chatting with the others right next to them.

An aroma wafted through the breeze. Ye Chong lifted his face from the bowl of rice. To his surprise, a lady sat right opposite him.

Ye Chong was slightly alarmed, though he did not express it on his face.

And he heard a whistle from his head, “Wow, such a lass. Ye, how much donkey luck do you have? Why are you always bumping into beauties?” howled Shang.

Shang was not exaggerating. The lady before Ye Chong was in fact a beauty. Her face was round yet her features were distinctive; the pair of eyes were large and looked watery; her dark hair glossed like a veil of aurora on a winter’s night; the curves, no doubt were eye-catching and certainly a magnet to people in sight. The critical blow she delivered was none other than the unbuttoned shirt of hers. The bustiness could be felt squeezing through the gap of that two undone buttons anytime soon. You could somehow see it, but somehow you could not, which by then you would forget the fact that you had been staring at them the whole time.

As usual, Ye Chong did not feel anything particular about this lass. Shang had always been howling at almost every lady came into his sight. His “standards” were dubious but judging by the constant stares from the people around, he decided to take in that quality assured judgment of Shang.

He stared on, with one or two rice lumps stuck on his face. It was a little amusing.

Psh!

“Hahahahahahaha!” The lass could act in grace no longer as she burst out laughing seeing that face of Ye Chong. Ye Chong’s sensitive hearing had already perceived the consecutive gasps coming from his surrounding, including Shang’s, only that his expressive gasp rang in his head.

“What’s the matter?” asked Ye Chong calmly. He had tried his best toning down the coldness of his tone, yet that innate coldness of his dawdled. Ye Chong did not want to attract attention and he had experienced enough to understand that his indifference had always been the culprit. To remain low-profiled, he succumbed to act normal like the other folks he had seen before.

“Ye, your muscles, the muscles of your face, too stiff. Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Shang could not resist firing his sarcasm.

The veins on Ye Chong’s forehead puffed up and were forced back under his skin. Act normal, he got to act normal. Damn you Shang! Cursed Ye Chong countless times.

The lady stayed silent however. Oh well, Ye Chong was not in a mood of staging himself either so he completely neglected her as he carried on gashing his bowl.

“Was it that good?” The beauty initiated. Her voice rang like the chirp of the nightingale… And it had just caused another round of barrel gasping from the surrounding. Ye Chong lifted his face again and the beauty looked at him gleefully. Her eyes expressed curiosity and humor.

“Oh. Yes. Not bad. You could try.” His face did look stiff, which caused the way he talked appeared to be awkward.

“Ye, please. Your face is cramping soon. I can see it!” Shang fearlessly continued his live commentary in Ye Chong’s head.

“Why you Shang!” Roared Ye Chong in his head, which only led to a madder laugh from the artificial indulgence. Somehow he did feel his face twitching, especially after Shang had mentioned it, wondering if it was just his overthinking.

“Hahaha~”the lady giggled while covering her mouth. Her charm was such a natural captivation and Ye Chong could already speculate the next wave of gasps incoming. And as he expected, the gasps resounded tidily. Their breather intensified, with some sound of people crashing onto the floor this time.

“You are so interesting.” The lady smiled joyfully and she reached out her slender arms, with a glow of a refined jade. She grabbed one stem of turnip and put into her mouth, “Hmm…” muffled, “Let me try.”

D-Did she literally try it? Ye Chong went speechless as he watched the so-called beauty before her.

“Shang, did you not mention that lines like those were just out of courtesy and not reality? Why the heck did she really taste it?” inquired Ye Chong.

“She is a true beauty, even the way she eats was cute as hell, alluring as heaven! Sigh, Ye, save your words, it’s just a turnip. When there’s a beauty who went ahead and took the food you had bitten before, that is the moment you should be glad.” The artificial indulgence was enjoying the scene.

“Glad?” snickered Ye Chong and he went quiet, eating on.

Looked at how frantically Ye Chong dined, the lady was further intrigued as she licked her fingers and giggled sweetly, “It looks really good… for some reason…” And she reached out her hands again. “Oh?” Right at that moment Ye Chong lifted his face the third time and the lady realized the entire bowl had been cleaned up. It was spotless, as if fresh from the washing machine. She flinched and exploded, “Hahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!” Bowed, she held her stomach.

The other passengers who saw the sight went dumbfounded as well. Then an outbreak of laughter occurred, “Bumpkin! What a donkey!” And Ye Chong heard it from the crowd.

Ye Chong was insensible towards these reactions. What have these to do with myself? My food are mine and it should not be invaded. It was the common characteristic among all species on Trash Planet. Don’t tell me people at this place are doing it differently? Bewildered, he inquired, “Shang did I do something wrong again?”

“Haha… Oh… Hahaha… Ahahahaha… Ye… That… That was … That was a killer move… You know, you are a real assassin… Ahahahahaha…” The mechanical voice box seemed to be broken soon from the laughter.

Killer move it would be. I had already done it. Ye Chong reacted with honesty. I don’t know her anyway, why am I sharing my own food with her?

“Kiddo! Get lost!” And that was when a fierce voice rushed in.

He turned his face over and found a few beefy guys standing at the side, staring him with a bloodthirsty look. The body was inflated with muscles and they looked threatening. There was even a guy with a large cut on the face, which made him more menacing than ever. Their eyes were filled with blatant hostility, while the so-called beauty was… acting… very… uhh… Ye Chong ran out of words suddenly. Technically, the guys came for the beauty.

The other passengers scurried out of the restaurant as they noticed the stern change of atmosphere. Only some daring ones remained to watch the show.

“Are you talking to me?” Indifferently Ye Chong said, as inside he was impressed of how calm the beauty remained despite the existence of the few hulks before her.

“Of course we are talking to you! Do you fcking want to die so hard? Playing the dumb out of me? Fcking hell!” The leader of the hulks was enraged. Ye Chong’s words failed clearly as he went on grabbing Ye Chong’s collars.

The beauty who witnessed all these shrieked!

Ye Chong lowered his head and tilted his body slightly. The grab was missed. The remaining people did not notice that chilliness hidden under the lids of his eyes.

“So you are somebody who knew something eh?” The leader of the hulk was surprised while his grunts reacted alarmingly as they circled around Ye Chong.

“That would be your last meal, Mr.”

“You think you’re tough eh?”

Right when they were going to launch a full whirlwind combo at Ye Chong, “Nobody moves!” A chain of stampeding came behind them with a bold voice boomed.

The beauty was much relaxed upon seeing this. The security had finally arrived. The chaos ended here!

Chapter 169: We Meet Again

Ye…,” sighed Shang in his head. “What a waste of a wonderful opportunity, when you could have been the prince to save the princess from the evil brothers. Sigh, well, that was it. The golden opportunity, once-in-a-lifetime of the debut you could ever have, gone. Sigh, sigh, sigh.” The cheesy words from Shang sure were sufficient material to make Ye Chong rolling his eyes like a working slot machine while lowering his head.

Let aside the debate on whether the female before her was considered a “beauty”, Ye Chong had the intention to be the prince on the whitehorse to kill some possessed three-headed hulk to save a moaning princess.

Consecutive chains of footsteps came towards them. A crowd of security guards surrounded the scene, looking all eager to begin their routine execution with some of them also having a heat ray gun in each of their hands pointing at the hulks.

The gang feared of moving even a bit of their muscle. They could have been the muscular gang with outstanding fighting moves but they would never have the bravery to mess around when multiple heat ray guns were aiming.

The captain of the security team was a man in his forties. His thick pair of brows highlighted his dignified appearance, while every one of his gestures felt righteous and just. “Who are the troublemakers here?” His eyes skimmed through the folks and eventually paused at the group of beefy men.

“Hahahahahahaha!” The leader of the hulk was very much aware of the situation so he acted generously as he shrugged his shoulders in innocence, “We were just joking. We never expected the overreaction. Aw, we are so sorry!” The gang behind him was smiling gleefully along.

Karton the captain had his stern stare fixed on them. The awkward laughter ceased completely the moment they were given the silent treatment. His sight then shifted to the only lady at the place, “Is he saying the truth?”

Twitched the faces of the gang, their expression grew nervous as they looked at the lady, anticipating. The lady hesitated for a second, “Yes.” She did not seem to intend causing more unnecessary issues so she nodded her head and gave her answer.

Upon receiving her response, Karton moved his eyes back onto the gang, his voice rang profoundly, “Well if that’s the case, alright, we would let it slip. But I do hope that jokes of such kind would never appear again.”

“True. I do agree,” the leader hurriedly approved his statement.

The storm had somehow settled while it was still a breeze, with Karton leading his men away from the scene, remaining the two person at the restaurant. While leaving the place, Karton continuously shot his sight at the gang. Ye Chong on the other hand had long disappeared before they realized. It was a happy ending, except for the gang whose faces kept twitching in dissatisfaction and unwillingness and their mouths firing rounds of vulgarities, obviously being salty over the embarrassment they brought upon themselves.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was lively again like before as soon as the gang exited the place. And Ms. Shang-Said-She-Was-A-Beauty had become the center of attention as people crowded around her, trying to please her. The lady casually greeted them while her eyes were searching for that one particular silhouette, Ye Chong. And of course he was not in the crowd, which was slightly somber to her. “Thank you. Good night,” she forced a smile and scrammed back to her room.

“Well, your own blockbuster of heroic tales had gone. Ye, are you really that unfortunate with beauties? That you always missed the chance of dating them? But why do you keep bumping in to beauties?” Shang’s tone sounded confused.

Before Ye Chong could make a reply to shut him up, “Oh! It’s already time to change!” Shang screamed gracelessly out of sudden, “God, what have I done to get such treatment? For you to force me out of the scene right after I encountered a charming lassie, this is the cruelest thing you could have ever done to humanity! Ye, let me tell yo-” The last syllable trailed off.

“Ye,” the flat voice returned. It was Mu. Ye Chong could tell by one syllable.

“Yes, Mu. You are here, finally!” Ye Chong felt very much relieved. Shang could have been a mastermind at sometimes but he was never as reliable as Mu, like that space-jump mistake before for example. No way it would go wrong at Mu’s hands! In addition, Shang’s words were hardly as concise as Mu’s, which was a constant headache to Ye Chong, including his anomalous approach in clarifying the problems. Those barely clarified the issues, rather it confused Ye Chong even more.

Ye Chong had a much simpler life with Mu, he was more accustomed to it. Nonetheless, Ye Chong recognized his weakness. He admitted that he would blunder in socialization, which Shang would come in handy at times. Well, the catch was, despite Shang’s passionate lectures on his humanity, he probably would not have significant progression of any kind at the moment.

“It seems like Shang had given you quite some displeasure,” stated Mu.

“Yeah, but he’s always like that. At least he would be quieter when no lassie was around,” Ye Chong confessed his belief.

“Well, he is considered the expert in this,” concisely Mu concluded Shang’s exceptional characteristic.

“True, true! We still need 10 more days till Rique. Then we would change to the other ship to get to Windstar. There seems to be a ride heading to Windstar there,” briefed Ye Chong the situation, though chances were Mu had already known every bit of detail he was required to know.

“Mhm, the better efficiency could be achieved by hijacking this ship and forcing them to redirect the course to Windstar instead. As stated by my analysis, the destination would be reached in only 12 days if that is the case. Furthermore, after my calculation, the success rate of hijacking the ship is above 95%!” suggested Mu a brilliant plan.

Mu and Shang are totally 2 different kinds of species!

Hijacking? That could work but then… Ye Chong scrapped the idea after pondering a little. It would be disadvantageous for him to grab all the unnecessary attention if he were to hijack. His sole purpose of boarding this ship was to get to Windstar, silently, without alarming anybody and find that teacher of Dr. Lu, known as Dr. Wang Weixing to cure this haunting disease in him, so that he could settle down at a place anonymously and spend the rest of his life being a nobody. Only if he could get back the tranquil life he once had on Trash Planet-12…

Speaking of this haunting disease, Ye Chong was being skeptical of its activity. Wondering if it was because of the progression he made in his meditation or was it the nature of the disease itself, the time frame of inactivity between each cycle had been increasing each time somehow. It had been quite a while since Ye Chong’s last acting-up. He was also wondering if he had already gotten used to the pain that he could standing strong against it when it happened or the pain was in fact diminishing over the time. Sometimes Ye Chong even speculated that the syndrome could disappear all by itself as time passed.

!

He opened his eyes and woke from the trance state of his meditation. Somehow the progression this time was pretty significant compared to before, maybe Ye Chong had not been doing it lately, so he could clearly feel that mental senses of his vibrating during meditation. Based on what that old Yin man had spat before, this should be counted as completion of the introductory level of meditation.

… which was utterly startling to Ye Chong as he truly thought he would take forever to even complete the introductory level of training with that snail development of his. And he ceased the training entirely after getting to Nine Gates City, as the mentalist and mentalist-pilot were everywhere, he dared not to perform meditation and was expecting to begin his training all over again. The reality was quite the contrary however, the progress was great. At first session after leaving Nine Gates City, he had achieved the elementary level. How could that not be startling to our Ye Chong?

He gave up figuring after a while of attempting a sound deduction for this.

Nevertheless, the benefits he got from meditating were absolutely heartfelt for him. His sight and hearing were naturally transcendent. Then the training this time had brought their capabilities up to the next level. The joyous part to Ye Chong was, his mind was clear, crystal-clear. It felt as if he was dipped in the water, chilling to the core and his dexterity improved.

Ye Chong felt the ringing coming from his stomach after waking up. A glance at the clock suggested that he had long passed the usual schedule for dining. The restaurant should be quite empty at that moment. And he headed out for food.

The restaurant on Luminosity operated all day, so you could go and have your meals any time of the day. Inside the enormous restaurant, Ye Chong stood alone. The so-called beauty was not there. What a relief. Sighed Ye Chong.

There were numerous food-supply machines at the place, which their main body being the long rectangular metallic cabinet resting on the ground with one end as the output. A processor stood right above the output slot.

He walked towards one of the supply machines and randomly tapped a few dishes on the processor. Most of the food was never-before-tasted to Ye Chong, so why not? Beep! Soon, a tray of those food he ordered got out to the ground. He grabbed it at once and shifted to one random spot. Thup. He placed down the tray and began digging in. There was nobody else and he decided to cut those restrictive table manners and gobbled.

Right when he was enjoying the food, muffles were heard. He lifted his head and discerned a gang of men entering the restaurant, with their words shamelessly echoing within the space as they disregarded everything else than themselves. Damn. Ye Chong knotted his brows. Aren’t those the gangs he faced yesterday?

It was a fateful stare he made as the gang of men was looking right into his eyes. Their eyes lustered and sprang up from the chairs they had just sat on. Snickered, they walked towards Ye Chong and covered him up partially.

Ye Chong in response only took a glance and carried on his meal as if nothing had happened before.

“Kiddo. Heh! You are all alone this time. I’ll see how you’re gonna escape,” sneered the leader as he inched towards Ye Chong, cracking his fingers loudly with his men sneering alone.

The strange part on their script was, the boy before them had hardly shown a hint of fear as his chopsticks never stopped moving even after they had made a debut and thrown their lines. No word was heard from the boy while the tingling sound of the bowl rang. Was this kiddo freed from hunger game recently? The leader found the reaction ridiculous.

He reminisced the embarrassment he bore when he and his men were engulfed by the security. Wrath began brewing inside him again, like a lighted match falling onto a pit of machine oil.

Hehehehe…

Hehehehehe…

The bulky men surrounded Ye Chong and could not stop sneering. Apparently they did not notice that condensed bloodthirstiness rolling inside his shrinking pupils.

“Kiddo, what a fateful encounter. You and I meet again, at the same place, right here. Hehehe!” A faked smile from the leader as his giant hands tapped the shoulder of Ye Chong. The remaining men stepped aside and anticipated the great show to begin. The puny boy was fragile by his look, slender and papery, which was perfect to be toyed and expressed dissatisfaction upon. A few of the men seemed eager to try too, obviously they wanted to join the show.

“Good bye, kiddo.” The leader’s hand reached for his shirt.

And their eyes blinded by a whirlwind. Before they could identify the situation, they heard an ear-piercing shriek shattering the peace in the restaurant.

Wait… Is-Isn’t this voice… leader’s? The men shuddered.

Simultaneously their sights converged on their leader, gasped together, their faces were drained!

To their horror, the right arm of their leader had been distorted, literally distorted, like a cinnamon roll badly fried with horrifying bones spurting from the elbow. The muscles were torn. As the blood capillaries were not harmed, only faint stains of blood tainted the bones. Nauseating it was, disgusting it looked.

The hulk miraculously was able to take the immense pain. He did not pass out right away, which was impressive for his endurance. That was also his misfortune however, as the pain seized his body, making him bow his back and grabbing his twisted arm, whimpering with his face squeezing awfully. It was petrifying.

People were dumbfounded, completely dumbfounded!

Chapter 170: An Old Friend

he harsh scream resounded in the empty restaurant.

Plain he had looked, shocking whenever he acted – this was the principle of Ye Chong’s combats, though he would prefer not slaughtering anyone for real this time. It was the moment when he would be better off staying in the dark, who knows if the eyes of the Sanctuary happened to be wondering in the craft. If he were to further dramatize the entire incident, he would be very much exposed to their discovery.

Well, Ye Chong did not hesitate making them to pay a bit of price for misbehaving however. He even made up his mind, assuming they showed stubbornness and unreasonable resistance, he would not keep his slaughter knife. At most he would just go with Mu’s hijacking plan instead. Of course, that plan would not happen till the very crucial moment where he was forced to.

The men of the wounded leader finally understood the whole situation as they reacted with anger, yelling and jumping on Ye Chong. Some of them even withdrew their dagger to avenge their leader.

The cold gaze blinked within his eyes. A tip to his toes and he weaved through the crowd like a shadow. Series of audible sounds of fisting and slapping followed. Men fell all over the place like cheap sandbags.

Below average! Rated Ye Chong quickly in his mind. For someone who had witnessed the masterly barehanded combats between the Black Covers, certainly these men had terrible skills.

Everyone else than Ye Chong were curling while wailing on the ground. Ye Chong did not harm them technically like what he did to their leader. To shock the enemies, you only have to do it once. So these men were just given a touch by his fist or kick. The technique was from his stay in Black Coves back then. The signature characteristic of Black Covers’ technique was its ability to disable the mobility of enemies temporarily by deactivating certain spots of human bodies. No doubt, Ye Chong had defined the characteristic perfectly.

They were wailing on the ground, but none of them could move as part of their muscles had lost the dynamics for the moment.

Ow… Aw…

Man… Aww…

Save me…

Ye Chong sat back to his table and disregarded those annoying screams. He grabbed his chopsticks and went on taking his time finishing his meal. He had understood the fact of how each meal hardly came by back when he was on Trash Planet. No way he would prematurely end his meal because of these silly bullies, especially when wasting good food was an unforgivable sin to him.

He pushed the empty plate away from him and got up. Ignoring the wailing annoyance, he walked away.

A girl entered after that and…

Ellen covered her mouth, desperately forcing herself to not make any noises. Gosh, what the hell had happened in the restaurant just now? Why were there so many people lying on the ground? The shrill scream echoed inside her head and it was disturbing. Wait… She took a better look. Those men on the ground happened to be those malicious bullies she encountered the day before… what? Why are they lying here? And why are some of them wounded?

She observed the whining men on the ground. The first conclusion came across in her mind was shocking to her. They were hit… Yes they were hit by people, they were attacked. Such horrifying skill… The men were in total immobility… the attack even disabled their mobility… This is … eerie…

Ellen had been quite a stunning beauty since young. And her parents employed a few combat instructors for her safety, not to protect her, but to teach her the martial arts. Throughout the years, she practiced non-stop and had changed one teacher after another. Regarding the expertise of combating, she knew it much more than the usual folks. Seizing the opponent’s control by simply hitting a particular part of the body… that would be considered a rather advanced technique of combats.

And who did this? Who was the expert? Ellen’s shock uncontrollably overflowed.

Coincidentally, the body of the beefy men regained the senses while she was making her deduction. One of them lifting the head spotted Ellen. Shuddered, their eyes expressed strong fear towards Ellen after regaining mobility and standing up.

Well, it was a sense of fear out of misunderstanding. They assumed both Ellen and Ye Chong were acquainted to each other, seeing how they sat together at the restaurant the day before. So, like a connected circuit, a classical conditioning, they were reminded of Ye Chong who nearly murdered them all upon seeing Ellen, which explained the shudder.

Ellen who saw them recovering gradually shut the gate of the restaurant and walked away promptly. Those might be the good fighters, but they aren’t the good guys. Ellen would lose her appetite with those men inside. Though she was confused, wondering why the men expressed some kind of fear towards her.

Could the one teaching them a lesson be a friend of mine? Ellen the sensible one guessed the possibility right away. Wait… no… Nobody else had known of my whereabouts on this trip. And I had yet to bump into any acquaintances on this ship… Ellen cracked her head thinking, searching for the endless possibilities. But well, even if she dipped into the pool of probability, she would never think of how it could have been that rice-digging guy she met before.

“Mu, watch this ship properly,” stated Ye Chong as soon as he got back to his room, “If you find anything, tell me right away.” A plan in Ye Chong’s mind, as assuming the men would not behave themselves that easily, especially after the humiliation they had experienced today. Ye Chong did not want any more incidents to happen. Well, if things had gone rough, he would go and grab the steer of this ship instantly and fly all the way to Windstar.

Providing that, he would be left with only one way to keep everyone muted of his presence in the ship. Ye Chong’s eyes looked intense. Yes… that was why he refused to do the hijacking plan from the beginning, since whatever the premises were, these men were still his compatriots, his kind and Ye Chong were not the bloodthirsty kind to begin with. As long as they did not express hostility or maliciousness, he would not kill them for no reason. He did not fear murders but he disliked murders.

He took a chip from his bag and inserted it into the processor. The chip contained the entire combat sequence between the two experts he had witnessed before. Yes, the experts who got neutralized by the squad. Ye Chong and Mu had performed a series of analysis and reorganizing of movements in the visual, which eventually boiled down to this very chip, the most useful data to Ye Chong at the moment.

And Ye Chong began his training in the room. Combating was similar to piloting. One would not only be required the expertise behind the working, but also the formation of muscle memory to produce the flow of the sequences, thus an actual body training would be inseparable.

Ye Chong honed his stance when he pulled off his moves by following the analyzed data appeared in the processor. It did not take long before Ye Chong had gone fully enthralled by it, as he felt the every single change on his movement as according to the strands of data.

“Ye!” Right when Ye Chong was enjoying the process, Mu boomed in his head.

Ye Chong flinched as he ceased his movement, “Mu, what’s wrong? Did anything happen?” Mu had been monitoring the whole craft soundlessly over the course, none of the corners was missed under his mechanical eyes.

“Look. I had sent it to the processor,” answered Mu.

Ye Chong shifted his sight back onto the processor, the illustrated data was replaced by a group of hologram features, playing a tape, which Mu also recorded every word uttered by the people in the feature.

“Eh? What?” Even Ye Chong the calmest guy in the galaxy could not help but to nearly shriek. He swallowed his shriek and smiled slightly, “I really did not expect him to be here. This is really unbelievable…” His thoughts wandered off with sentiments.

“Mathematically, yes. The probability is indeed extremely small,” added Mu.

Settled his thoughts, Ye Chong spoke on, “Looks like they would come for us.” Ye Chong was excited to be facing some sandbags soon.

“Chances are high,” affirmed Mu, as he elaborated, “I did not block their access to your forged profile on the ship. They could arrive at this room effortlessly.” Every passenger on the intergalactic cruise would be handed with profiles of every other passengers and Ye Chong was an “addition” to the database by Mu when he sneaked in.

Thup.

As expected, Ye Chong heard the knocks coming at the door not too long after.

Tick.

Ye Chong gave a gentle tap on the processor’s interface. The door was opened in a hush.

A group of fearsome-looking men in black suits fled into Ye Chong’s room and had occupied all the potential advantageous location. The suited men stood still and no sound was heard from them. Same goes with Ye Chong, solemnly he stood there in calmness, the men were disregarded like the chilly air surrounding them.

Cough.

A moment later, a light cough came from the outside. A man taking his time made his entry to the room.

“So you were…” The man in the middle of the crowd lifted his head, with his eyes shining… glaring?

Ye Chong’s expression remained unchanged, his eyes were conveying a certain degree of gleefulness.

Cough!

The head in the middle reacted quickly, as he cleared his throat again, turned to his men, “Well, head out you all. Guard for me. I have some business to discuss with this mister in front.”

?

“Master.” His men were in overwhelming bewilderment, aren’t we supposed to come and mess with this dude? Why out of the sudden master changed his mind? We get out? Then what about our master’s safety? The men were well-aware the fact that their master was utterly harmless. Upon the command, his men looked lost.

“Ahem!” The head acted displeasedly, “I said, get out! Just get out already! I don’t have time to do all the mumbo-jumbo to cast you all out.”

“Yes sir!” The men hurriedly exited Ye Chong’s room upon the reinforced command from their leader. Tick! The door closed in a hush after their leaving. They were astonished and almost had the urge to bang the door open again. “Shhh!” The leader of the underlings had his ear stuck on the door… There was no noise or whatsoever… It seemed fine. The leader shrugged, along with the other men, as they continued waiting by the door in wonders.

“Master!” Right after the door was shut, the head of those men approached Ye Chong femininely, “It was you! It really is you! Gosh, I did not expect to see you here! Like really I did not…,” in thrill, he spoke confusingly.

It was whom Ye Chong had met before. Yes, Bai Linan.

Ye Chong took a glance over Bai Linan. The suit was a perfect fit on him, though he was still willow as before, the suit made him looked like a skeleton with a head popped out of the collar. His face was rosier however, obviously he had a much better life than before.

Meeting an old friend was also a thrill to Ye Chong too. They lost each other after the visit at the Black Coves. Too many incidents had happened after that. It felt like a travel across the dimension to Ye Chong out of the blue.

Bai Linan was stimulated to see Ye Chong, as he was the first one who truly cared about him. He actually had the intention to follow Ye Chong for the rest of his life, but he lost him on the Black Coves. He thought Ye Chong was a gone-case considering how Ye Chong was a hot-headed man. It was very likely to see him getting into a fight with one of the residents there, which caused his remorse for the following time of wondering why in the world he suggested to separate in the first place. If it was not for his brilliant idea, Master Ye Chong would have been there.

But they met again.

“Master… My Lord…,” Bai Linan was choked with tears.

Ye Chong’s expression remained calm, though it was causing a fissure in his mind.